ANOTHER Diana photographer is accused of abuse
Demarchelier ‘sexually assaulted six models and former assistant’
PRINCESS Diana’s personal photographer has been accused of sexually assaulting models and an assistant.
Patrick Demarchelier, 74, is one of 25 fashion names included in a list at the weekend along with British stylist Karl Templer.
Magazine firm Conde Nast, which owns Vogue, Glamour and GQ, has suspended work with Mr Demarchelier after an expose by the Boston Globe newspaper.
More than 50 models have made claims against industry figures.
Mr Demarchelier, who denies the allegations, met Diana in 1989, and took some of her bestknown pictures, including several Vogue covers. He is accused of groping and making inappropriate propositions by a former assistant and six models.
The Frenchman, who lives in New York with his wife Mia, a former model, is the second of Diana’s favourite photographers to be accused of sex abuse. Last month, Mario Testino denied allegations from male models.
Mr Demarchelier’s former assistant said he made relentless advances when she was a 19-yearold intern. In an email to US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, she said she gave in to his sexual demands, fearing she could lose her job if she turned him down.
She wrote: ‘It hurts my heart so much to think of how many girls … have had to fend off or give in to his advances because I didn’t speak up at the time.
‘I remember many test shoots with teenage girls where Patrick’s team of assistants (including me) was dismissed for the day only to find naked photos of the girl in the darkroom the next day.’
The other six accusers interviewed by the Boston Globe – whose investigation into a paedophile scandal in the Roman Catholic Church was turned into the 2015 film Spotlight – said Mr Demarchelier grabbed a model’s breasts, made sexual propositions and forced a woman to touch his genitals.
He insists the claims are ‘ridiculous’ and ‘pure lying’, and he ‘never, never, never’ touched a model inappropriately.
All those accused deny the allegations against them. Mr Templer was accused of inappropriate touching and trying to pull off a model’s underwear.
British model Olympia Campbell, 22, told the Daily Telegraph Magazine how she was warned by a modelling agency that certain photographers were ‘renowned for trying to make a move on some of the girls’.