My Fight to the Top (13 page)

We were standing under the palm trees when Claire came up with this idea to have Rachel model the same backless body that Penny had worn in the Chelsea shoot. ‘Both of them in the same outfit for Ultimo. Are you serious?’ I said.

Claire gave me a mischievous grin.

‘Well, it is one of my new inventions and it has only just been released,’ I said.

I had three inventions by this point – the OMG bra, the backless body and the frontless body. I had to keep coming up with new ways of keeping up with my competitors. I thought for a moment. ‘Okay, let’s do it.’

Those pictures – wow. Rachel, who was 32, had a curvy, sexy figure to die for. Rachel and Penny were both stunning women and they both looked great in the body, but at the end of the day, Rachel was a supermodel. Her calibre and pedigree showed. She was in a different league when it came to working the camera. I was in awe.

‘Jesus look how she moves,’ I said to Claire, as Rachel struck her poses in the hotel garden. The performance she gave was quite incredible. After we had finished for the day, it was time to celebrate.

‘Where are we going tonight?’ I asked Rachel. She named a diner in Miami where they only served milkshakes and fries. ‘You want milkshakes and fries?’ I looked her skinny body up and down.

‘Yeah, let’s go,’ she said, smiling cheekily.

I remember walking in with this supermodel and everyone stared. People kept coming up and asking for her autograph. We sat in a booth with two milkshakes each, fries and a burger. Not exactly what you would expect a model to eat. Of course, I was used to that kind of food. We had such a great time. I suppose the fact that it was a top-secret operation made it even more fun. It was the most I’d laughed in a long while.

I was still excited when it came to writing the press release. Rachel looked incredible and I couldn’t wait to show off our new collection. I knew it would make the headlines because she looked amazing and because it was news that Rachel was our cover girl. I released the pictures of Rachel in March 2004.

Boom.

Jesus Christ, to this day I’ve never seen a launch quite like it.

I had editors telling me they changed their front covers at the last minute to make way for my story. Piers Morgan, who was editing the
Daily Mirror
at the time, rang. ‘Am I seeing this? Is this for real?’ he gasped. ‘I almost fell off my seat!’

I couldn’t quite believe it myself. Only two years ago Ultimo had been on the brink of closing down and now we were front-page news all over the world. Some of the papers decided to print a picture of Penny and Rachel, side by side, modelling the backless body. Some of the headlines were quite cutting, like: R
ACHEL OUTSHINES
P
ENNY AGAIN
, said the
Daily Mail
. R
ACHEL PINCHES
P
ENNY
’
S PANTS
, was another one.

I took a closer look at the picture. ‘Fucking hell,’ I shrieked. Claire Powell had dealt with the retouching of Rachel’s picture and oh, my god, what a blunder she had made. ‘Fucking hell, Claire,’ I squealed down the phone. She’d photoshopped Rachel’s right hand to half the size of what it should be.

‘I know, I don’t know what happened,’ she laughed. It was kind of funny at the time and it detracted from the media circus that was going on. We became really good friends after that.

I didn’t get much in the way of a backlash at first. The only thing the papers did make out was that I had sacked Penny. I categorically stated that wasn’t true. ‘Her contract had come to an end. I did not sack her,’ I blasted. In this industry models replace models all the time. It was business. Penny had done a brilliant job of relaunching Ultimo but I was moving my brand onwards and upwards.

There is no lift to success, you need to take the stairs.

T
he war had begun between Penny and Rachel and I was dragged in. The pair battled it out in the papers – every day Penny would say something and Rachel would respond. I got an absolute battering from the Scottish press because Rod is seen as an icon up there for his love of all things Celtic and of Scotland. I had no clue it would get so big. What started out a publicity stunt quickly turned into a nightmare. I admit, I had made a huge error, one that I would have to live with for the rest of my life.

I need to speak to the press to explain the situation, I thought, panicking.

I decided to do interviews to clear my name. One of the reporters playfully asked me to compare Penny and Rachel to football players and teams. I was still young in business, only 32, and not experienced at that sort of thing. ‘Come on, what would you say?’ the reporter pushed.

‘Well, I don’t really know about football,’ I said. ‘Erm, who’s that really famous, really successful star in football? Is it Ronaldo?’ I asked innocently.

‘Yes,’ the reporter smirked.

‘Well, Rachel has been a supermodel since she was a teenager so I’d compare her to Ronaldo. Penny was just this wee local model so I’d maybe call her Falkirk Football Club.’ I later found out Falkirk played in the Scottish First Division. I had no idea what I had just done until I opened the Scottish
Sunday Mail
. I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.

‘I hope she chokes on her profits,’ blasted Rod Stewart. He had given the
Sunday Mail
an exclusive interview and he had given me a beasting. It had been written like I was the most hated woman in Scotland. ‘Michelle is a manipulative cow.’

Punch.

‘I was told Michelle was a devious, conniving, publicity-seeking son-of-a-bitch. I was told she was a user.’

Punch
.

‘I don’t think Penny has got a single bad bone in her body. But Michelle’s entire skeleton reeks of self-interest.’

Punch
.

Oh, God, I felt like I was going to be sick. I was, and still am, a big fan of Rod’s. I couldn’t bear to read his hateful words. I was just trying to make light of the situation. I was just trying to end the war with a bit of humour. I had tried to make everything better but in stupidly shooting my mouth off I had made things so much worse.

Rod went on to say how he still liked Michael; it was just me he despised. That burned. Michael seemed to love it. He taunted me with it. He might as well have done a victory dance around the kitchen.

I glared at him. You fucker, I thought. I’ve been the one that put myself through this to save our company and all you’re concerned about is Rod Stewart liking you. Okay, maybe Michael was being a bit tongue-in-cheek. But I knew that, deep down, he loved the victory he had over me. All that I wanted Michael to do was to stick up for me, just as I’d stuck up for him when Tom and Ian wanted to get rid of him. I wished I had the same support.

Sales were flying as a consequence of what I’d said but I felt like I had sacrificed my soul for the business to get there. I got such a beating by the Scottish media. I was truly hated for what I’d done. The public in Scotland turned against me. About the only person who liked me as a result of the storm was the chairman of Falkirk football team. He called me to rave, ‘This is brilliant! People in America have now heard of us.’ He was delighted. At least I had I done one good thing with my comment. ‘Do you want to join our board of directors?’ he went on.

‘No, you’re alright,’ I said.

I deserved the bad feeling. Rod was quite right to be angry because I had been so stupid. He was right to say he hoped I’d choke on my profits. I do believe you should never regret anything in life because every day is a school day. I didn’t make an error hiring Rachel Hunter because Rachel has probably been the best model Ultimo has ever had. Yet I knew I had made an error in saying that stuff about the football teams. I apologised straight away.

I said through the media that I’d made a very stupid mistake comparing Penny to Falkirk. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. It was my stupidity. I’m sorry.’ No response from Rod. Rod was angry because he trusted me. We’d all had a good time together. I suppose I, in a way, betrayed him. I’ve since bumped into Penny quite a few times, and it’s been friendly, I’ve said, ‘Hello. How are the kids?’ We’re fine now, but back then, it was war.

My dad took it very badly – he had to watch his daughter be hated in Scotland. ‘Just vulgar,’ my dad said, shaking his head in disgust at Rod’s reaction. Dad had grown up listening to Rod Stewart. It was different for Michael’s mum and dad, who never had a record player so they didn’t have the same affinity for Rod. But Dad was furious. He destroyed all his Rod Stewart records.

‘Dad, what are you doing?’ I tried to calm him down.

‘That’s my daughter he’s talking about. I don’t want to hear his songs any more,’ he said, tossing ‘Sailing’ into the bin.

I did try and reason with him. ‘Dad, this is my fault. This is not Rod’s fault. If it was me, I would have defended my boyfriend.’

Dad took a moment. ‘It’s not the point. He shouldn’t be speaking about a lady like that,’ he said.

Rod’s hateful words had a massive effect on me. I was distraught. I was crying myself to sleep but at the same time kicking myself, thinking I deserved it. Every day I took another battering from the press.

Attack, attack, attack.

I felt very lonely. I needed my husband to comfort me. But Michael was never there. He hadn’t been there for me for years, if I was honest with myself. So I turned to food again for comfort. I ate and I cried. I was now putting away four McDonald’s a day, 13 bags of crisps and bowls of chips. I was still size 22 and all my trousers had elastic bands. I used to get my PA to hide food for me. I admit I used to get her to cover for me by getting her to lie to Michael.

‘How many cans has she had today?’ Michael demanded. I’d look at her. Poor thing. She must have felt under the spotlight.

‘Only two,’ she’d lie.

I sighed with relief. But really the total would have been 15. My sugar intake was obscene. I don’t know how I didn’t have a heart attack. I was so deeply unhappy but food made me feel good for that tiny moment. I used to get my PA to go to the local Chinese and fetch me a chow mein with chips. I would eat everything on the plate until I felt I was going to burst. I was punishing myself for what I had done, for being unhappy and for being fat.

I looked like a train wreck. My face was so swollen it looked as if someone had pumped me up like a tyre. When I look back at photos of the time I don’t even recognise myself. My eyes had sunk into this fat face. My mum and dad were worried about me.

‘Michelle, listen to me. You’re going to have to get yourself together,’ Mum said, sitting me down. ‘You’re a pretty girl. What are you doing to yourself?’

I burst into tears. I sat on her couch, crying my eyes out. Mum wrapped her arms around me and tried to calm me down, as she had so many times before. She sweetly tried to pick me up by offering me incentives. But I kept the hurt to myself because I didn’t want to worry my mum and dad and because my dad was sick. I talked a bit to my friend Ilene, who was still like a sister to me. I didn’t reveal much to other friends because someone close to me had been tipping off the media. I was starting to lose touch with knowing who I could and could not trust.

My eating was part of the vicious cycle with Michael. I hated my body to the point that I would never undress in front of him. I would hide behind the wardrobe door as I changed into my big jammies and then get into bed. As you can imagine, our sex life was utter crap. Well, now and again, when he was in the mood, but it was over very quickly. He got his enjoyment. There was nothing about pleasuring me. How could I relax and enjoy having sex when he was making me feel so ugly?

When I stood in front of the bedroom mirror I would hear Michael’s words in my head. I hated myself. I don’t think anyone had a clue how unhappy I was. I guess the flip side was that the battering I received turned me into the person I am today. Now I don’t let anything affect me.

I have developed such a thick skin and I’ve had to become a completely different person since I started the business. It’s sad that business does that to you but it’s the truth. Being an entrepreneur is the loneliest job on the planet. Everyone thinks I am tough and powerful but behind closed doors I am actually quite fragile. If a man behaved in the way I did, he’d be hailed a hero. But being a woman means I have to take a lot of shit because women are supposed to be soft and nurturing. These days I think that as long as my friends and my family know who I am, the journalists can say what they like. It’s tomorrow’s fish and chip paper as far as I’m concerned.

You probably know what I’m about to say – I threw myself into the business to forget what was going on around me.
Fight harder. Must fight harder.
I came up with the idea of creating an affordable bra to sell in a supermarket chain. So we signed a deal with Asda to launch a collection for its George range, called Michelle for George. It went on to become the highest-volume lingerie brand in the country.

It was at that point that Michael insisted we buy Tom and Ian out. Michael had wanted to reclaim our share ever since Tom and Ian said they wanted rid of him. We couldn’t afford to do it until now. Tom and Ian were obliging as they’d very much been silent partners since Michael refused to step down. I’m still very close to Tom and I’ll be forever indebted to what he and Ian did for Ultimo. It was a risk for them to invest in us and luckily they earned a lot more than the £200,000 they put in at the beginning.

Michael now had full control – and that’s when things got really bad.

Sometimes you gotta fall before you fly.

M
ichael and I had been fighting for years. But it came to a head on a flight to Miami in 2005 for our third shoot with Rachel Hunter. It just so happened that my company secretary, David Kaye, was also flying out to see his daughter. He was sitting in front of Michael and me in upper class when a sexy Virgin air hostess came up to us.