John Fashanu: "I paid my brother Justin £75,000 to prevent him coming out as gay"

Footballer John Fashanu has shamefully revealed how his brother becoming the first British football star to come out as gay – by paying him £75,000 to keep quiet.

The former Super Eagles striker made the shock admission a week after it emerged two top footballers including an England star – plan to come out .

In his first in-depth interview about brother Justin since his tragic suicide in 1998, he said:

“I begged him, I threatened him, I did everything I could possibly do to try and stop him coming out.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.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.”“I’ve never spoken about these things before because I was stamped a homophobe.