British model and TV star Bianca Gascoigne has claimed she was sexually assaulted by Mohamed al Fayed when she worked at Harrods as a teenager.
She said she had visited the store with her parents growing up, and Al Fayed would bring them gifts, adding that she initially felt safe when she joined Harrods at the age of 16.
Gascoigne said she felt trapped by Al Fayed, who one night offered her the use of the Harrods Park Lane apartment to stay in before a flight.
“[Al Fayed] turned up at the apartment to my shock, I was just gobsmacked, I was kind of very shell-shocked,” she said.
“I just didn’t really know what to do, he came in and then he sat me down on the sofa… he got his privates out and got my hands and was trying to manoeuvre them on his parts.”
She has a brother Mason and a half-brother Regan Gascoigne.
She initially joined Harrods as a shop floor worker in her teens but was later promoted to a fashion buyer and said that it was when working there that the abuse began.
Gascoigne later became a household name in her own right when she started work as a glamour model, appearing in magazines such as Zoo, Nuts and Loaded.
Which TV shows has she appeared on?
Gascoigne is also known for her many appearances on various reality TV shows.
In 2006, she appeared on ITV’s original version of Love Island, filmed in Fiji, which she won with Calum Best. Her stint on the show and subsequent TV appearances as the winner made her a household name and paved the way for her to land spots on other programmes.
In July 2008, she appeared on Celebrity Gladiators and then went on to grab her first presenting job, fronting Big Brother’s Big Mouth – a spin-off show for Big Brother.
She has also appeared on Celebrity Coach Trip, and the BBC Three show Snog, Marry, Avoid?.
The model also chanced her luck on the ninth series of X Factor but did not make it through to bootcamp. She appeared in the Channel 5 series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2017 and came sixth.
Yes, one daughter with her fiancé Arron Wright.
On February 22, 2023, she gave birth to a baby girl named Blake Sunshine.
What has she said about the abuse from Mohammed Al Fayed?
The model has said she managed to get away from Al Fayed but thinks it was only because she was known to him.
In her interview, she added: “He was trying to force my head on to his lap. And I don’t know how but I managed to wiggle away.
“And I think possibly you know, that him knowing my parents… I don’t know, that might have saved me at that moment. But it was horrific.”