Inside the troubled life of Mel Gibson’s gay brother Andrew Gibson

Mel Gibson’s adopted gay brother Andrew Gibson has spoken about his troubled life in Sydney and being rejected by his father because of his sexuality.

The one-time aspiring actor, who now lives in a housing commission flat in Sydney’s Surry Hills, said on Friday he was never accepted by Mel’s conservative Christian father Hutton Gibson and felt like an outsider.

‘[Hutton] didn’t want anything to do with me because I am tragic,’ Andrew told News.com.au.

‘My sexuality is an issue. [Mel] has never been anti-Semitic or anti-gay, but the decision was made. Hutton didn’t accept you for who you were,’ he added.

‘He barred me from the family, told me he wished he’d never adopted me, called me a son of a b***h. He called my genetic family criminals.’ 

Mel’s parents had 10 children before they decided to adopt Andrew.

Hutton, who denied the legitimacy of John Paul II as Pope and claimed the Holocaust was a hoax, died last year.

Andrew said he felt like he didn’t fit in after most of his siblings left home, and he decided to move out when he was 16.

By the time he left home in 1985, Mel Gibson’s acting career had taken off following the release of the Mad Max films.

Meanwhile, Andrew is due to face sentencing after pleading guilty to drug driving with ice and cannabis.

He has lived in his apartment at the Northcott housing commission estate for the past five years.

Known as ‘suicide towers’, the complex is Australia’s largest single block of public housing units and has a notorious reputation for drug abuse, mental health problems and unemployment.

Andrew said that despite three internal locks on his door, he doesn’t feel safe.

He said his 70-year-old neighbour recently confronted him with a knife in the corridor outside their flats.