Anders Behring Breivik's friends believed he was gay One friend, who asked not to be named, said they had long wondered about the 33-year-old extremist's sexuality, because he was slightly feminine and fastidious about his appearance. "He used make-up powder, those kinds of things, and he explained that as being 'metrosexual'," the friend, a lawyer in Norway's Ministry of Defence, told the court. He made reference to David Beckham being that at the time. The first two friends spoke of their efforts to encourage Breivik to leave his mother's home from 2006, when he moved there having apparently decided to play the online game World of Warcraft full-time for a year. "He was not as joyful, as vivacious," the friend remembers of one of the few times when they managed to get Breivik to come out for a coffee. He wasn't as highly spirited as he used to be. The friend recalled that Breivik had been proud of his achievements in the online game, bragging that he was "at an extremely high level," "one of the better players in Europe, or even in the world." The cross-examination of Breivik's friends on Tuesday brings the trial to a new phase, ending three weeks of testimony from the survivors of the Norwegian mass killer's massacre on the island of Utoya. Four of Breivik's close friends are being questioned, and a statement will be read out from Breivik's mother Wenche Behring, who has been excused from attending court for health reasons. Breivik admits to killing eight people when he detonated a bomb in the government quarters in Oslo on July 22 last year, and a further 69 when he carried out a gun massacre on the island of Utoya that same afternoon.