Naomi Campbell ‘used charity funds’ on hotel stays and spa days, investigation finds

A shocking investigation has found that Naomi Campbell spent charity funds on spa trips, five-star hotels and cigarettes.

Naomi Campbell has been found to have used chairty money to pay for five-star hotel stays and spa visits.

The supermodel has been banned from being a trustee or holding a senior management role in any charity in England and Wales for five years after the shocking discovery was made by the UK’s Charity Commission.

An investigation found that Fashion for Relief passed on only a small fraction of the millions of pounds it raised from star-studded celebrity fashion events to good causes.

Campbell has claimed to be “extremely concerned” about the findings.

Naomi Campbell has claimed to have had no knowledge of the illegitimate use of the charity’s funds. Picture: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT/AFP

“I just found out today about the findings, and I’m extremely concerned, and we are investigating on our side as I was not in control of my charity, I put the control in the hands of a lawyer,” she told reporters after she was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters at the French Ministry for Culture.

“And so we are investigating to find out what and how, as everything I do and every penny I ever raised goes towards charities.”

The Charity Commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, opened its inquiry into Campbell’s “Fashion for Relief” in 2021.

It found that over a five-year period from 2016, Fashion for Relief raised just under £4.8m ($7.9m) from a series of fashion shows but paid out only £389,000 ($758,000) in grants to partner charities once the cost of events and other expenses were accounted for.

Campbell has been banned from holding a position within a UK charity for five years. Picture: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Some expenses billed to the charity by Campbell during one trip included just under $15,000 on spa treatments, room service, purchases of cigarettes and hotel products. Campbell stayed at the hotel for six nights, of which only two were attributable to a charity event, the commission found.

The regulator said in its report that trustees claimed 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.

The charity had been set up with the aim of “uniting the fashion industry to relieve poverty and advance health and education, by making grants to other organisations and giving resources towards global disasters”.

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

The commission concluded that there had been serious misconduct, financial mismanagement and poor governance at Fashion for Relief since it was established as a UK charity in 2015.

Originally published as Naomi Campbell ‘used charity funds’ on hotel stays and spa days, investigation finds