Late Justin Fashanu, was the first professional footballer in Britain to come out as gay. He tragically committed suicide in 1998 aged 37.
In an interview with Good Morning Britain, John revealed that he paid his brother £75,000 to keep quiet about his sexuality. The former football player claims that he made the mistake due to lack of education. John further explained that he wouldn’t make such mistake now.
“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,” the TV presenter and former Wimbledon FC star admits.
“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.”
John spoke frankly about the subject of his brother’s tragic death as he addressed the subject of bigotry in football. Speaking with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, he revealed that just this weekend he was subject to racist abuse at a football game in London.
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