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Billionaire arms dealer breaks his silence over claims he hired Heather Mills as escort
Last updated at 23:22pm on 11.11.06
For six years Heather Mills has denied she was a high-class call girl who was paid to entertain guests of the billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
Videos: Watch our exclusive clips from the interview here...
• Clip One
• Clip Two
• Heather Mills sets her sights on £850,000 farmhouse a mile from Macca's estate
Now Khashoggi has broken his silence on the matter - and said Ms Mills McCartney's account is untrue.
The Saudi-born arms dealer has admitted he has paid for prostitutes, and pointedly refused to deny that he had hired Heather Mills to sleep with him or his guests at a party he hosted in Marbella.
Tellingly, he admitted for the first time that he has paid for prostitutes in the past, and confirmed that she had been to his party.
Khashoggi spoke at length to Daphne Barak, an internationally renowned TV syndicated interviewer who has recorded interviews with world figures including Hillary Clinton, Robert Mugabe, Mother Teresa and the Prince of Wales.
He talks for the first time about the party, believed to have taken place in 1988 at his home in Marbella, attended by a host of celebrities including Hollywood star George Hamilton.
In the new interview to be broadcast in the United States next week, Ms Barak questioned Khashoggi at length about his involvement with Ms Mills McCartney.
She asks him: "Have you ever paid for sex?'
Khashoggi responds: "Let me see, if I'm under oath I will say yes. If I'm not, I will say no."
Later, when she asks him if he paid Heather Mills to have sex with him or his guests in Marbella, Khashoggi replies: "Who cares?'
When she presses him for a yes or no answer, he stops for a moment and then thinks. Again he replies: "Who cares?' But then he goes on: "Mind you, we looked into it. It looks like a quarrel between girls. One is attacking the other." He adds: "How does she know names, places, if she wasn't one of the girls? Maybe if she says she came to my party, she came."
A former friend of Ms Mills McCartney, Joanna Heron, revealed to The Mail on Sunday in 2000 that the Saudi-born arms baron had paid them both after an intimate meeting in his hotel room.
Ms Heron said she and Ms Mills McCartney went to his hotel suite, in their best dresses and sexy underwear, to drink champagne by candle light.
They left with envelopes, Ms Heron said, containing £2,000. "She [Heather] was cursing him. She was expecting about £5,000,' Ms Heron said.
Ms Mills responded in an interview the following year, and admitted she had gone to the party. She said: "I met Adnan Khashoggi and he is a lovely, polite and very nice man. But I haven't had sex with him. I have never sold sex and I am not an escort girl."
Khashoggi was renowned for his sumptuous parties which attracted lots of women.
His chauffeur told in 1984 that Khashoggi would give large gifts of cash to women who went to his parties, although he said sex was not necessarily expected.
In 1989 Pamella Bordes, the high-class call girl who had a House of Commons pass, said she was hired by Khashoggi to provide sexual favours for a number of high profile business and political clients.
Despite his refusal to help Ms Mills McCartney mend her reputation, Khashoggi said she deserved sympathy. "We have to be merciful to this girl who lost her leg in an accident, found a man she loves..." he said.
"She needed to work harder to protect her marriage."
Reader views (2)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
When will this villification stop? Isn't everyone sick of it? Her tireless work for the many charities she supports and her willingness to put her own reputation on the line and speak out against perceived injustices have been her downfall. That, and of course, marrying a 'national treasure'.
- Rudi, London, UK
Smoke/No/Without/Fire/ - Kindly fit the words into the desired sequence.
- Ted, Shetland
