Do sex-pest allegations mean it’s all over for Mario Testino, the world’s Number 1 celebrity snapper?
An abuse survivors' charity has urged the royals to cut ties with the photographer
EVER since Princess Diana declared a shoot with Mario Testino had been one of the happiest days of her life, the photographer has been beloved by royalty, celebrities and the fashion world.
He made his subjects look not just beautiful, but full of warmth and life, accessible in a way that was revolutionary.
At 63, he was at the pinnacle of his career, feted in exhibitions of portraiture and for charitable work.But now he faces ruin.
Thirteen male models and assistants have come forward claiming the elite snapper threatened to ruin their careers if they did not give in to his sexual advances.
Fashion bibles including Vogue said yesterday they would not work with Testino “for the foreseeable future” following the allegations.
But Kensington Palace and Clarence House have yet to comment on whether he will work for the royals again.
He has done their high-profile portraits for decades, including the engagement of William and Kate and Princess Charlotte’s christening.
Last night abuse survivors’ charity White Flowers Alba said it was time for the royals to cut ties with the Peruvian-born photographer.
A spokesman said: “I am sure the Royal Family will be horrified by these claims about a man who has grown so close to them.
“It’s our understanding that Prince William has a great deal of concern about these issues so he should be giving Testino his P45.”
In accusations about incidents dating back to the mid-Nineties, male assistants and models have told how Testino subjected them to sexual advances including pleasuring himself and groping and fondling them.
Model Ryan Locke worked with Testino on a Gucci campaign in the Nineties.
He told The New York Times: “He was a sexual predator.”
He also claims that Mario had such a bad reputation that when he told colleagues he was set to work with Testino “everyone started making these jokes — they said he was notorious, and ‘tighten your belt’.”
On the last day of the shoot, Ryan claims Testino sent everybody else out of the room as they took pictures on a bed, then crawled on top of him in bed, purring: “I’m the girl, you’re the boy.”
And a former assistant, Roman Barrett, claims: “Sexual harassment was a constant reality.”
He worked with the photographer in the late Nineties. He says Testino rubbed his crotch against his leg and pleasured himself.
Roman said: “He misbehaved in hotel rooms, the backs of cars and on first-class flights. Then things would go back to normal.”
Another young assistant, Hugo Tillman, alleges that on one occasion in a hotel room, Testino demanded the young man roll him a joint before throwing him on the bed and pinning him down.
He claims Mario’s brother then came into the room and forced him to stop.
Hugo quit the job days later.
He said: “I was scared.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Lawyers for Testino say his brother “is adamant that no such incident ever took place”.
And the firm representing the photographer, Lavley and Singer, firmly denied all claims and challenged the characters and credibility of the accusers.
Testino has always dodged questions about his sexual orientation, once saying: “I’ve never wanted to call myself any sexuality.”
In the wake of the allegations, he has been suspended from working with Conde Nast, which publishes Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair.
Their covers have featured countless celebrity portraits by Testino.
Vogue supremo Anna Wintour said in a statement that the allegations had “been hard to hear and heartbreaking to confront”.
It is an astonishing fall from grace for the world’s most lauded photographer, the favourite not just of Diana but also Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.
He helped to discover Kate Moss and Gisele — and once convinced Elton John to get down on all fours for a Vogue shoot so that Liz Hurley could ride his back.
Testino has also maintained a relationship with the royals since he shot to fame in 1997 with those still-instantly recognisable portraits of Diana for Vanity Fair.
His idea was to show her in a new light — not done up in jewels and gowns but natural, human, fun and modern.
They were an instant sensation.
Testino recalled later: “I knew from the start that this shoot was different. It would make us.”
After the session in an old school building in Battersea, South London, Diana wrote to the shoot’s organiser that it had been “one of the happiest days of her life”.
The organiser later recalled: “It showed, I think, in the photos.”
Since then Testino has been a favourite of not just British royals but of royal families around Europe.
It was a long way from Testino’s professional beginnings in 1976, when he arrived in London from Peru to study photography and lived in a grimy doss house.
He said: “I moved into an unconverted floor of a hospital.
“I didn’t have money to eat, let alone get a bus.
“So I have never lost the sense that tomorrow I might not have any work. It took me years to pay off my overdraft.”
The former hospital also housed a hostel for alcoholics and the stairwells stank of urine — but the parties were legendary.
The photographer recalled: “We used to get all the old hospital beds up from the cellar and throw doctors and nurses evenings, with guests dressed up as people who had been in car accidents.”
Testino funded his studies by working as a waiter, before making his first money from photography by flogging portfolio shoots for models at £25 a pop.
He got his first proper job as a snapper in 1983, when he was commissioned to photograph a girl’s haircut for British Vogue.From there he worked his way up the fashion ladder — until the Diana photos transformed his life.
He went on to work for fashion industry elites including Chanel, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana.
Celebrities also clamoured for that distinctive Testino look for big moments in their personal lives. He was Madonna’s choice for her first photo shoot with young daughter Lourdes in 1998.
And in February this year he did the Vogue cover portrait of Serena Williams and baby daughter Alexis.
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Testino was honoured with an OBE in 2013 and as recently as last May was snapping intimate royal portraits, this time of Charles and Camilla to release for the Duchess of Cornwall’s 70th birthday.
His success, he has explained, is in bringing out happiness.
In words that his accusers might now argue with, he declared: “I almost discard those moments — the gloom, the doubt . . . I’m the lighter side of life, joie de vivre.”