Model Defends Her Tale Of The Terry Richardson "Perv" Chat

Felice Fawn, the freelance model/photographer/retoucher who claimed that Terry Richardson asked her for sexual favors, says “The idea that anyone thinks I would make something like this up really breaks my heart and worries me.” She has also shared a screengrab of Richardson’s messages to her.

Fawn published, and then quickly pulled, a post that included a transcript of a conversation she says took place after Terry Richardson contacted her via Facebook. Richardson expressed interest in shooting Fawn, but asked for sex in exchange. Fawn refused, and Richardson’s interest in photographing her vanished.

There are a number of things that seemed strange about Fawn’s account — how did Fawn know she was conversing with Richardson? Why would Richardson be scouting for models on Facebook? Why would the American Richardson use the British spelling of “modelling”? — but most of them could be explained. (In the transcript, Richardson is indignant when Fawn questions his identity and offers to give her his IP address; Richardson, unusually for a fashion photographer, does scout online for non-agented models like Fawn; maybe it was a typo; also, and this is the biggest one, this is Terry “It’s not who you know, it’s who you blow,” “everyone has fun on my shoots,” “tampon tea” Richardson we’re talking about.) Richardson’s office still hasn’t confirmed or denied Fawn’s account of the conversation. We’ve asked them to comment and will update if we hear back.

Fawn did speak to us. She says that Richardson contacted her from this “Official Terry Richardson” Facebook account, which has since been deleted. (Google’s cached copy is here, which in itself only proves that a Facebook account by that name existed in the recent past.) She wasn’t sure how Richardson came across her profile — she had not “liked” his page, though she does “follow” his Tumblr — but said that he contacted her first. After exchanging messages, they began to Facebook chat.

This is a screenshot Fawn says depicts her messages with Richardson — the same screenshot she mentioned having when commenters on her blog greeted her story with skepticism. Richardson first writes her at 8:51 p.m. U.K. time, or 3:51 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Screenshots can be faked, of course, and as a retoucher, Fawn must be skilled at Photoshop.

Here are the emails we’ve received from Fawn, in response to a request for further information that might be used to authenticate her account of the Richardson conversation:

Hey there Jenna,

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, I hadn’t checked my emails in time before you published the conversation. I have absolutely no way of authenticating it was Terry for you; of course if I could, I certainly would! He continued to tell me that his IP was connected to that particular account, and naturally when you’re in a situation like that you certainly don’t want to question someone as famous or indeed renowned as him. I’m a total admirer of Terry’s work, so if it is really him, I’m really upset by the conversation that we had, but if it turns out that it isn’t, I’m certainly beyond relieved!

If it wasn’t him I hope that he addresses who this person is, as they’re obviously on a mission to sabotage his career even further. I hope that it isn’t, and that I can continue to enjoy his work.

Feel free to publish this email if you wish.

Sincerely,

Felice Fawn

And:

Hey Jenna 🙂

Sure! Here is a screenshot of the initial message he sent me: (Attatched to email.)

Here is the Facebook he contacted me from: http://www.facebook.com/officialterryrichardson (It appears to have now been removed.)

If this isn’t Terry Richardson, (which after everything that has happened, I am beginning to believe it isn’t) the real Terry Richardson really needs to be alerted about what this person is doing. He’s incredibly convincing, (perhaps I was quite naive) and he’s obviously either out to further damage Terry Richarson’s reputation, or use his name to do awful things to aspiring young models. It’s quite obvious from the conversation that I had with this man that his intentions are bad.

Please do link people to my blog post, it would be really lovely if I could have my say. The idea that anyone thinks I would make something like this up really breaks my heart and worries me.