Former Premier League star John Fashanu paid his late brother not to come out
Justin Fashanu was the first openly gay professional footballer but tragically took his own life
By Steve Brown
Former Premier League star John Fashanu paid his late brother Justin not to come out.
Justin, who played for Notts County and West Ham, was the first professional footballer to come out as gay but tragically committed suicide back in 1998 when he was just 37.
But now his brother – a former Wimbledon FC star – revealed he paid Justin a whopping £75,000 to keep quiet about his sexuality and admitted he was a “monster” to his late brother.
John Fashanu is urging the @FA to do more to support professional footballers who are gay to come out publicly. pic.twitter.com/Inany5Mop7
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) April 18, 2018
Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday (18.04.18), John said: “It was a lack of education. I was a monster to Justin back then.
“I paid him £75,000 not to say he was gay. I was looking at the situation around us and my mother had cancer and was dying, and the rest of the family couldn’t understand the situation.
“As I said, it was a lack of education. We didn’t know what to do, the best thing I thought to do was to keep it quiet.
“In retrospective, in hindsight, it’s not something I would do now. We have all moved on hence the reason why many, many mistakes were made there with Justin and we were not getting on.”
Currently there are no openly gay footballers in the Premier League, but John believes there are at least seven stars who are hiding their sexuality due to fear.