John Fashanu has opened up on how he tried to prevent his brother, Justin, from coming out as gay.
Justin became the first British footballer to take the bold step, despite John paying him £75,000 to keep quiet.
He eventually could not cope with the public outrage and depression, which led him to commit suicide in 1998.
“I begged him, I threatened him, I did everything I could possibly do to try and stop him coming out,” John revealed.
“I gave him the money because I didn’t want the embarrassment for me or my family. Had he come out now, it would be a different ball game.
“There wouldn’t be an issue, but there was then. Things are different now. Now he’d be hailed a hero.”
Justin burst onto the scene, after scoring a sensational goal for Norwich against Liverpool in 1980, a feat which made Brian Clough pay a £1million transfer fee – a record for a black player – to take him to Nottingham Forest.
In 1990, he then told a newspaper, that he had an affair with a married Tory MP he met in a gay bar.
John said: “I’ll never forget when Justin first told me. He called me in the evening time and said to me: ‘I’m gay’.
“Then he said to me: ‘I’m planning to go to a newspaper’. I said to him: ‘Oh heavens forbid… oh my God. We don’t need that. You’re mad’.
“He promised when I gave him the money he would not go out and say that. Two days later… bang… headlines in a newspaper. I looked like a sucker.
“For me and my family it was like Hiroshima or Nagasaki on our lives. It knocked us dead, it was a total shock.
“People might not like it, but I was trying to protect my family.
“You’ve got to remember the public’s perception of homosexuality at that time was that it was an abomination . It was taboo. Street boys were beating up gays in nightclubs.
“I give him credit for having the courage to come out and say it. But it caused a lot of confusion and animosity towards him, me, and my family.
“During matches, 30, 40, sometimes 45,000 supporters sang at me: ‘You’re big… you’re black… your a*** is up for grabs… Fashanu… Fashanu’.
“As a result of him saying what he said, my mother died because of the stress. She actually died a year later on the day of his birthday.
“She was already old, very fragile and suffering cancer.
“Then to be told her second eldest son was a homosexual was too much.”
Justin became the first British footballer to take the bold step, despite John paying him £75,000 to keep quiet.
He eventually could not cope with the public outrage and depression, which led him to commit suicide in 1998.
“I begged him, I threatened him, I did everything I could possibly do to try and stop him coming out,” John revealed.
“I gave him the money because I didn’t want the embarrassment for me or my family. Had he come out now, it would be a different ball game.
“There wouldn’t be an issue, but there was then. Things are different now. Now he’d be hailed a hero.”
Justin burst onto the scene, after scoring a sensational goal for Norwich against Liverpool in 1980, a feat which made Brian Clough pay a £1million transfer fee – a record for a black player – to take him to Nottingham Forest.
In 1990, he then told a newspaper, that he had an affair with a married Tory MP he met in a gay bar.
John said: “I’ll never forget when Justin first told me. He called me in the evening time and said to me: ‘I’m gay’.
“Then he said to me: ‘I’m planning to go to a newspaper’. I said to him: ‘Oh heavens forbid… oh my God. We don’t need that. You’re mad’.
“He promised when I gave him the money he would not go out and say that. Two days later… bang… headlines in a newspaper. I looked like a sucker.
“For me and my family it was like Hiroshima or Nagasaki on our lives. It knocked us dead, it was a total shock.
“People might not like it, but I was trying to protect my family.
“You’ve got to remember the public’s perception of homosexuality at that time was that it was an abomination . It was taboo. Street boys were beating up gays in nightclubs.
“I give him credit for having the courage to come out and say it. But it caused a lot of confusion and animosity towards him, me, and my family.
“During matches, 30, 40, sometimes 45,000 supporters sang at me: ‘You’re big… you’re black… your a*** is up for grabs… Fashanu… Fashanu’.
“As a result of him saying what he said, my mother died because of the stress. She actually died a year later on the day of his birthday.
“She was already old, very fragile and suffering cancer.
“Then to be told her second eldest son was a homosexual was too much.”
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