“An extraordinary lover,” is the glowing verdict of one of Adnan Khashoggi’s “pleasure wives,” 1980s model Jill Dodd, despite him being over twenty years older than her, and several inches shorter.
He nearly brought down the US government, and his yacht was featured in a James Bond film, then later sold to Donald Trump – who got rid of it quickly, to avoid bankruptcy
Khashoggi, who died in London aged 81 earlier this month, believed that under the law of his birthplace, Saudi Arabia, a man is allowed 11 “pleasure wives” – lovers, essentially – and three legal wives.
Jill was “a 21-year-old child” when she fell into a relationship with Khashoggi in 1980. They had met at a party in Cannes, where the young model thought that the short, balding man reminded her of friend’s father.
The billionaire ended the evening by writing “I love you” in his blood on Jill’s arm.
The next night, Khashoggi invited Jill for dinner on his yacht, where she was given the run of his room full of couture gowns, choosing a grey Lanvin dress for the occasion.
Married for the second time, Khashoggi kept seeing Jill platonically for months, even inviting her to his one-year-old son Ali’s birthday party.
His second wife, Lamia (born Laura Biancolini in Italy, she changed her name and converted to Islam upon marriage), was unsurprisingly cold to her husband’s newest possible love interest.
Khashoggi’s first wife, Soraya, had been at 20, half his age when they married in 1961.
Born Sandra Daly on a Leicester council estate, she took the name Soraya when she converted to Islam to marry Khashoggi.
She gave birth to five of Khashoggi’s children – including Nabila the yacht’s namesake – while another daughter, Petrina, was fathered by Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken.
After a week at Khashoggi’s Marbella compound, waiting for him to arrive in the country, Jill Dodd was woken by him in the middle of the night.
He watched her strip off and take a bubble bath, then made her an extraordinary offer: to become his pleasure wife, and travel to his properties around the world with him.
Jill agreed – and joined the Khashoggi harem. He acted like a default father in some ways, such as paying for her tuition at the Los Angeles Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.
Her lover’s generosity really paid off for her – she would later found the Roxy surf and snowboard clothing brand in the late 1980s.
Jill Dodd’s relationship with the flashy arms dealer didn’t last beyond 1982, as she felt her prime position with his harem slip away, because Khashoggi was turning his attention to newer, younger models.
In her memoir The Currency of Love: A Courageous Journey to Finding the Love Within , Jill, now 57, only has good things to say about Khashoggi.
“I never forfeited my independence, ambition or creative expression when I was with Adnan and have no regrets.
“I’ve learned a valuable lesson: Neither money nor love is worth the sacrifice of integrity, inner peace and authenticity.”
Jill’s education is a rare example of Khashoggi spending money on something that couldn’t be seen, worn or docked in St Tropez.
By the mid-1980s, he had 12 homes across the world, in expensive locations like Cannes, Paris, Madrid and London.
His New York apartment was comprised of 16 flats knocked together to create a super-sized pad.
He also owned a compound in Marbella, which hosted his wildest parties.
The billionaire had 100 limousines, three private jets and a South Korean bodyguard, named Mr Kill.
Khashoggi’s famous yacht, the Nabila (named for his daughter), cost $80m and boasted a disco with laser beams that projected Khashoggi’s face, 11 (that number again) guest rooms, on-board hospital, morgue wit coffins and bulletproof glass.
He loaned his vessel to the makers of the 1983 James Bond Film, Never Say Never Again. The yacht became baddie Blofeld’s headquarters.
Khashoggi’s pampered yet insecure harem of “pleasure wives” only saw one side of his complicated, high-rolling life.
They were not given a peek at how he made the money that bought them diamond rings and Lanvin dresses on tap.
The conspicuous consumption and endless parties featuring free-flowing champagne, unlimited caviar and celebrity pals flown in private jets helped cement Khashoggi’s reputation as the Gatsby of his time.
The intrigue around him helped keep his shady weapons deals firmly in the dark.
Adnan Khashoggi was born in the holy city of Mecca in 1935, one of the six children of the Turkish court doctor to King Ibn Saud.
He went to school in Egypt, then college in California.
Aged 21, he brokered his first major deal, selling $3 million- worth of trucks to Egypt; this netted him $150,000 commission.
Unsurprisingly, after this, Khashoggi didn’t return to college.
Instead, he built his career – and incredible fortune – on the shaky back of freelance deal-making. He called it “merchantry.”
A 1987 Time cover story on the billionaire featured his face, alongside the taglines ‘Those Shadowy Arms Traders’ and ‘Adnan Khashoggi’s High Life and Flashy Deals’.
He did business with the all the main arms dealers: Northrop, Lockheed, Grumman, Chrysler, Fiat, the Westland helicopter company, Rolls-Royce and Raytheon.
He set these companies up with buyers for their military wares: most often, governments.
Moving in these powerful, dangerous circles led to the scandal that cost Khashoggi his place in the global elite.
In 1987, Khashoggi was implicated in a report on the Iran-Contra Affair, the biggest political scandal of the 1980s.
It engulfed engulfed Ronald Reagan’s second administration, and took place from 1985 to 1987.
The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran in exchange for the release of Iranian hostages, and then diverted the proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels.
Adnan Khashoggi was named as a key middleman in this labyrinthine plot, accused of paying bribes.
In 1988, he was arrested in Switzerland and accused of concealing funds.
After three months in prison, Khashoggi was extradited to the US, tried and acquitted.
Scandal continued to dog the disgraced billionaire as the 1980s came to a close.
In 1989, Khashoggi was indicted in New York for sheltering assets for Imelda Marcos, widow of Ferdinand Marcos, the 10th president of the Phillippines.
Both were eventually acquitted from charges of fraud and racketeering.
Khashoggi’s government contacts started fading away as the 1980s moved into the 90s.
He lost his Washington contacts after Reagan left office, and other important clients such as the Shah of Iran and the President of Sudan when they were ousted from power.
In a 1989 Vanity Fair profile of Adnan Khashoggi, Donald Trump told the reporter Dominick Dunne about his purchase of the Nabila, which he renamed the Trump Princess:
“Khashoggi was a great broker and a lousy businessman,” Trump said to me that night.
“He understood the art of bringing people together and putting together a deal better than almost anyone—all the bullshitting part, of talk and entertainment—but he never knew how to invest his money.
“If he had put his commissions into a bank in Switzerland, he’d be a rich man today, but he invested it, and he made lousy choices.”
The 1990s were a decade of decline for Khashoggi, as the court cases starting lining up.
He was having to pay for his excessive decade – for example, he was forced to settle a £10 million gambling debt from a 1986 visit to the London Ritz Casino – in 1998.
He spent the last years of his life between London and Monaco, reportedly living on his last $400 million.
In his final years, Khashoggi evaporated from public view, the champagne-and-caviar parties all over for him.
He was battling Parkinson’s disease when he died at St Thomas’ Hospital in London on 6 June 2017.
He is survived by his second wife Lamia, his third wife Shahpari, his eight children and countless “pleasure wives.”
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