Well-known American businesswoman and former model Jill Dodd has revealed she used to be a "pleasure wife" for a Saudi Arabian billionaire.
Appearing on Australian TV Channel 9 News on Sunday, Dodd spoke about her relationship with Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi billionaire, former arms dealer, and businessman who died in June 2017.
Dodd, the founder of popular surf brand Roxy, said she spent two years as one of Khashoggi's multiple wives in exchange for a life of luxury.
She recalled meeting Khashoggi, most notably known for his involvement in arms dealing, at a party on the French Riviera when she was 21 years old.
"I realized I’d never met such an intelligent, worldly and amusing man as Adnan, a 44-year-old father of five," The Sun quotes her as saying.
"Yes, he had incredible wealth, but he also had a peaceful kind of strength," she explained.
Dodd said she slowly fell "for his charms" and was totally taken away after the businessman wrote a love message on her arm in his own blood.
"He pulled up my sleeve and he wrote 'I love you' I was like oh my god that's blood and I was kind of shocked," she recalled.
"But I thought it was really funny and cute at the same time."
He then invited her to his yacht, the 83m Nabila, which was the world's biggest private cruiser at the time and was later sold to current US President Donald Trump, according to The Independent.
Soon after, Khashoggi asked her to become one of his 11 "pleasure wives" via a five-year contract, claiming that Saudi law allows a man to have up to 11 "pleasure wives".
After she agreed, the couple went on to lead a life featuring high-end parties, sex, and recreational drugs.
"We would lock ourselves in a room for days and we would make love, we would eat, the chef would bring us food, we would do cocaine and sleep when we wanted and not sleep when we wanted," she said, adding that he was "a great lover."
Two years into the relationship, Khashoggi offered to pay her tuition at one of America's top design colleges.
Explaining the technicalities of their arrangement in her memoir, The Currency of Love: A Courageous Journey to Finding the Love Within, Dodd revealed, "[I was] taking turns with other women to have sex with the man I love."
She said he had a compound comprising of several suites and cottages.
"I had my own cottage and Adnan’s cottage or Adnan’s house and a portion of the compound was private," she explained. "So when I saw him, I would be alone with him in his place or he would come see me in my cottage".
While she was often encouraged to have other boyfriends, Dodd said she remained faithful to Khashoggi throughout the relationship.
"I never thought of myself as a hooker [...] and have no regrets"
Sharing her lover with numerous other women "didn’t hit [her] until later," according to Dodd.
"I didn’t think of myself as one of those women but I evidently was."
In her book, she wrote she just wanted to be with him back then and "didn’t care about the details".
She went on to say, "I never thought of myself as a hooker though. I still don’t think that".
However, the polygamy soon began to make her feel uncomfortable. When he made it clear that monogamy was out of the question, the couple split up.
"When I was in my 20s, I had a sense of shame about being with Adnan," she admits. "But I never forfeited my independence, ambition or creative expression when I was with Adnan and have no regrets."
Dodd went on to launch the popular surf brand Roxy and has been married for 18 years.