Jill Dodd, founder of surf brand Roxy, has revealed she was a 'pleasure wife' to a Saudi arms dealer. Photo / JillDodds.com
Jill Dodd, founder of surf brand Roxy, has revealed she was a 'pleasure wife' to a Saudi arms dealer. Photo / JillDodds.com
The founder of international clothing brand Roxy is a successful businesswoman today.
But during the early 1980s Jill Dodd was a "pleasure wife" to billionaire Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
Dodd says she fell in love with Khashoggi, who was 24 years her senior and would shower her in gifts, from diamonds to solid gold necklaces. But she had to share her new lover with the rest of his harem, The Daily Mail reports.
The first night they spent together, she says the Saudi businessman had watched her take a bubble bath, before they sat together on the bed in kaftans, the New York Post reports.
Khashoggi told Dodd he wanted her to be one of his 11 pleasure wives and she agreed, her new memoir reveals.
"Yes, I say and we seal the agreement as our lips meet. In that moment, I become a member of Adnan's harem, taking turns with other women to have sex with the man I love," Dodd writes in her memoir.
Dodd was 20 years old and had recently signed with model agency Wilhelmina Models. She landed high profile jobs in French magazines and it was at the lavish Le Pirate party in Cannes when she met Khashoggi.
"Suddenly, my dance partner stopped, grabbed a chair and threw it into the fire. I hurled one in too. We laughed and slammed together like two magnets, whirling around before the flames," she said.
"Giddy and out of breath, I finally sat down. My new friend gazed into my eyes as he tenderly pushed up my sleeves and used his fingertips to write 'I love you' in red on my forearm. It took me a minute to realise it was in blood. Accidentally or not, he had cut himself with a piece of glass."
Adnan Khashoggi, the billionaire Saudi arms-dealer and businessman. Photo / Getty Images
The next day, Dodd received an invitation to join Khashoggi on his yacht, the 85m Nabila, which would later be featured in James Bond film Never Say Never Again, before being sold to the Sultan of Brunei and was later owned by Donald Trump.
She and Khashoggi spent the entire night talking until 5am, as he discussed how he had amassed his incredible wealth.
"Over the next few weeks, Adnan wined and dined me - always allowing me to pick out a couture outfit from his collection - but there were other girls in the picture. Some of them looked so young, they could have been assumed to be high schoolers."
Khashoggi gained international notoriety for his role in the Iran-Contra affair where he acted as middleman in the arms-for-hostages exchange, before being acquitted of charges he concealed funds alongside Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos, but Dodd admits she had no interest in his work.
As the months went on, Dodd felt herself falling for Khashoggi, who was always surrounded by women. Towards the end of 1981 she began to feel uncomfortable with the unusual arrangement and the relationship ended in 1982.
Dodd, who is now a 57-year-old mother-of-three, founded surfwear brand Roxy in 1989.
Dodd, who lives in Marin County, California, with her third husband, Jeff, said she felt ashamed about being a pleasure wife because "people assume you're a hooker".
"But I never forfeited my independence, ambition or creative expression when I was with Adnan and have no regrets."
