John Fashanu paid late brother Justin £75k to not come out as gay
No-one playing in the Premier League has come out since Fashanu (Getty Images)
Footballer John Fashanu paid his brother Justin £75,000 to not come out as gay, he revealed.
The former Wimbledon star, John, paid his brother the money in a failed attempt to stop him from publicly coming out, according to reports.
John Fashanu admits offering brother Justin £75k not to come out
Justin Fashanu came out as gay in an interview with the Sun in 1990.
He killed himself in 1998 after allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenager in the US came to light, which he strongly denied.
His younger brother John, now 53, gave an interview a week after he came out titled “my gay brother is an outcast”.
Speaking to the Mirror, John now says he “begged” and “threatened” Justin not to come out.
He compared the revelation by Justin to being “like Hiroshima or Nagasaki on our lives”.
“It knocked us dead,” John said to the Mirror.
The footballer now admits that trying to stop Justin from coming out was wrong, and that he shouldn’t have cast him out.
Justin Fashanu killed himself in 1998
“I was wrong,” he said. “It was ignorance on my behalf.
“You’ve got to remember the public’s perception of homosexuality at that time was that it was an abomination. It was taboo.”
Going on, he said the “stress” of having a gay son could have resulted in their mother’s death.
“I gave him the money because I didn’t want the embarrassment for me or my family,” he told the newspaper.
“Had he come out now, it would be a different ball game.”
According to the Mirror, John still doesn’t believe his brother Justin was gay.
