Kimberly Lee: The queen of kiss and tell
...and why the Mosley case may cost her a fortune
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Your support makes all the difference.Kimberly Lee has probably never heard of the Honourable Mr Justice Eady but the 65-year-old High Court judge may have just ended her career.
For the past seven years, the 25-year-old has been a celebrity kiss-and-tell girl, paid tens of thousands of pounds to reveal details about her explicit encounters with celebrities ranging from Eminem to Mike Tyson, Robbie Williams and Kenny Richey, the 43-year-old Scot who was set free in January after 21 years on America's death row.
She has filled page after lurid page of some of the country's best-known tabloids with the tales and is unrepentant at the unorthodox way she has earned a living. "I'm not hurting anyone," she says. "I never say anything bad about the people I've slept with and I never go with married men."
But, despite her protestations, demand for Lee's "work" may be about to dry up.
The judge recently granted Max Mosley £60,000 in damages in the privacy case that the motorsport boss brought against the News of the World after it falsely alleged that there was a Nazi theme to his sado-masochistic party with five prostitutes.
The ruling has led media law experts to warn that stories which used to be a staple diet of the tabloids could now prove very expensive in court.
If the experts are correct, it will destroy a lucrative career for Lee and call time on her "insights" into the sexual worlds of celebrities such as Mike Tyson: "I stood up and started to peel of my clothes, right down to my black lace underwear. We then ended up making love in all sorts of positions." And Eminem: "As I sat there topless, he began to kiss and caress my boobs. Then I took down his baggy jeans and showed him the time of his life."
Born and brought up in the small Scottish village of West Calder, West Lothian, Lee's kiss-and-tell career began at the age of 18 when she sold a story about a night of passion with Robbie Williams, for which she was paid £10,000.
She explains: "I was down in London at a show called the Pepsi Chart show and I got invited backstage to meet him. We got to talking and then I ended up going back to his hotel room. It was all a bit of a shock because I'd never met any celebrities before.
"It wasn't until a few days after I told my best friend and he said 'you should phone the tabloids'. I said I wasn't sure because I thought it probably wasn't a very nice thing to do. But he convinced me that I wouldn't be hurting anyone and I would get loads of money so I thought 'Why not?'"
She used the money to finance atrip to Hollywood where she met, slept with, and subsequently sold stories on a host of other celebrities. But while she doesn't mind the tag of kiss-and-tell girl, Lee insists she has never set out deliberately to sleep with celebrities in order to make money.
"I've never planned any of them," she says. "They all just sort of happened. I was in Hollywood looking for modelling and acting work and I just seemed to end up at the same parties as a lot of celebrities. A lot of girls get star-struck but I've never been like that so I always ended up going over and talking to them or having a drink with them. They key is to get evidence that you can show to the papers so I always get a picture or make sure we swap numbers. Apart from that it's just like a normal one-night stand only they are with celebrities."
The other difference, of course, is the financial gain in selling the story afterwards. The most she has ever made is £30,000 from Eminem. But Lee insists that money has never factored in her decision to sleep with a celebrity. She said: "I would really like to have relationships with some of the famous men I've slept with but it is difficult as they are always too busy so I think 'I may as well make some money out of it'. As far as I'm aware none of the celebrities I've ever sold stories on has ever been angry about it."
Her family, is another matter. She explains: "My mum doesn't like the fact that I do it. She says it is embarrassing and a lot of my friends and family think it's embarrassing. "When I did the first one, my mum phoned me and asked me what I was playing at. She didn't want me to do it but I told her: 'I'm in a five-star hotel, I'm getting £10,000 and I'm going to be in the paper'. She didn't say much after that. Obviously no mum is going to be happy about it. If I had a daughter I wouldn't let her do it." The hypocrisy of that statement isn't lost on Lee, who says: "I know I've done it but I only do it for the money and the publicity. It's something I have done, but I would never want my daughter to."
Her most recent kiss-and-tell was in June when she went to the News of the World with a story about Kenny Richey. However, unlike most of the men she sells stories on, what started as a tabloid kiss-and-tell tale has blossomed into a relationship. She explained: "I usually try not to tell any new boyfriends too much about my kiss-and-tells. I don't think it's a big deal and it's in the past. Although when I met Kenny I told him I was a kiss-and-tell girl." On hearing this, Kenny, who is in the same room, interrupts: "No you did not. The first I heard was when I got a phone call telling me you were trying to sell the story on me." She laughs and agrees with his version of events and says: "I don't really know how we ended up in a relationship after that. I suppose I just really like Kenny."
While Mr Justice Eady's decision may force her hand, Lee says she was planning to take a rest from her "job". "If I meet a really big celebrity I would rather date him. It is not good for my career to keep doing kiss-and-tells. I'm serious about getting into modelling and acting and people in the industry think badly of you if all you've done is kiss-and-tells."
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