Sir Philip Green reportedly raged at male models ad calling it ‘gay s**t’
Beyoncé, Sir Philip Green and Cara Delevingne attend the Topshop Topman New York City flagship opening dinner at Grand Central Terminal on November 4, 2014 in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty)
British tycoon Sir Philip Green reportedly got so upset at the sight of a campaign ad featuring young male models he ripped down the posters calling it “gay s**t,” The Guardian reported on November 3.
The newspaper spoke to a number of people who work and have worked with Sir Philip—none of them were named due to fear of repercussions—who revealed new allegations of workplace misbehaviour, including inappropriate touching and bullying.
One of the allegations involves a strong reaction to the sight of posters featuring male models. “He is alleged to have said: ‘Take down this gay s**t, this isn’t the gay s**t I want in the building.’ He then started to rip the posters down from the display, the source claimed, before telling others to help because some were out of his reach,” the Guardian reported, quoting an unnamed source.
Sir Philip Green and Kate Moss pictured on April 2, 2009 in New York City. (Andrew H. Walker/Getty)
Other sources claimed they saw Sir Philip “repeatedly slapping employees’ bottoms” and pinching “the cheeks of men and women who work for him,” as well as using “patronising language when speaking to women.”
A number of female journalists who have had to deal with Sir Philip as part of their jobs, like Evening Standard columnist Emily Sheffield and The Telegraph retail editor Ashley Armstrong have also recalled his “patronising” and “dismissive” behaviour in pieces published in the past week.
Sir Philip has “categorically and wholly” denied allegations of “unlawful sexual or racist behaviour.” In an interview to The Mail on Sunday on October 27, Sir Philip characterised his behaviour as “banter.”
Sir Philip Green the owner of Topshop poses with Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun Mei at the opening of the new Topshop store on June 6, 2013 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (Jessica Hromas/Getty)
Tracked down by reporters in Arizona earlier this week, Sir Philip dismissed claims from lawyer Nancy Dell’Olio that he offered her money to spend the night together as a “blatant lie,” telling one of the journalists: “Oh yeah, I’m going to proposition you actually, I’m going to turn gay in a minute. You can write that down how’s that?”
Sir Philip was named in the House of Lords on October 24 as the businessman who won an injunction against The Daily Telegraph, preventing the newspaper from publishing an investigation into a series of non-disclosure agreements the businessman signed with people who accused him of sexual harassment, racist abuse and bullying in the workplace.
Fashion editor Anna Wintour and Sir Philip Green attend the 2014 Spring-Summer London Fashion Week at Kensington Gardens in London on September 16, 2013 (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty)
The Telegraph wrote about the injunction in a cover story titled “The British #MeToo scandal which cannot be revealed” on October 23, prompting Lord Hain to use his parliamentary privilege to name the man behind the story.
Despite his identity being revealed, few people have publicly come forward to denounce Sir Philip—none of the celebrities that have often been pictured with the Topshop tycoon in the past have commented on the allegations.
A former Topshop boss, Jane Shepherdson, described Sir Philip as a “bully” during an even hosted by The Telegraph on Wednesday (October 31). When she was asked about celebrities’ silence on the allegations against him, she said: “He’s a billionaire. Money talks.”
