‘I was not in control’: Naomi Campbell defends her role after she was banned from being charity trustee

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has said she was “not in control” of her charity, following her disqualification from being a trustee for five years after the Charity Commission found serious mismanagement of funds.

The 54-year-old model founded Fashion For Relief, a charity merging fashion and philanthropy, in 2005, but an investigation found that just a small proportion of the money went to actual good causes.

Fashion For Relief was dissolved and removed from the register of charities earlier this year.

Misconduct included using charity funds to pay for Campbell’s stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, France, as well as spa treatments, room service and cigarettes.

Campbell is one of three of the charity’s trustees to be disqualified as a result of the probe.

The Charity Commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, opened an inquiry into Fashion For Relief in 2021.

The charity’s mission was to make grants to other organisations and give resources towards global disasters in a bid to relieve poverty and advance health and education.

It hosted fundraising events to generate income, including in Cannes and London.

However, the inquiry found that between April 2016 and July 2022, just 8.5% of the charity’s overall expenditure was on charitable grants.

Campbell said she was “extremely concerned” by the findings and an investigation on her part was under way.

“I was not in control of my charity, I put the control in the hands of a legal employer,” she said after being named a knight in France’s Order of Arts and Letters at the country’s culture ministry for her contribution to French culture.

“We are investigating to find out what and how, and everything I do and every penny I ever raised goes to charity.”

The Charity Commission says it has recovered £344,000, as well as protecting a further £98,000 of charitable funds.

Three nights at a five-star hotel

They say they saw no evidence that trustees took action to ensure fundraising methods were in the charity’s best interests, or that the money it spent was reasonable relative to the income it generated.

It also said it found some fundraising expenditure to be misconduct or mismanagement by the charity’s trustees.

This included a €14,800 (£12,300) flight from London to Nice for transferring art and jewellery to a fundraising event in Cannes in 2018.

It also looked into the decision to spend €9,400 (£7,800) of charity funds on a three-night stay at a five-star hotel for Campbell.

In these cases, the trustees “failed to show how these were cost-effective and an appropriate use of the charity’s resources”, the Charity Commission said.

Spa treatments, room service and cigarettes

Furthermore, it examined expenses incurred by Campbell totalling nearly €7,940 (£6,600), alongside the hotel stay, paid for by the charity.

These costs included spa treatments, room service, and the purchase of cigarettes and hotel products.

The regulator said trustees explained that hotel costs were typically covered by a donor to the charity, therefore not costing the charity, but failed to provide any evidence to support this.

Bianka Hellmich has been disqualified as a trustee for nine years, and Veronica Chou for four years, as well as Campbell’s five-year ban.

It means they are prevented from being a trustee or holding a senior management role in any charity in England and Wales during the length of the disqualification.

Campbell was discovered as a schoolgirl, and she went on to become the first British black model to appear on the cover of British Vogue.

The 54-year-old model welcomed her second child, a son, last year, following her daughter who was born in 2021, shortly before her 51st birthday.