"Madonna was obsessed with me," says supermodel who claims the pop star 'stalked' her and fantasized about her for two years
Amanda Cazalet had quite an experience after she met Madonna. In an exclusive interview with The Sun, the supermodel recalls how their first meeting led the singer to stalk her for two years with love letters. “Madonna became obsessed with me. What she did would now be classed as stalking and how she treated me would now be seen as inappropriate," she said. “At the time I wasn’t offended but, looking back, I realize I was taken advantage of by someone who, at the time, was my boss.” Madonna spotted Amanda when she was modeling for fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier in Paris in 1990. Madonna had gone to the show to find herself a model who would be fit to star alongside her for her next single 'Justify My Love'.
“Jean-Paul and Madonna were friends so when she was looking for models she came to his show. I wasn’t a fan but I was flattered to be picked," Amanda recalled. While Amanda had been modeling for a long time, the shot at the scene was quite different from the one she had seen before. “It was a strange job. I’d been modeling for six years by then but it was the first time I’d been on a set like that," she said. “Madonna hired the entire floor of the hotel, where we all stayed and the shoot took place there, too. I was paid just under £5,000 for the three days.”
When the video of the song came out, it was labeled as controversial. The video showed Madonna walking into a room after a long day at work and then getting seduced by a man and a woman, who was Amanda. “I went into the room where it was being filmed and was told to start making out with her on a bed. Madonna and I were very close, our hands were all over each other," she recalled. “I wasn’t offended, back then I was bisexual and I was acting, being paid to do a job. I had no hang-ups about my sexuality."
However, things took a different turn once they started filming. “But we started to kiss and Madonna suddenly puts her tongue in my mouth. I carried on, I was being professional and she was my boss," she said. It was not part of the job description though, and I was put in a position where I couldn’t do anything about it.” The video was banned from several platforms, including MTV. This was also the time when Madonna had divorced Sean Paul after the pair was married for four years and was flaunting her bisexuality.
It wasn't six months after Amanda was back in Paris that she realized Madonna had fallen for her. She claims: “I went to Jean-Paul Gaultier’s office and there were a load of faxes from Madonna to me — love letters. Madonna said, ‘I find you attractive, I fantasize about kissing you again’. She said she wanted to meet me. And there was her own number and address on there," she said. “I was settled down in a relationship with a man but I was flattered. It was cool to have Madonna desperate for you.”
But Amanda was not allowed to keep the faxes. “He didn’t give them to me, just showed them to me. Even though they were my property I wasn’t allowed them," she explained. "The next time I went over to see Jean-Paul a few months later there were more faxes. There were about six in total. I was surprised she was carrying on when I’d not responded. They were all the same, telling me she wanted to see me, telling me how she fancied me, how she wanted me to get in touch. I was never offered them to take away and I didn’t feel in a strong enough position to ask for them.”
While Madonna's attempts to ensure that Amanda responds to her failed, she made sure that the other letters were hand-delivered to her. “Amanda, How are you? Where are you? Why don’t you call me . . . ? Getting in touch with you is like trying to seduce the Pope!” the model recalls the letter. Madonna requested Amanda to come to the US. "You have to send me pictures, lots of them. I think you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I’m dying to kiss you again. I fantasize about you all the time," the letter read.
“I cannot explain my attraction — nevertheless it’s there. I’m attracted to very few women in this way," it continued. "I wish I could see you . . . please write . . . or call . . . or fax . . . ” Madonna leaves her phone number and address on the letter before signing off: “Love & kisses, M.” This was not the end of the story for Madonna. The singer even contacted Amanda's agency to come to the cinema with their mutual friend Steven Meisel.
“I was flattered. We met at her hotel, the beautiful large suite was full of models," she said. “Madonna made a beeline for me. I remember I was wearing a little black dress and she smiled when she saw me. She had arranged cars for the cinema and said I had to go with her and her driver. It was our first time alone together in the back of the car. She poured her heart out to me. There was no mention of the letter or faxes but she talked about her dad, her brother, losing her mother. She said how much she admired me for my modeling. She seemed lonely and needed someone to talk to, be with, be open with."
She continued, "We all crept into the cinema. She sat next to me and in the middle of the film put her hand on my leg and whispered softly, ‘I find you attractive, does that faze you?’ I replied, ‘That doesn’t bother me at all’, to make it clear she wasn’t freaking me out but left it at that. She finally took the message — I had no intention of pursuing things.” This was the last time the two met each other. Soon after this Amanda left the modeling industry as she started seeing the dark side of it. Unfortunately, that left her with very little money and in order to earn some, she sold the letters written to her by Madonna for £4,000 in a private deal. Now that collector is re-selling it an online auction and it wasn't something Amanda ever wanted. “I never intended this to go into the public arena. I handled this with dignity and didn’t want to expose Madonna — even after the way she treated me," she said.