Gaddafi Gets German Supermodel Fired from the Grave
Lifestyle | November 1, 2011, Tuesday // 12:38| viewsGerman supermodel Vanessa Hessler. Photo from celebs101.com
23-year-old model Vanessa Hessler has been fired from a German company for her attachment to the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Telecommunications firm Telefonica Germany and its subsidiary Alice have stopped working with Hessler and have removed her face from its website, spokesman Albert Fetsch has announced, as cited by The Telegraph.
"Vanessa Hessler has failed to distance herself from her comments on the conflict in Libya," explained Fetsch the reason for firing the top model.
Hessler had been the company's advertising face for years, and giant posters featuring the model were a fixture in many German cities, The Telegraph points.
Hessler told the Italian magazine Diva e Donna that for four years she had been dating Muatassim Gaddafi – who was captured and killed in Libya alongside his father in October.
Muatassim Gaddafi's dead body was "exhibited" by the Libyan rebels together with that of his father Muammar Gaddafi in a commercial freezer in the town of Misurata for several days before they were buried in a secret location in the Libyan desert.
"I didn't have any contact with him since the uprising broke out, but our relationship was one of passion," she was quoted as saying by the magazine. "The Gaddafi family is not as they are being depicted, they are normal people."
The model-turned-actress also said that she was crying for Libya, adding that the rebels are "people who don't know what they're doing."
Talks between Telefonica and Hessler's agency did not yield a solution because Hessler stood by her comments, said Fetsch, adding, "We and our clients have no comprehension for what she said."
Her face will be successively removed from all Alice PR material, he added. Telefonica Germany is a subsidiary of Spain's Telefonica S.A.
In August, Talitha van Zon, another model and ex-girlfriend of Muatassim Gaddafi, was evacuated from Libya to Malta. She then said that their three-month relationship had ended years ago but that they remained friends, The Telegraph recounts.
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