EX-MODEL: BORIS AND I WERE CLOSE
» SHE REFUSES TO DENY ANY AFFAIR WITH PM » QUESTIONS GROW OVER CASH GRANTS TO ARCURI
US BUSINESSWOMAN Jennifer Arcuri today refused six times to say whether she had an intimate relationship with Boris Johnson, who faces growing questions over public money received by one of her companies when he was mayor of London.
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the entrepreneur, pictured, told how:
⬤ They had “immediately bonded” over a “mutual love of classic literature and particularly Shakespeare”. ⬤ He visited her flat/office in Shoreditch about five times. ⬤ She joked to him that “I could show him a few things” in relation to a poledancing pole in her flat.
⬤ She kept his phone number under the codename “Alexander the Great” on the advice of friends to ‘protect his privacy’.
⬤ Denied any impropriety in tens of thousands of pounds of
public funds that she received.
⬤ Rejected a report that Mr Johnson had written a letter recommending her for a £100,000 technology job.
Mr Johnson, 55, denies any wrongdoing over more than £120,000 of public funds that Ms Arcuri’s firms received, including some when he was mayor, insisting “absolutely everything was done entirely in the proper way”.
As the Prime Minister faced a showdown with Brussels over whether a Brexit deal can be struck, the spotlight was thrown back onto his private life by Ms Arcuri’s interview this morning, with the prospect of up to four inquiries into the public money she received.
Health Secretar y Matt Hancock stressed this morning: “What matters is that everything that was done with taxpayers’ money was above board and she confirmed that that was true.”
But shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “This morning has thrown up even more questions for Boris Johnson, which can only be answered with a full investigation into the apparent misuse of public funds.”
Asked by GMB presenter Piers Morgan if she had an affair with Mr Johnson, as reportedly claimed by friends, Ms Arcuri, 34, responded: “First of all those people are not my friends. These are insinuations and third-party hearsay and no, I wouldn’t be going around blabbing to people at my school, that’s just completely preposterous.
“And secondly, would you like me to ask about your sex life? I thought about this a lot when the story broke. Of course the first initial reaction is to deny everything, and to come out making sure your side … when I saw the way I’m objectified and dragged through the press with all these misquotes and misinterpretations of who I am. If I’d looked a different way or if I was a man, I wo u l d n’ t b e o b j e c t i f i e d this way…”
Pressed if she had an “intimate relationship” with Mr Johnson, the former model said: “I think we’re forgetting that Boris is extremely personable ... He was always a really good friend. It’s quite unfortunate that it becomes, that a good friend, who has now been … now I’m dragged into the middle of this horrific scandal, the answer that I’m going to give is now going to be weaponised against this man. It’s really categorically no one’s business what private life we had or didn’t have.”
She continued: “Boris never, ever gave me favouritism. Never once did I ask him for a favour. Never once did he write a letter of recommendation for
It’s really categorically no one’s business what private life we had or didn’t have
Jennifer Arcuri
me. He didn’t know about my asking to go to trips. He only knew me as an extremely passionate entrepreneur of the London tech scene.”
She told how the storm over their relationship and all the media attention was “insane” and a “head trip”. She then explained how she first met the former London mayor, how he had “electrified” a British venture capital summit in October 2011 and that she later volunteered to go on his “Back Boris bus” for his election campaign.
“On the bus, he had a book of short stories. I think it was Voltaire, I remember striking up a conversation about classic literature and Shakespeare, we immediately bonded over this kind of mutual love of classic literature and particularly Shakespeare.”
Mr Johnson was interested in technology, she added. “He really wanted to understand more about what was happening in California and what tips we could learn from the West Coast,” she said. “So he said, ‘I’d love to be able to talk to you more about this, how can I contact you?’ I said I gave your team my card and he said, ‘No, no my team will throw it away, I just want to be able to contact you directly’. So I said you can call me, so I gave him my number and that was that.
“The first message I was out with my friends, it came in ‘Boris calling Jennifer’ and my friends were like, ‘You
can’t have his number, you can’t have his name like that, you have to guard his privacy’. I was like, oh OK. They said, ‘Put him under a code name’. I was like, all right, ‘What code name?’ [They said], ‘Call him Alexander the Great’, so I put him in as Alexander the Great and that’s how he stayed.”
Mr Johnson came to four tech events that she organised, though she admitted: “I didn’t think he’d actually come, but he did.”
On occasions, Ms Arcuri saw him socially but she explained: “We tried having drinks out in public or having lunch, it just became too much of a mob show. I said, ‘Look you’ve just got to come to my office, I don’t have time to play paparazzi and selfies with you, you can come directly to me’. My Shoreditch office was on his way home.” Her office was also her flat and she said he visited around five times.
Asked about a poledancing pole in her living room, she said: “I love core strength.”
Ms Arcuri said she never danced for Mr Johnson, though: “I made a joke once, if he wanted I could show him a few things, but that was about it. I asked him to have a go. It was a laugh and that was it. Could you imagine Boris Johnson on a pole? I mean, come on.”
Asked if it was true she received £11,500 sponsorship from London & Partners because of her friendship with the former mayor, she said: “No, couldn’t be further from the truth. The reason they liked me is because I had a big mouth, a huge network and so much work ... the biggest work ethic you could ever imagine.”
She also defended decisions to allow her to go on three foreign trips with Mr Johnson.
Of getting a £100,000 grant in January this year from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport despite her companies not making any profit, she said: “Boris Johnson had nothing to do with my grant.”
Ms Arcuri said she stopped regularly speaking to Mr Johnson when she became pregnant at the end of 2016. When asked whether the Prime Minister had made contact with her since the story hit the headlines, she said: “I think Boris has enough on his plate right now.”
It is understood that Ms Arcuri was paid for the interview. Dan Walker, the BBC Breakfast presenter, said he “heard she was asking for six figures”.
Mr Morgan appeared to confirm Ms Arcuri was paid, when he replied: “Sure, less than I got paid today to do the interview.”