The Wanted singer, from Swinton, has opened up about his health that saw him rushed to hospital in a scary ordeal

Max George has recalled the moment he saw himself going ‘completely blue’ before he was rushed to hospital and fitted with a pacemaker.

The Wanted singer, from Swinton, Greater Manchester, has faced a number of health setbacks in recent years, having undergone surgery in December 2024 after he was diagnosed with a ‘2:1 block in his heart’, a condition where the heart beats more slowly or with an abnormal rhythm.

Max, who was diagnosed with myocarditis, has now opened up about the scary ordeal, speaking on Good Morning Britain on Friday (February 27) as he supports a campaign with the British Heart Foundation to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease.

He explained on the ITV show: “We did a huge physical examination before Strictly and I did another show before where I had a huge heart scan. Mine happened through a chest infection which then turned into pneumonia and I got something called myocarditis, which is inflamation of the heart muscle.

“Often you won’t see any symptoms and the myocarditis will go away, but with mine, the electrical impulse didn’t work in my heart so I had to have a pacemaker put in.”

The star continued: “I got over the chest infection and had a two month lay off period where I went on tour in America and then I came home and I started to feel strange but I couldn’t put my finger on why or what was wrong. I went to bed one night and when I woke up in the morning, as soon as I woke up, I knew something was really really wrong.

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Max had a pacemaker fitted at the end of 2024(Image: Max George Instagram)

“You know when you’ve got a hangover and it feels like the world is gonna end? It was sort of like that feeling of ‘oh I can’t get out of bed’ and then I looked down and my arms and my hands were completely blue.”

He added that he had managed to get down the stairs when, luckily, his mum arrived. “My mum walked through the door and I hadn’t seen my face yet but the first thing she said was, ‘What have you done?’ and I didn’t know,” Max said. “I was rushed to hospital and within 10 minutes I was told I would need a defibrilator or a pacemaker.”

Host Ranvir Singh went on to say: “It’s not an underestimation to say that you did stare death in the face at that point. You must have felt like everything was out of control? It’s such a helpless situation in many ways. You can’t explain anything.”

Sharing how things are for him at the moment, Max said: ‘The doctors didn’t know what was wrong at the time, exactly. I had to wait in hospital for about eight days. My heart rate was around 24.So it wasn’t the nicest week. That was quite difficult. But yeah, they got the pace maker in, I depend on it now, it’s 100%. So it’s always working for me. I wouldn’t be here without it.”

Max is backing the new campaign by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to raise awareness of people living with heart conditions. As part of the BHF campaign, he will speak with people who have heart conditions and they will swap stories about their experiences.