Jennifer Arcuri dodges questions on Boris Johnson affair in TV interview
Esther Webber, Red Box Reporter
October 7 2019, 9:00am, The Times
Jennifer Arcuri, a former model and friend of Boris Johnson, said the pair bonded over their love of classic literature and she nicknamed him “Alex the Great” but insisted the former mayor did not intervene to advance her career.
Ms Arcuri, 34, refused to deny they’d had an affair, claiming “it’s no one’s business”, as she revealed details of their relationship for the first time on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Mr Johnson — whose first name is Alexander — came to her flat in east London “a handful of times” and they went out for lunch and drinks, she told the programme, but repeatedly refused to say whether they’d had a sexual relationship.
“It’s categorically no one’s business what private life we had or didn’t have,” she said, insisting that any answer she gave would be “weaponised” against the prime minister.
“Because the press have made me this objectified ex-model pole dancer, I am really not going to answer that question.
“I am not going to be putting myself in a position for you to weaponise my answer. Boris had nothing to do with my other achievements.”
She added: “We tried having drinks out in public or having lunch, it just became too much of a mob show, so I said ‘you just have to come to my office’.” Ms Arcuri said that her office was in her Shoreditch flat.
The American, who is now based in California, explained that she first met Mr Johnson, 55, in 2011, when she gave him her card, and that in a subsequent meeting he asked for her number. He then agreed to take part in several events promoting technology innovation which she organised.
She appeared to acknowledge that his participation was unexpected: “I was a student. I didn’t think he’d come but he did.”
Mr Johnson is facing questions over a payment of £126,000 of public money to Ms Arcuri’s technology businesses and how she obtained places on three overseas trade missions with him.
Friends of Ms Arcuri have claimed that she was having an affair with him, according to The Sunday Times.
Ms Arcuri said Mr Johnson “asked me to show him a few things” on the pole she had in her London home.
Describing the kit as a “conversation starter,” she said she and Mr Johnson “always had a laugh about it”.
“The pole stood in the living room, yes, he saw the pole.”
When asked directly whether Mr Johnson had ever used the pole, Ms Arcuri said: “I’m never going to tell you that.”
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that Mr Johnson allegedly wrote a letter when he was mayor of London in 2012 recommending Ms Arcuri, then a 27-year-old student, for a position as head of what is now the Tech Nation quango. She was also alleged to have named him as her reference on her CV.
She denied ever speaking to the then mayor about sponsorship or lobbying him for financial help. “I’d never put him in that position,” she said, adding: “The reason why they [technology event organisers] liked me is because I had big mouth, a huge network, and the biggest work ethic.”
She maintained that he had never written a letter of recommendation for her.
She also denied that he had pulled strings to bring her on overseas trade missions. She claimed she had been properly vetted by Mr Johnson’s team and “they chose me because of who I was”.
Ms Arcuri and her British husband, Matthew Hickey, were awarded a £100,000 government grant in January to help cybersecurity businesses in England. An inquiry has been ordered into the grant, of which £53,000 has now been frozen.
She said today that Mr Johnson “had nothing to do with my grant”.
Ms Arcuri said she stopped regularly speaking to Mr Johnson when she became pregnant at the end of 2016.
When asked whether the prime minister had made contact with her since the story hit the headlines, she said: “I think Boris has enough on his plate right now.
“Three years ago, he told us Britain needs to leave the EU and I wish him all the best with that.
“I want him to stay focused on the job. I don’t need him right now, Britain needs him right now.”