From the recent talk with Lee McQueen's sister Janet, she shared about sexual abuse her brother went through. He was only 15 years younger than his sister at the time, he was only nine and abused by Jane's violent first husband. Janet found out only 4 years before his death. "It still is. How did I miss something like that? The day I was told I was shell-shocked. Can you imagine leading a life for so many years, and then finding out something as bad as that? You just can't grasp it at first. Of course I felt guilt. Who wouldn't?" Janet told British Vogue
Photo credit: Rex Features
Janet believes what designer went through, being beaten by the same man so badly that she miscarried twice, is what inspired Lee to design for women what people would be "afraid of".
Isabella Blow with Lee McQueen in 2005
Picture credit: Rex Features
Could the death of McQueen's mentor and long-time friend Isabella Blow, who died by her own hand shortly before he took his own life trigger the suicide of the designer?
"He never got over it," Janet said of Blow's suicide, which - contrary to rumors - she said Lee did not "blame himself" for. "He missed her immensely. She was a big part of his life. I always put Isabella between my mum and his sisters. She was sort of in the middle, a peg down from Mum.
Text Miles Socho