At some point, most of us have probably imagined what it would be like to date someone with a lot of money. You know, that moment when your job is nearly killing you and you think: Wouldn’t it be great to just marry someone with a ton of money and never work again? Well, this woman did date a billionaire. Unsurprisingly, it is not as amazing as it is cracked up to be.
What It’s Really Like To Date A Billionaire
Jill Dodd did a podcast interview with VICE. The former model turned designer discussed at length the time in her life when she dated Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. It was 1980 and Dodd was 20 years old working in Paris.
Dodd says that she never quite reached supermodel status, however, she was finally beginning to appear on magazine covers. She worked really hard to achieve that goal but still didn’t feel overly accomplished or satisfied. What she thought she needed, she explained, was a relationship.
One day, later on, her agent asked her to go with her to Monte Carlo for the weekend. The trip would be completely free – flights and hotel completely paid for. This was something rare in the modeling industry. Dodd explained that normally there’s always a catch. It seemed too good to be true, but an all-expenses-paid weekend in Monte Carlo also seemed like a lot of fun. Dodd decided to take the chance and go along.
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A Weekend In Monte Carlo
The trip started out like a regular weekend getaway. Lounging around the pool, drinking fancy drinks, chatting up new people. Later on, they went to a party.
“That evening, my agent took me by limo to a pirate-themed party overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was a big outdoor event with a bonfire and live gypsy music.” she recalled. “It wasn’t long before I noticed an older man watching me. That might sound a bit pervy, but the man seemed safe for some reason.”
The man approached her and they began dancing together in the sand. They danced and laughed and kept the bonfire going with wooden chairs. They tossed their champagne glasses into the fire, too. Dodd and the man then sat down next to each other at the party table.
“he looked into my eyes and pushed my shirtsleeve up exposing my forearm and wrote “ I love you” in his own blood. Apparently, he’d cut himself smashing glasses. I had no idea who he was but I liked him a lot”
The Mystery Man
Dodd soon found out who the man was. His name was Adnan Khashoggi. He owned several businesses and had multiple properties and mansions all over the world. Khashoggi was famous for his luxury toys. He owned the world’s largest private jet and had a yacht named Nibilia. The yacht, named after his daughter, was also the largest in the world. Producers used it in the 1983 James Bond film. Khashoggi was a billionaire and one of the richest men in the world. As she would later discover, this was largely due to the fact that he was a Saudi arms dealer.
In fact, Khashoggi was one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers who had a bodyguard nick-named “Mr. Kill”. Khashoggi made his first deal at the age of just 21 years old, just after he had enrolled in a California college. He assisted in a deal to sell $3 million worth of trucks to Egypt and earned a $150,000 commission from the sale. Rather than return to college, he continued in this line of work. As the Saudi Royal family began using their oil wealth in the weapons industry, Khashoggi became an invaluable link between them and both American and British arms manufacturers. (2)
His power and influence made him the best dealer around. He could offer whatever the client wanted to convince them to make the deal. His commissions grew higher and higher, making him richer and richer. To sign contracts, he took the yacht out onto international waters where various countries’ restrictions on business deals were non-applicable. His name was behind some of the most controversial arms deals in the world.
Dodd, of course, didn’t really have any way of knowing all of this at the time. After all, it was 1980. The internet did not exist. She couldn’t exactly just Google his name and read all about him. Quickly, however, she got sucked into his glamorous lifestyle.
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The Luxury Life
Dodd saw Khashoggi the day after the party. A few weeks later, he flew her to Spain to see him. There, he asked her to become one of his wives.
“I gave him a very tentative yes, and that’s how I became a chess piece in his inner world,” she said. “At first, the wealth and excess felt new, strange, and intriguing. But over time, I began to expect it.”
Massive diamonds and other precious stones. Couture gowns. Private planes, limos, and chef-prepared food. These things all quickly became the norm in her lifestyle.
“Slowly, I began to crave this lifestyle even when I was away from Adnan. When I was at home in Los Angeles working as a model, I looked for excuses to go fine dining. None of my girlfriends could afford it, so I’d go with a male doctor friend of mine,” she recalled. “I needed to wear couture and be fancy and eat by candlelight in dimmed dining rooms with white linen tablecloths, served by waiters in white uniforms. I got so sucked into it yet was completely unaware of what had happened to me. When I spent time with my close girlfriends, at times, I craved being my fancy self.”
The Fallout
After about a year, however, Dodd began experiencing extreme anxiety. Just like Khashoggi, she was always chasing after the next “high” – she was never satisfied. All of her goals of working hard to make money and build the life she wanted seemed pointless. Then feelings of jealousy began creeping in when she would see gifts and things he was giving other girls. Bit by bit, this began to tear things apart for her. Finally, Dodd reached a point where she realized that she could no longer be with him. She was not happy and this relationship was never going to get her there.
“I’d discovered that chasing happiness via wealth is like running after your own shadow. I realized there was no magic object or amount of money that makes a person feel whole and at peace. Peace isn’t found in objects, power, status, or riches. Long lasting peace can only be found inside and getting there is a very personal journey.”
Dodd has gone on to live a peaceful life and make her own way in the world. She may not be a billionaire, but she is happy. Having learned how to accept her own mistakes and shortcomings and now uses her talents for something she loves and believes in.
So essentially, Dodd learned that the saying is true. Money can buy you a lot of things (and a billion dollars can buy you even more), but it can’t truly buy you happiness. That, as she said, comes from within.
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Sources
- “Dating a Billionaire Seemed Like Fun Until I Tried It.” VICE. Jill Dodd.
- “Adnan Khashoggi: the ‘whoremonger’ whose arms deals funded a playboy life of decadence and ‘pleasure wives’.” Independent. Adam Lusher.