Boy George’s parents told him they loved him after they were confronted with graphic evidence he was gay.
Boy George’s parents told him they loved him after they were confronted with graphic evidence he was gay
The Culture Club singer, 62, who has known he was homosexual from the age of six, moved into a squat in London in his teens amid a stormy home life and plastered the wall of his living space with gay porn, he reveals in his new memoir.
George – born George O’Dowd in Kent to his builder dad Jerry and mum Dinah – says in ‘Karma: My Autobiography’ his parents visited him when he was out and say the X-rated pictures filling one wall.
He says he returned to the squat to find they had left him a note that said: “Nice wallpaper. Love you, son.”
George also reveals in his book his parents’ visit came after they gave him hassle for being gay.
He says in the memoir: “This was the 1970s and there was a sense that I should get on with my gay business over there in the corner and not talk about it.
“That was never going to work for me. As a kid I went to Sunday School in one of Mum’s hats.
“One of her friends called and said: ‘Do you know what he’s wearing?’ ‘I do,’ she said, defiantly.
“When I left the house, Mum would say to Dad: ‘Look at him, Jerry, look what he’s wearing.’
“Dad would lower his newspaper and say: ‘Up to him if he wants to get beat up.’
“Being the (gay) middle child in a London Irish family was less of a big deal than you might think, though.
“My dad announced my ‘homosexuality’ to my brothers, David and Richard, in his Bedford van.
“Turning down the radio, he said: ‘You know your brother’s a bit funny.’
“David chipped in: ‘Funny peculiar or funny ha-ha?’ Richard corrected Dad: ‘You mean he’s (gay.)’
“I think Dad turned the radio back up at that point. He could be brutal but he was also charismatic.”
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