Author: BBC News

UNICEF has reported Naomi Campbell’s charity Fashion for Relief to a watchdog after it claimed to be working with the global children’s charity.

Unicef UK told BBC News it had never been a partner of Fashion for Relief, and had not received any funds from an event that was held in 2019 purportedly to raise money for it.

The Charity Commission confirmed it received a “serious incident report” from Unicef in 2022.

Last week, the model was banned from being a charity trustee after the regulator found funds were spent on luxury hotels and spa treatments.

Neither Campbell nor Fashion for Relief have responded to a request for comment about Unicef’s complaint.

Fashion for Relief held a catwalk show and auction at the British Museum in 2019, which it said would raise money for UNICEF and the Mayor’s Fund for London.

But in a statement, Unicef UK said: “We have never held any official partnership with Fashion for Relief and we have never received any funds from the 2019 event.”

The Guardian, which first reported the news, said there were also questions about why the model was billed as a UNICEF “envoy” at an official meeting in 2018 with then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

Unicef said: “Naomi Campbell has never held an official role or title with UNICEF or UNICEF UK and we are in touch with the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office] to understand what happened.”

UNICEF added that an official ambassadorial role “comes after many years of commitment and support to Unicef”.

The charity said it takes fundraising compliance “very seriously”, and reported Fashion for Relief to the Charity Commission “as per our statutory requirements”.

A Charity Commission spokesperson said Unicef’s report “was considered, alongside wider evidence and information as part of our statutory inquiry into Fashion for Relief”.

That inquiry, which published its findings last week, focused on complaints from the Mayor’s Fund for London and the Save the Children Fund, which said they were owed money from Fashion for Relief events.

The inquiry found Fashion for Relief was not passing on as much money as it was supposed to. Instead, funds were spent on hotels, security and cigarettes for Campbell, and other unauthorised payments to one of her fellow charity trustees.

Fashion for Relief has been removed from the register of charities as a result, and Campbell has been banned from charity involvement for five years.

“I’ve just found out today about the findings, and I am extremely concerned,” Campbell, 54, told the AP news agency on Thursday.

She added she was not the person “in control” of the charity.

Two other trustees, Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Chou, were banned for nine years and four years respectively.

More than 100 people are to sue rap musician Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation, a US lawyer has said.

Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee said that some of the alleged victims include minors who were abused when they were as young as nine years old.

“This is an important matter that we intend to aggressively pursue,” Mr Buzbee told reporters.

Erica Wolff, a lawyer representing Mr Combs, said the rapper “emphatically and categorically” denies the allegations, saying they are “false and defamatory”.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Buzbee said he and his team “will leave no stone unturned to find potentially liable parties” in the alleged abuse, or “any individual or entity who participated in or benefited from this egregious behaviour”.

Ms Wolff said in a statement to the BBC that Mr Combs “looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation”.

The legal action is the latest against Mr Combs.

Mr Combs was arrested last week and is facing criminal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. He is currently in federal custody after he was denied bail, which he is appealing.

He has denied all allegations of criminal wrongdoing.

According to Mr Buzbee, who is licensed to practice law in Texas and New York, the total number of alleged victims he is representing is 120, with half of them being men and the other half women who hail from more than 25 states across the US.

He added that 25 of the alleged victims he is representing were minors. This marks the first time that Mr Combs has been accused of sexually abusing children.

The allegations span between 1991 to as recently as this year with the incidents taking place in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, Mr Buzbee said. He added most of the incidents occurred after 2015.

Most of the plaintiffs, he said, allege they were date raped after parties hosted by Mr Combs that were held at well-known venues, as well as private residences and hotels.

Mr Buzbee said the parties were either to mark an album release, or were New Year’s Eve parties and US Independence Day parties. Others occurred at what he said were auditions.

“Many times, especially young people wanting to break into the industry, were coerced into this type of conduct in the promise of being made a star or the promise of having Sean Combs listen to their tape,” Mr Buzbee said.

One man, who was aged nine at the time, alleges he was sexually abused by Mr Combs and his associates at a recording studio in New York while trying to land a record deal, according to his lawyer.

“Had he not been in power, I feel I could’ve been something great. I quit the industry because of what Sean Combs did to me,” he said in a statement via his lawyer.

Another man, who was also a minor at the time, alleged he was told by Mr Combs he would be made a “star”, but he first needed to visit the rapper alone without his parents.

Once in a private area, his lawyer claimed Mr Combs then requested the boy perform oral sex on him.

Mr Buzbee also raised the case of a then-15-year-old girl who alleges she was flown to New York for a party hosted by Mr Combs and was subsequently raped by him and others.

The lawyer claimed there was a clear modus operandi with alleged victims typically being offered “laced” drinks before being sexually assaulted.

“The biggest secret in the entertainment industry has finally been revealed to the world,” Mr Buzbee said. “The wall of silence has now been broken.”

He added that this is not a class action lawsuit and that there will be individual cases filed for each alleged victim.

Andrew Van Arsdale, an attorney at the AVA law group which is working with Mr Buzbee, said his firm had received more than 3,000 phone calls from people alleging abuse by the music mogul.

In addition to the 120 alleged victims, he said his firm were working to vet another 100 cases.

Netflix has failed in its attempt to persuade a judge to throw out a defamation lawsuit brought by the woman who inspired the stalker character in hit series Baby Reindeer.

Fiona Harvey claims the streaming giant told “brutal lies” about her to more than 50 million viewers around the world.

The show, created by Richard Gadd, is billed as “a true story”, but certain key events, like the conviction for stalking, did not happen in real life, the judge concluded.

Netflix said: “We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”

In his ruling, Judge Gary Klausner wrote: “There is a major difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in a court of law.”

There were other substantial disparities between what really happened and what was shown on screen, he noted.

Ms Harvey says also she did not stalk a police officer, sexually assault Gadd, violently attack him in a pub by smashing a bottle over his head and gouging his eyes, or wait outside his home for up to 16 hours a day.

Netflix argued those things should be viewed as “substantially true” because she did arguably similar things in real life.

However, the judge wrote: “There are major differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, as well as between shoving and gouging another’s eyes.”

Gadd’s original stage play was billed slightly differently – as being “based on a true story” – which suggests “certain details were likely false”, the judge wrote.

A Sunday Times article from June quoted TV industry sources as saying Gadd “expressed concerns” with Netflix about presenting it as simply “a true story”.

The fact the company went ahead “suggests a reckless disregard of whether statements in the series were false”, Judge Klausner wrote.

Netflix argued that most viewers would understand the claims made in the show to be “not factual” because it was shot in the style of a drama.

However, the judge disagreed, writing: “While the statements were made in a series that largely has the trappings of a black comedy-drama, the very first episode states unequivocally that ‘this is a true story’, thereby inviting the audience to accept the statements as fact.”

Netflix also said the similarities between the real and fictionalised people were so broad that average viewers would not have been able to identify Ms Harvey as Martha.

“The court disagrees,” the judge wrote. “This is not the typical case where a plaintiff happens to be one of hundreds of people that match a fictional character’s broad characteristics.

“Rather, Martha and Plaintiff [Ms Harvey] have specific similarities that few others could claim to share.”

However, the judge did side with Netflix in some parts of Ms Harvey’s case, dismissing her negligence and gross negligence claims, and her request for punitive damages.

Baby Reindeer has been one of the biggest TV hits of the past year, and recently won six Emmy Awards in the US.

Kris Kristofferson, the award-winning country singer and actor who worked with Johnny Cash and Martin Scorsese, has died aged 88.

A representative said he passed away “peacefully” at his home in Hawaii on Saturday, surrounded by family.

The statement described Kristofferson as “a peacenik, a revolutionary, an actor, a superstar, a sex symbol, and a family man.”

The multi-award winner was known for his songwriting, notably credited for Me and Bobby McGee, and Help Me Make It Through the Night, among others. He also acted in the hit movie A Star Is Born.

A message from his family said they were all “so blessed” for the time they had with him.

“Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” said the message, quoted by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

Born in Brownsville, Texas, on 22 June, 1936, Kristofferson became a leading figure in country music.

“When I got started, I was one of the people hoping to bring respect to country music,” he said, according to the family message.

“Some of the songs I had that got to be hits did that. I imagine that’s why somebody might vote me into a Hall of Fame. I know it’s not because of my golden throat.”

Kristofferson studied writing at Pomona College in California and later went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.

He earned his masters from Oxford in 1960, then returned to the US and joined the army.

He was assigned by the military to teach literature, which he said “sounded like hell”.

In 1965 he visited Nashville, and within two weeks had resigned from his army post and moved to the country music hub to pursue his music career.

The head of the Country Hall of Fame and Museum said he left behind “a resounding legacy”.

“Kris Kristofferson believed creativity is God-given, and those who ignore such a gift are doomed to unhappiness,” Kyle Young wrote on X. “He preached that a life of the mind gives voice to the soul, and his work gave voice not only to his soul but to ours.”

He won three Grammys for best country song, Help Me Make It Through the Night in 1972, and two separate duets with Rita Coolidge (1974, 1976), to whom he was married in the 1970s.

In 1971 Kristofferson debuted as an actor, going on to win a Golden Globe for his portrayal of John Norman Howard in A Star Is Born (1976) opposite Barbra Streisand’s Ester Hoffman.

His acting career saw him take on numerous roles, including in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Lone Star, and the Blade franchise.

In 1985 Kristofferson joined friends Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to form a supergroup called The Highwaymen.

“Every time I look at a picture of Willie and me and John and Waylon, I find it amazing that they let the janitor in there,” he told journalist Mikal Gilmore, referring to his former job at CBS’s Nashville studio.

In 2003, Kristofferson received the Free Speech Award from the Americana Music Association.

A year later, he became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He also received multiple lifetime achievement honours, including from The Recording Academy, the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

Kristofferson is survived by his wife Lisa, his eight children, and seven grandchildren.