Naomi Campbell’s charity was reported to the Charity Commission by UNICEF over a fashion event in 2019, the humanitarian organisation has said.
It comes after the supermodel was banned from being a charity trustee for five years last week, following an inquiry that concluded only a small proportion of money raised by Fashion For Relief went to good causes.
After the findings were made public by the Charity Commission, Campbell said she was “extremely concerned”, that she was “not in control” of the charity, and that an investigation on her part was under way.
Fashion For Relief was dissolved and removed from the register of charities earlier this year.
Campbell at the 2019 event. Pic: AP
Now, humanitarian organisation UNICEF has said it did make a report to the Charity Commission over a star-studded event held during London Fashion Week in 2019.
According to the Guardian, in a brochure for the event on a page displaying the UNICEF logo, Fashion For Relief said funds raised would “support UNICEF’s efforts to provide the essential interventions to protect, save lives and ensure the rights of all children, everywhere”.
UNICEF has said it never held any partnership with Fashion For Relief and did not receive any funds from the show.
In a statement, a spokesperson for UNICEF said: “We take fundraising compliance very seriously and UNICEF UK reported Fashion For Relief 2019 to the Charity Commission, as per our statutory requirements.
“We have never held any official partnership with Fashion For Relief and we have never received any funds from the 2019 event.”
An official ambassadorial role with UNICEF “comes after many years of commitment and support”, the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for Campbell said she “never held herself out as a representative of UNICEF, although she worked with them”.
Details on the Fashion For Relief website say proceeds went to the Mayor’s Fund for London.
Campbell was discovered as a schoolgirl, and she went on to become the first black British model to appear on the cover of British Vogue.
The 54-year-old welcomed her second child, a son, last year, following a daughter born in 2021.