PENNY Lancaster has reignited her bitter feud with former lingerie queen Baroness Michelle Mone, branding her “spiteful and greedy”.
Glam model Lancaster, 54, was dropped by Mone’s lingerie firm, Ultimo, in 2004 – two years into their working relationship.
Penny Lancaster has given her side of the story about her exit from Ultimo[/caption]
Penny and Michelle Mone before their fallout[/caption]
Mone, 53, replaced her with Rachel Hunter, who is the ex-wife of Lancaster’s husband Sir Rod Stewart.
The initial fallout was dubbed ‘bra wars’ and Stewart – never one to bite his tongue – slammed Mone at the time as a “nasty piece of work” and said Mone “needed to be put in her place”.
Two decades on, Lancaster has echoed her husband’s words in her new book, Someone Like Me, claiming Mone’s decision was motivated by “greed” and “spite”.
She writes in the memoir: “I found it nasty and a window into the heart of the person Mone truly is.
“The answer was simple: headlines, of course. Pitting Rod Stewart‘s ex-wife against Rod Stewart’s current girlfriend generated more headlines than any publicity campaign ever could. In my view, it was cynical and ugly.”
Music legend Stewart married model Hunter in 1990. They separated later in the decade but didn’t divorce until 2006 – seven years after he started dating Lancaster.
A year after the divorce was finalised, Stewart married Lancaster and they’ve been happily married ever since.
When Mone first approached Lancaster to work with the brand, the latter claims she was unaware of Ultimo, but was drawn to the project.
She alleges that the brand was in financial difficulty at the time, “on the brink of bankruptcy“, and couldn’t afford her rate.
Lancaster insists her contract was much less than the £200,000 reported at the time and claims she was later told by Mone that she and her then husband Michael had to remortgage their home to raise funds to sign her.
The implication of a business partnership down the line sweetened the deal, and Lancaster put pen to paper, admitting she and Mone formed a close bond during their time working together.
But the bond was short-lived and it was through the press that Lancaster learned she’d been replaced, despite having had talks about renewing her contract.
A spokesman for Baroness Mone refuted Lancaster’s claims that Ultimo was in a dire financial state at the time of her signing.
They told the Mail: “We do not recall there being a ‘scare of bankruptcy’ at Ultimo. Like many growing businesses, there were challenges but Michelle successfully built the company into a major international brand.”
Explaining the decision to swap Lancaster for Hunter, they continued: “When major department stores made it clear they required a change in marketing, Michelle had little choice. Rachel Hunter was keen to step in and that’s how the modelling and celebrity industry works.
“There were never any hard feelings. Michelle has always respected Penny as a talented woman and wishes her the very best with the launch of her new book.”
Lancaster previously spoke out against Mone earlier this year on an episode of Loose Women.
Sir Rod Stewart spoke out in defence of his wife when she was dropped by Ultimo[/caption]
Penny boosted the brand’s profile in the early noughties[/caption]
Mone has transformed her look over the last two decades[/caption]
The panel discussed a BBC documentary about a personal protective equipment (PPE) scandal with links to the businesswoman and her husband Doug Barrowman.
Through the government’s VIP suppliers lane, the channel set up to fast-track its response to the pandemic, PPE Medpro received an £80m contract to provide masks and another £120m to provide gowns; however, the gowns were deemed unsuitable for use.
The government announced it was suing the firm in the High Court for £122m plus costs to retrieve the money.
No charges have been brought against PPE Medpro, Mone or Barrowman to date and all parties deny any wrongdoing.
Lancaster said on the ITV show: “It didn’t surprise me, because karma gets you I guess, but as far as any details I’m prepared to talk about, it would have to be the right time and place for that and I’ve put it behind me for the time being.”
