Daily Star | Celebrity bodyguard says many stars didn’t tip him as they ‘don’t have much money’
EXCLUSIVE: Former bodyguard Simon Newton, who has worked for stars such as Bella Hadid and Michael Jackson, suggested that some of the Hollywood elite aren’t as rich as we thought
Hollywood bodyguard Simon Newton has revealed that some of the A-list elite may not be as rich as we think they are.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Star, the former bodyguard – who has worked for the likes of Michael Jackson and Bella Hadid – discussed what it was like working for his celebrity clients. However, it you thought he’d get tipped thousands for protecting the stars, you’d be wrong.
Asked whether he’d been tipped or received a gesture of thanks for his work, Simon explained: “No, celebrities don’t tend to do that. The thing is, with celebrities, people think they’ve got loads of money – some have, but a lot of them haven’t, to be honest with you.”
“People that would tip like that would be people like Middle Eastern royalty, ultra high net worth, families or people like that. They’re in the hundreds of millions, some celebrities are in the three, four, five millions, so in the grand scheme of things they don’t really go round tipping everybody. It’s not the thing to do for some celebrities.”
Newton has worked for many Hollywood clients and adopted a sure fire way to ensure things went smoothly. If someone wasn’t the right fit for him, Simon let them down easy with a simple tactic.
He confessed: “I used to pick and choose who I worked with. If I got asked to work with someone who I thought: ‘Oh, they’re not a good match for me,’ I’d say I wasn’t available. All the people I had were singers and models, but they all knew each other pretty much.”
Luckily he didn’t have to deal with many drunken antics as he often escorted celebrities while they were working: “They were all friends, all went to the same places. A lot of the time I had them for work, I didn’t really have them [for social time]. A lot of it was for work, there wasn’t that much drinking involved with the people I was looking after because it was work.”
“I would just say I’m not available. Yeah, I’d just say [to them] I couldn’t do it!”
Asked what it was like to work with the King of Pop, Simon said: “We got to speak to him a little bit, there was five of us, five security on the job plus all these extra entourage – hair, makeup, wardrobe, managers – we had his children with us as well so we had nannies.
“Michael was quite big so we didn’t get to speak to him that much, not as much as I would do normally to the others [clients],” adding: “He probably was what I expected but he was quite shy, considering he was someone so famous. He was quite softly spoken, he came across as quite shy.”
Original article by Bekka Barnard US TV & Showbiz reporter | To view the original article click here