Manvendra Singh Gohil (or just "Manav"), the sweetly eccentric Indian prince whose 2006 coming-out rocked his nation, made him an international gay celeb and landed him on Oprah last fall. Manav was learning to manage his media addiction in order to nurture a new relationship with a musician from the same warrior caste as himself, a big swarthy guy called Mystery Lover (M.L.) because he didn't want to be identified. Things seemed fairly sweet between the two of them along the banks of the Arabian Sea in Mumbai.So you can imagine my shock a few days ago when I came across this story: Gay Prince of Rajpipla Finds King of His Heart. And it wasn't M.L.! The prince had gone off to England to do a reality show -- The Undercover Prince, debuting in the UK next year, in which princes from around the world go to London and pretend to be commoners seeking love -- and he'd hooked up with a 35-year-old Brit named Michael Lower. (The similarity in initials just complicates this soap opera, I know.) One of the prince's acquaintances e-mailed: "Maybe this might explain why poor [M.L.] has gone back home to [the African country where he grew up] and is quite incommunicado." In the new article, the prince said, "I met Mike [Lower] in a gay bar in Britain and I felt that it was love at first sight for me." Lower called the prince "Mani" and said the prince was "very simple and I love him for that." (I happen to think that a lot of the prince's so-called simplicity is a shrewd facade, but that's another story.)
The prince said that it was all trumped up for the reality show and that, while Lower did indeed follow him back to India for a visit to the palace (cameras in tow), they weren't still "on," though they were friendly and in touch. "There wasn't any love in the true sense," said the prince. "You cannot fall in love with somebody in a week's time." (You may remember that, in the piece, the prince said he feared that he couldn't really love because his parents had shunned him as a child.) But, alas, it was true that it was over with M.L., who had been educated in Europe and whose India-griping the prince just couldn't abide anymore. "If you decide to stay in India, you have to get adjusted," the prince said. "There are good and bad things about all places."
One of the bad things about India is the infamous Section 377 of India's penal code, which criminalizes gay sex; seldom enforced, police use it to blackmail gays who are afraid of being outed. Right now, the country is awaiting a ruling from its highest court on the future of the law, even as India's health minister, who wants it struck because it drives gay sex underground and promotes HIV, and its home minister, who supports it, duke the matter out publicly. "I don't think they'll give a clear decision anytime soon," the prince, who highlighted the law when he was on Oprah, said of the court.
I also loved hearing that, while undercover as a commoner, the prince had to clean toilets. He'd never done it before in his life and had no idea how, but somehow he coped. He's also traveled a lot in his newish role as gay activist-celeb, to Sweden recently and next to Amsterdam. But he's not seeing anyone right now. "I'm taking a break," he said, also vowing that he wasn't going public with any more affairs. So how did the story about the Brit get to the Indian press? "It's a small town," he said of Rajpipla, where the Brit visited his palace. "People know what's happening in my life."
In other words, he implied, somebody leaked it. Oh, come on, Prince. We love you, but we know you can't resist your name in a headline.
Enjoy Life, Be Free!
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