Boy George revealed on The Jonathan Ross Show that his mother Dinah O'Dowd threatened to disown him if he ever went on Celebrity Big Brother.
But the music icon added he is also often asked to go on Celebrity Bake Off, but says no as it looks "too complicated".
“I don’t really like reality," he said."I spent the last years avoiding it a lot.
"I think you have to be careful what you do on TV. When I was for a minute thinking about going on Big Brother, my mum said, ‘If you go on that show I will disown you.’ So I stopped.”
He added: "When you’re a celebrity or a star, you need to have some privacy, some secrets. People can’t know you’re boring."
Boy George, who is 60 in June, revealed he is single and "on the market" after changing as a person in recent years, though he joked he still behaves like a teenager.
"As I’ve got older, I’ve started to like myself more and I’ve sort of become a gentler person and more compassionate," he told Jonathan.
"When you’re more compassionate towards yourself, then you’re more compassionate to everyone else, which is a nice thing."
The star also revealed an advert has been put out for a young actor to play him in a film of his life.
"That’ll be interesting to see how they do it," he said. "I’m not particularly precious about my past. I’m not that person. That person is someone I created.
"I treat Boy George from the 80s as a sort of cartoon character. I do a lot of paintings of Boy George as I think of him as an invention… He’s a different person.
"Course it was me. 100% me. I was from a generation, we used to say ‘we’re not dressed up for stage, we’re dressed up for life’."
Discussing growing up gay in the 70s he said: "My parents never really had an issue with it.
"There was a little bit of ‘don’t tell us about it’. I was like, ‘That’s not going to work. I am going to tell you about it’.
"I’ve got four brothers and one sister and I thought, if they’re allowed to bring home their partners – actually I never really did - but having the option removed was not an option."
Speaking about his experience of bullying, he noted: "Kids now won’t put up with it.
"When you see LGBTQI+ kids, they just won’t put up with what we put up with. It’s a brilliant thing that they don’t put up with it, [and they say] ‘I will not be talked to like that’.
"I think that’s a great thing. That’s what I was fighting for and still fighting for."
* The Jonathan Ross show airs Fridays on ITV at 9:35pm
