Was Prince Felix a closeted gay man?

[helenazar]

He was very popular with the officers at various night clubs.  

[ashanti01]

That is true, and I do believe I read somewhere he caught the attention of a certain King...

[helenazar]

That is true, and I do believe I read somewhere he caught the attention of a certain King...

Yes, it was Bertie of England...  

[ashanti01]

I keep reading about his relationship with men, but nothing about woman? I'm sure at some point he had to have had a mistress or other love intrest, even if he was a homesexual, right???

[ilias_gr]

For God's sake!

Couldn't he just have been a bisexual -liking men and women- and had sex with ,men occasionally and that was it?

Why all the debate?

The question is: Do we have any proof or some sort of indication of that?

[Valmont]

Proof or some sort of indication..... about what?

[PucknDC]

Let's not forget about Ella's husband as well.....I suppose like anything else, time and rank had a lot to do with whether someone was closeted or not...let's face it, there were (are) prbably other closeted royals, and they are to be pitied really. Another example that Royal life is really like a gilded cage!

[ilias_gr]

Proof or some sort of indication..... about what?

Proof or indication that he had liaisons with other men

[Valmont]

Griff in  another thead (WAS IRINA IN LOVE WITH FELIX?), wrote the following:

"I know of at least one affair that Felix had with the son of a publisher of Russian memoirs.  I became aquainted with the son in NYC and he told me of how Felix had spotted him on the beach in the French Rivera.  Their affair was apparently fairly brief but it was long enough for the son have heard a great many stories about the Romanoffs from Felix."

Make your own conclusions...    

[Sergei]

For God's sake!

The question is: Do we have any proof or some sort of indication of that?

Edvard Radzinki in his book on Rasputin mentions that St. Petersburg society was well aware of Felix's sexual relationships with men. From memory, society referred to "making mistakes in grammar" as a euphimism for homosexuality. One of the Romanov relations ("Bimbo" ) was convinced that there had been a sexual relationship between Felix and Rasputin.
As someone else on this thread pointed out if you read "Lost Splendour" Felix's own references to his "secret" life, his "double" life are pretty obvious. He would have been more open if those secrets were to do with liaisons with dancers of the Imperial ballet ( a well established tradition with the nobility   ) or with women. Reading between the lines I would also suggest that the concerns of the Dowager Empress and GD Ella about his intended marriage to Irinia and his need to assuage these were to do with their knowledge of his sexuality (or of his mistakes in grammar). One could say that their concerns were solely about his champagne-and-dance-till-dawn lifestyle but these were women used to seeing men of their class (GD Michael Alexandrovich, Edward V11...) doing the same thing.

[Vera_Narishkin]

Felix was not a closet homosexual - he was definitely AC-DC with a preference for beautiful men. I know this as my father, who was Felix's cousin and knew him well, reported that Felix was much eneamoured with my father, but my father not being that way inclined rejected Felix's advances.

I hope this clears things up for you.

[bluetoria]

I know this as my father, who was Felix's cousin and knew him well, reported that Felix was much eneamoured with my father, but my father not being that way inclined rejected Felix's advances.

 

How very interesting!
Apart from his unwanted advances, did your father have many other recollections of Felix which you could possibly share with us? And did your father meet any other members/descendants of the IF? (If you don't mind my asking  

[RichC]

I spoke to quite a few people who knew Felix, before-and especially after-I wrote my book on him, and have no difficulty in stating my absolute belief that he was homosexual.  Openly is another matter, discretion being the dominant element of both the period and of his class.  But the only closet Felix was ever in was his mother's, and that, to steal her clothes.

Greg King

FYI, Believe it or not, not all men who dress in women's clothes are gay, bisexual, etc.  Some are completely heterosexual.  On the other hand, some gay or bisexual men dress up  in women's clothes, make-up, shoes, etc. while others do not.

The point is that a man's cross-dressing proclivities have no bearing on his sexual orientation.  I want people to be clear on that.

[Tasha_R]

I was under the impression that Felix used to "cross-dress", as some put it, as a method to disguise himself.  Remember, Felix was a  prince, and well-known in his day - similar to the royalty and movie stars of our day.  No doubt it would have been advantageous to be able to disguise oneself to get out, and sometimes, as Felix had done, to act out some mischief or be someplace he oughtn't.

If I remember correctly, the first time he did this, he was quite young and did so at the insistence of his brother and a female friend who wanted to take him out to someplace where he wasn't supposed to be.  Finding out that they were able to get away with it enabled them to become more brazen over time.

I have a picture of my own grandfather doing something quite similar, and I can assure you, he did not have other effeminate tendencies (well... at least to our knowlege :-)).

Sincere regards,

[Valmont]

Yes Tasha, The Only difference was that Felix kept doing it even after his parents knew about it. Nicholas, his brother, took the responsability for the first time Felix was caught, But Felix kept doing it afterwards....

Arturo Vega-Llausás