I love Chloe.. if she didn’t have a dollar I wouldn’t give a sh*t
MODEL Jeremy Meeks fixes me with his piercing blue eyes, hunches forward and, in a softly-spoken voice, insists his love for Topshop heiress Chloe Green is the real thing.
In his first ever interview the so-called “Hot Felon” breaks his silence over claims that he is after her billionaire dad Sir Philip Green’s fortune.
He gushes once... about 26-year-old Chloe, telling me: “It’s true love.”
Then he gushes again... this time about Sir Philip, adding: “He is amazing. I have a lot of love for him.”
And Jeremy even tells how fashion mogul Sir Philip has welcomed him into one of Britain’s wealthiest families despite his past in a violent US gang.
Jeremy is the 33-year-old married convict who shot to modelling fame after his police mugshot went viral – and he became dubbed the Hot Felon. He met Chloe on the showbiz party circuit and they fell in love over the summer.
Now he talks openly to the Sunday Mirror about life, love, mistakes – and his new-found respect for Chloe’s family.
He also tells how he hopes to rekindle his relationship with his own father, who was recently released after serving 33 years of a life sentence for murder.
HAPPY
Jeremy stops short of confirming rumours that he and Chloe are engaged. He has served divorce papers but is still married to Melissa, with whom he has son, Jeremy Jnr, and two step children.
But he says: “I’ve never been happier in my life than right now. We’ve found love, we’re in love and we are very happy.
“I love Chloe for her and if she didn’t have a dollar I wouldn’t give a sh*t because we’re so happy.
“Her dad has never questioned me on my past or made me feel uncomfortable and I’m not scared of what he thinks of me because he knows his daughter.
“He knows her and he knows that if she’s in love she won’t have chosen someone who isn’t right. I never had a father figure growing up because my dad got a life sentence for murder when I was only nine months old.
“He’s actually recently been released and I haven’t seen him but now I would really like to one day.”
Jeremy – jailed in 2009 for stealing and again in 2014 for gun law violations and resisting arrest – tells how he and Chloe have grown close with one another’s families. His gang tattoos and bad boy image are belied by his gentle demeanour. He says: “I have met all of her family and she has met mine. “My friends love her, my family love her and I love her family. We’ve had a lot of good times together with her mom and her dad. I had met her mom before but the first time I met Philip was at the Prince Albert Foundation dinner. “I talked to him on the phone before but meeting him was great. He is an amazing man – he’s been very loving and caring. “He loves his family and would do anything for them – he is a very respectable man and I have a lot of love for him. He’s a really good guy.” Sir Philip, 65, is a far cry from Jeremy’s own father and the model makes no secret of the tough childhood which led to his demise.
He explains: “I was born in Tacoma in Washington State and I had the life of any kid growing up in an inner city environment with not very much money.
REGRET
“My dad was serving a life sentence and my mother was a single mother and my sister ended up adopting my brother and me to give us a better life.
“But things were very hard money wise and I was always searching for that father figure, that person to look up to or to take me under their wing and so I ended up in the gang life. I was only 14 but it was a very bad decision. When I should have gone straight I went left and I regret that.
“My childhood made me want to strive to achieve something with my life which is why I am doing what I am doing now to set an example to my own children.
“A thousand per cent, going to jail when I had children to look after is my biggest regret. I truthfully don’t know how many times I was in and out of jail, but let’s say a couple of times.
“The ‘Hot Felon’ label is a blessing and a curse because it was the thing that gave me the opportunity to change my life for the better. But the look on my face in that picture is me in my mind thinking: ‘I won’t be able to put my son to bed tonight or take him to school tomorrow morning’. It was sadness and regret.”
But it was that same picture which led
to his astonishing success in the fashion world and to his relationship with Chloe, one of the most eligible bachelorettes in the world.
Jeremy says: “It was kind of crazy how it happened because the fame thing just came overnight. The last time I was in prison I just made a bad decision. I had a weapon I shouldn’t have had but it was nothing malicious, it was in case I needed to protect myself. I think you get that feeling when you grow up experiencing things I did.
“That mugshot came out and then suddenly agents and managers were writing to me in prison saying they could help me. I got an agent and within two weeks of getting out was doing photo shoots.
“My first job was with Philipp Plein and I knew it was going to be big. The best thing to come out of my change of direction is my relationship with Chloe. Of course we come from very different backgrounds but we both have tight-knit families.
“You think of people of her stature and you think they’ll be stuck up and entitled but she is the farthest thing from that.
“She’s the most humble, down-toearth person you could imagine. Her family has been the same with me too and I am very grateful to them.”
The whirlwind romance hit headlines when Jeremy and Chloe were pictured kissing on a yacht in Turkey in June, while he was still wed to the mother of his son, Melissa, 39. Allegations of infidelity followed but Jeremy insists his marriage was all but over by the time he met Chloe – and it was by no means love at first sight for him and the former Made In Chelsea TV star.
He adds: “The people who really know me and my family know that my marriage had been over for a long time when I met Chloe.
“For a while my wife and I had a very good life together and then for a long time we didn’t. The marriage was over for a lot longer than people think.
“A front was put on for the kids so as not to disrupt their lifestyle. When I met Chloe at a party at Cannes film festival, I was on my own, not talking to anyone so she came and started talking to me.
“She is very kind and considerate, and that is what attracted me to her.
“But that first night, we just talked for a couple of minutes and went our separate ways.”
They were destined to meet again at a second shindig in Monaco, where Chloe once attended an internationally-renowned private school. Jeremy goes on: “We talked a little longer but it still wasn’t flirtatious. We didn’t exchange numbers or anything. Then Philipp Plein threw a dinner for me at Maya Bay restaurant in Monaco to celebrate the after-party of his fashion show. Chloe was there.
“I didn’t put her on the guest list and I don’t know who invited her but I am happy to say that she was there and that after that we fell in love.”
The pair have since been pictured at high-end restaurants and cavorting on multi-million pound yachts.
It’s a lifestyle which is a far cry from an orange jump suit and the gang culture of prison.
But he insists that his good fortune was an accident and he didn’t even know who Chloe was when they met.
He says: “I have an amazing life now, I live in a very comfortable home in The Oaks in Calabasas (west of Beverly Hills) and I am very blessed.
“But when I met Chloe I had no clue who she was, she was just Chloe to me and she still is. I love her for her.
“It was only when we started talking more that she told me about her family and her background. But I pay no mind to that and she pays no mind to my past either because the future is positive and we are very happy.
CARING
“One thing I can say to people who are speculating about that happiness is that I am funding myself and the lifestyle that I have. I am paying for myself and I am paying for my child.” And while rumours continue to swirl around Jeremy and his soon-tobe ex-wife Melissa, Chloe has very much become a part of the family for Jeremy Jnr, seven. The proud dad adds: “Chloe has met my son and my stepson and, oh my gosh, they love her. “Chloe is very loving and caring to my son but she is a good friend to him, not trying to be his mom, because he already has one. “He spends two weeks of the month with me and he loves Chloe. We ride go-karts, go putt-putt golfing or to the movies, just regular things. We go to the beach and recently took him to Universal Studios, so we have a great relationship and we have a great time.” Jeremy is famed for the teardrop tattoo under his left eye – a symbol of his gang past. But he is certain that his relationship with Chloe WON’T be ending in tears. And he has his eyes set on developing his own business credentials. He continues: “I’d like to start my own businesses now so I have something to leave for my kids. I am also taking acting classes and there are a few things in the works in that area and in music, which is very exciting. “I am a model and Sir Philip works in fashion. He’s very successful and I’m sure he has many models he could use, so if he needs me I’m there. If not, I have other work, so I’m very blessed. “I just can’t wait for a day when I am seen as Jeremy Meeks and not just a ‘Hot Felon’. Am I a felon? Yes. Do I have brighter things in my future? A thousand per cent.” gemma.aldridge@trinitymirror.com
Chloe’s dad is amazing... he’s been very loving and caring and I have a lot of love for him JEREMY MEEKS ON RELATIONSHIP WITH TYCOON SIR PHILIP GREEN