The Dark Reality of Working for Royalty
3 minute read
Princes, partying and prostitutes… As a professional acrobat my job has provided me backstage access to the most elite parties in the world and what money can truly buy you.
At 19 years old I was travelling the globe full time on my own, from Austria to Australia, averaging 60 international flights per year. One afternoon I was called up and requested to perform in the Maldives over the next week, for a foreign Prince’s party. Before I agreed to the event I made one thing clear to the entertainment booker – ‘I’m an acrobat. I wear my costumes and I perform only my handstand act’. They laughed. ‘It’s ok – he’s flying out 150 escorts to the island, so you won’t be needed for anything other than your act’. Shocked but reassured, I agreed to the adventure and was on the plane within 24 hours.
Upon arrival I was forced to immediately sign an NDA (hence why I’ve not named the Prince or his country of origin) and was made to hand over my phone before entering any party. If you think my act was unusual, I was joined by an array of eccentric performers – from girls who swallowed swords, to seven dwarves and a very sexy Snow White. I even witnessed an eight foot robot shoot lasers from its… body parts.
On this particular night the Prince insisted on a beach party surrounding the hotel pool. Ten tons of sand was shipped inside with entire palm trees uprooted and replaced. An artificial beach party… despite being on a luxury island surrounded by beach. This was also the first time I was exposed to drugs, with silver platters brought around carrying a variety of shapes, sizes and doses. Although this became something of a norm in my career, I have never taken a drug in my life. As you’ll read, my life has always been entertaining enough without it.
As my performance began I was quick to spot the ‘escorts’, who played in the pool alongside the Prince’s friends, dressed in nothing but their intoxicated smiles. They were made up of some familiar faces from Instagram, a former Miss Ukraine and a famous tennis player who was most definitely enjoying the match. I was later informed by a member of staff that 50 of the 150 escorts did not make it to the party as they failed the STD test. After some of the scenes I witnessed that night, I’m sadly unsurprised by what is now coming out in the media with the Epstein case. Let me assure you, he’s not the only one.
As the night progressed things only became more intense. This party made the Wolf of Wall Street look tame.
And yet the one thing I was here for… was the one thing missing. Where was the Prince? Rumours started to spread faster than the alcohol consumption. According to some he was dead, or to others he’d never arrived and we were part of a new reality TV show. Perhaps he was the real life Jay Gatsby? Despite the missing ingredient, the show went on and I performed for an audience who were too wasted to watch and at around 3am made my way back to my room.
I strolled the corridors of a hotel (literally) fit for royalty and as the electronic music faded I was greeted with a sound so far removed from what I’d just experienced – the keys of a piano. The melody crept through a door, left ajar, to what appeared to be a ballroom. Like a child to the Pied Piper, I was magnetised to the music and the one who was behind it. I gravitated closer and as I peaked through the gap – I saw an empty room with none other than the Prince and the piano.
Here was someone who could have the world… but wanted none of it. In that moment I realised that being rich has nothing to do with money. I left the scene in silence in fear of being caught and spoke nothing of it until I was safely back in the UK. The next day the Prince decided to cancel the following week of parties he had planned and all of us on the island were still payed in full to enjoy the beauty of the Indian Ocean. It’s said that he had spent $20M on the week.
Throughout my career I have worked for some of the wealthiest people in the world. Some of them have been the nicest and most generous souls I’ve ever met, whilst others have been debaucherous and power hungry. The difference was never how much money they had, but what they made of it. Money, in the right hands, has the value to change the world.
