Escape from the harem: how an American woman gave up the wealth of an Arab billionaire and became successful
'24.08.2020'
Source: Lenta.ru
Designer Jill Dodd founded the world famous clothing brand. But her story began differently than most celebrities in the fashion world. The most interesting of the memoirs of women who renounced the riches promised by Arab princes, collected Lenta.ru.
In her youth, Jill Dodd became one of the eleven concubines of the Saudi tycoon who made a fortune in the arms trade. Life in a harem was not like an oriental tale. In June of this year, she published a book of memories of that time.
The richest man on the planet
At the age of 17, American Jill Dodd called the ad in the newspaper and became a model. She was lucky: she was noticed. In 1979, she moved to Paris, starred for Vogue and Marie Claire, appeared on the covers of magazines. Once in Monte Carlo, an acquaintance brought her to a luxurious party. “I couldn't believe my eyes. Hordes of long-haired pirates with tattoos and naked torsos are all around, pounding drums and playing guitars. The night sky was lit by a five-meter flame, she recalls. "It looks like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, only then the film hasn't been made yet."
Jill noticed a well-dressed middle-aged man staring at her. He was twice as old as she, and twenty centimeters shorter, but in that situation, his height, belly and bald head seemed to her a plus.
“I was glad it wasn’t someone younger with one obvious desire - to sleep with me,” she explains. He invited the girl to dance, and then took her hand and wrote on it in blood: "I love you."
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One of the "pirates" took him away to bandage his cut finger, and a friend jumped up to Jill.
“Do you know who it was? She screamed. "This is Adnan Khashoggi." The name said nothing to her. Then she learned that Khashoggi is a 44-year-old Saudi Arabian tycoon who made his fortune in the arms trade. In the early 1980s, he was considered one of the richest people in the world.
The next day, Jill called an acquaintance of the billionaire and said that Adnan was waiting for her on his yacht. The $ 80 million ship had a movie theater, a dance hall, a well-equipped hospital, and even its own morgue. In 1983, the tycoon borrowed it for the filming of a James Bond movie. In the cinema, the main villain sailed on a yacht. A few years later, the Sultan of Brunei will buy it, and then Donald Trump will get it.
Left alone with Jill, Khashoggi warned that he knew everything about her. The security service compiled a dossier on her, as on all the passions of a billionaire. Then he told about himself.
"Since my father was the king's personal doctor, I had connections," he said. “I started out selling Chevy trucks, then I used to take Caterpillar tractors to Saudi Arabia for construction projects. By 17, I had made my first millions. Then, with his friend Howard Hughes, he started exporting aircraft. " They chatted all night.
The girl told the billionaire about her ex, he - about how much that party in Monte Carlo cost.
“And he didn't even try to kiss me,” she writes. "This made me trust him even more."
For several weeks Khashoggi chastely courted the model, interrupting only for business trips. He took her to restaurants, gave expensive gifts. She once stopped at his Spanish mansion. The billionaire woke her up at night and said he had to explain the situation. The laws of Saudi Arabia allowed him to take three legal wives and 11 temporary.
“I want you to be one of my temporary wives,” he said. "We won't kiss until you agree to it."
Jill didn't mind.
“So I joined Adnan's harem,” she writes.
What Patti Smith Would Do
Gillian Lauren's story doesn't have such a pretty beginning. Her career did not work out. The girl had neither money nor prospects. She wanted to become an actress, but every casting she went to invariably ended in refusal. All but one. After the audition, the girl was informed that Prince Geoffrey Bolkiah, the brother of the Sultan of Brunei, the one who bought the yacht of Adnan Khashoggi, wants to see her in his palace.
The offer was both frightening and exciting, but Lauren couldn't refuse. She guessed what the prince needed, but she badly wanted to break out of the vicious circle.
“I considered the singer Patti Smith to be the absolute authority on what is good and right. When I had to make a difficult decision, I always asked myself: what would she do in my place? - recalls Gillian. - I weighed the options. Stay at home or go to Brunei? What would Patti Smith do? It was clear to me that she would get on a plane, fly to exotic countries and not look back. "
The first doubts about the correctness of the decision appeared when she arrived at the airport and the tall guards took her passport. But then she saw the palace to which she was brought, and the questions disappeared. The girl was accommodated in a grandiose building with numerous swimming pools and tennis courts. The floor was covered with carpets of real gold, and the walls of the restrooms were decorated with Picasso originals.
“And it wasn't even the palace where he lived,” she says. "This palace of his was intended solely for entertainment."
In addition to her, dozens of beauties from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and several American women lived there. Almost every evening, the prince threw a party, which, in addition to his acquaintances, was attended by 30 or 40 girls from the palace. Everyone was dancing and having fun, the wine flowed like a river. In the end, the prince retired to his chambers with one of the guests. Gillian was never one of them and even regretted it.
One morning the guards came to her and told her to follow them. They took her to an office building and left her in one of the offices. After several hours of waiting all alone, she decided to check the doors - it was locked. There was no toilet. Gillian was scared. Her passport was never returned.
“Very few people knew where I had gone,” she writes. "I could have disappeared and the culprit would not have been found."
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The girl dozed off and woke up at the sound of the door opening. She opened her eyes and saw the prince in full dress. So their acquaintance began.
“When I got to know him a little, it turned out that he was not only handsome, but also well educated,” she recalls. "Despite the completely insane circumstances in which we met, I liked him, and for some reason he did too."
Jill Dodd's career
For a year and a half of relationship, Jill Dodd became the number one temporary wife for Adnan Khashoggi. Despite his age, he turned out to be an excellent lover. It was rumored that he was looking for a girl to play the role of his second lawful wife. The circle of the Saudi billionaire was confident that Jill would become her.
At the same time, she did not want to give up her career for the sake of relationships. Despite Adnan's disapproval, she continued to work as a model: her own earnings allowed her not to depend on him. In addition, she dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. In 1981, she returned to California and went to college to study fashion design. Studies prevented them from seeing each other more often, but the billionaire continued to visit her.
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On one of the dates in Las Vegas, Khashoggi brought a strange old man who looked like Gandhi. He did not understand English and used gestures.
“This is a holy man,” the Saudi tycoon explained. "He predicts the future." The elder handed the girl a blank sheet and with gestures asked to crumple it. Then he studied the piece of paper and said something to Khashoggi. “Your marriage will end in divorce,” he translated. "You will marry three times and become a very successful business woman."
Jill still doesn't understand how she got through those months:
“I took drugs, read hands, went to a medium and hypnotherapist, was interested in five different religions at the same time, studied martial arts, learned French, worked as a model, attended college, went to parties several times a week, suffered from eating disorders, and weekends I spent one of the most powerful people in the world in a harem, ”she recalls.
She began to notice that the billionaire lost interest in her. Previously, she rarely saw other temporary wives, and now every now and then she noticed him with them.
“When I came to Las Vegas, I met whole groups of unknown girls - sometimes eight in one trip,” she says. “It was quite obvious that they were having sex for money. Moreover, most of them suffered from drug addiction. " It scared her: the AIDS epidemic was in full swing, and Khashoggi never used condoms. He could infect her too.
“Our relationship ended in the summer of 1982,” writes Jill Dodd. - However, we did not have a written agreement to break it. We parted peacefully and called each other for more than one year. In 1989, I founded the surfwear brand Roxy and became the owner of a successful business. "
A gift from Prince Brunei
After meeting the Prince of Brunei, Gillian Lauren quickly became his number two girlfriend. Number one was a former actress from the Philippines. At that time, the prince was looking for a fourth wife. Any of the inhabitants of the palace could become her.
Sometimes Gillian wondered what it was like to be the wife of a prince, but at the same time she did not create illusions about the situation in which she found herself.
“I hated to add self-deception to my growing list of shortcomings,” she says, “because I realized that we were essentially all prostitutes. When you go to the same party every day, meet its organizer and come back with money - that's prostitution. "
Once a guard came for her again. He entered the elevator with the girl and pressed the last button. She was taken to the roof. This has never happened. Gillian panicked.
“What did I do wrong? She thought. “My God, I know too much. They want to get rid of me! " But the reality was even worse.
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A helicopter was waiting for them on the roof. He took the girl to a nearby building, where the Sultan of Brunei, the prince's elder brother, who brought Gillian to the country, was waiting for her.
“I spent enough time in Brunei to understand: there should be nothing offensive in the fact that the prince handed me over to his brother. I am honored. I am a gift from a prince, ”she recalls.
It became more and more difficult to hide from the truth.
“I came here because I was hoping for an adventure,” says Lauren. - I wanted to be free, but turned into a property that can be donated. What would Patti Smith have done in my place? She would never have gotten into such a situation. Never".
As a result, the prince nevertheless made an offer, but not Gillian, but the girl number one - the Filipino actress. He gave her a million dollars and a wedding ring. She refused and left for her homeland. Gillian spent almost three years in Brunei and then returned to America.
“I was not a prisoner, but I could not come and go whenever I wanted,” she writes. "By the end of my stay at the palace, I felt like I was ten years older, but I still haven't grown wiser."
