The 'Karma Chameleon' singer says he was targeted by the gangs of right-wing youths and schoolyard bullies while being raised in 1970s south east London.
- Jan 26, 2024
AceShowbiz - Boy George dodged mobs of neo-Nazi thugs when he was growing up. The "Karma Chameleon" singer, 62, knew he was gay from the age of six and said he was targeted by the gangs of right-wing youths and schoolyard bullies while being raised in 1970s south east London. He told PEOPLE in an interview to promote his new memoir "Karma: My Autobiography" about how being harassed left him permanently scarred today, "I've still got a radar for trouble."
George, real name George O'Dowd, says in his book, "By the time I was about six years old, I knew I was gay and so did everyone else. Even though I was bullied for being effeminate and pretty, I never really wished I was straight. Of course, I knew I had to keep it quiet. The worst thing you could be at school was (gay.) Even the teachers were homophobic. My gym teacher, Mr McIntyre, would shout, 'Pick your legs up, lassie.' "
George also reveals in his memoir he endured an often violent homelife. His builder dad Jeremiah was so hot-headed the singer once came home and found his father wielding a knife while his mum Dinah cowered under the kitchen table.
George, who was jailed in 2009 for four months for chaining a male escort to a radiator and beating him with a chain, added in his book about his dad, "He could be brutal but he was also charismatic. He treated my mum very badly, but in a weird way they loved each other. If Mum put on a nice dress, she was having an affair. Every time Dad hit my mum, his mother would ask her, 'Why do you make him angry? Why do you have to answer him back?' "
"Some days I would come home from school and almost feel the pain through the front door. Mum would be in her dressing gown and the milk would still be on the doorstep. I would say to her, 'Why do you let him treat you like that? Why don't we leave?' But the few times Mum did leave and went to her mother's in Birmingham, she was sent back the following day, with Gran’s words ringing in her ears, 'You can't keep a father away from his children,' " he recalled.
"Violence in marriage was accepted back then, it seemed, and was never discussed. I saw some terrible things. I came home from school one day and Mum was under the table screaming up at Dad, who was holding a knife. I went so crazy it startled even him and he backed off. He insisted he was making a sandwich; he wasn't pointing the knife at Mum. But why was she under the table? It's stayed with me all these years," he added.
