Private jets, chefs and but­lers, din­ners with the PM, the opera with Princess Michael and per­sonal tours of the Lou­vre: how a rent boy found him­self en­joy­ing the BP cor­po­rate lifestyle – and how it be­came all too much

AT THE time it all seemed too much – too plainly far-fetched – for Jeff Che­va­lier to take in. But here he was, a 25-year-old once-pen­ni­less Cana­dian male pros­ti­tute, sit­ting down to din­ner with the Prime Min­is­ter of Great Bri­tain. And the two men were lib­er­ally help­ing them­selves from a £3,000 bot­tle of claret.

The wine was the per­sonal choice of Lord Browne of Mad­in­g­ley – the boss of Bri­tish Pe­tro­leum, Bri­tain’s most se­nior busi­ness­man and host of the din­ner party in ques­tion.

The wine was the per­sonal choice of Lord Browne of Mad­in­g­ley – the boss of Bri­tish Pe­tro­leum, Bri­tain’s most se­nior busi­ness­man and host of the din­ner party in ques­tion.

‘ Mr Blair didn’t know what it was but he ab­so­lutely loved it,’ Mr Che­va­lier re­calls. ‘It was a 1983 French claret.’

Lord Browne had orig­i­nally met Mr Che­va­lier through a male es­cort agency; now the pair were part­ners. The ty­coon had in­stalled the young Cana­dian in his £5mil­lion Chelsea apart­ment and was show­ing him off to the cream of Lon­don so­ci­ety.

The cosy din­ner for Tony Blair in the sum­mer of 2005 came amid a seem­ingly end­less mer­rygo-round of din­ners, lunches, soirees and par­ties that Mr Che­va­lier was sum­moned to by his ty­coon lover, 34 years his se­nior. He was flaunted be­fore busi­ness and po­lit­i­cal con­tacts, diplo­mats and artists; there were hol­i­days in private com­pounds in Bar­ba­dos and opera in Salzburg and Venice (en­joyed along­side Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in their private box). In Venice, Mr Che­va­lier would find him­self chink­ing glasses with El­ton John and Jude Law.

The cosy din­ner for Tony Blair in the sum­mer of 2005 came amid a seem­ingly end­less mer­rygo-round of din­ners, lunches, soirees and par­ties that Mr Che­va­lier was sum­moned to by his ty­coon lover, 34 years his se­nior. He was flaunted be­fore busi­ness and po­lit­i­cal con­tacts, diplo­mats and artists; there were hol­i­days in private com­pounds in Bar­ba­dos and opera in Salzburg and Venice (en­joyed along­side Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in their private box). In Venice, Mr Che­va­lier would find him­self chink­ing glasses with El­ton John and Jude Law.

Travel would rou­tinely be by private jet – which the busi­ness­man ap­peared to re­gard as a private play­thing.

To­day, in an exclusive in­ter­view in The Mail on Sun­day, Jeff Che­va­lier gives a stun­ning ac­count of the ex­trav­a­gance of life at the top of BP. His tes­ti­mony will raise im­por­tant ques­tions about Lord Browne’s taste for the high life – to­gether with his ea­ger­ness to lav­ish com­pany largesse on his young lover, and the ac­cess that Mr Che­va­lier was thereby granted to priv­i­leged in­for­ma­tion.

Iron­i­cally, all their sleep­less so­cial­is­ing was to end up ex­act­ing a cruel per­sonal toll on both men. The pres­sures of keep­ing up with the £8-mil­liona-year Lord Browne and his friends wore Mr Che­va­lier out; he felt in­creas­ingly jit­tery and out of his depth and was ul­ti­mately de­liv­ered to the brink of a ner­vous break­down. And then the cou­ple fell apart.

Iron­i­cally, all their sleep­less so­cial­is­ing was to end up ex­act­ing a cruel per­sonal toll on both men. The pres­sures of keep­ing up with the £8-mil­liona-year Lord Browne and his friends wore Mr Che­va­lier out; he felt in­creas­ingly jit­tery and out of his depth and was ul­ti­mately de­liv­ered to the brink of a ner­vous break­down. And then the cou­ple fell apart.

The Mail on Sun­day is pro­hib­ited by court or­der from dis­clos­ing the de­tails of Lord Browne’s din­ner-ta­ble con­ver­sa­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter. This is a shame, since the en­counter casts re­veal­ing light on the two men – and on the over­lap that ex­ists be­tween their busi­ness and their per­sonal re­la­tion­ships. Both pre-em­i­nent in their fields, they made use of each other for the ben­e­fit of their re­spec­tive or­gan­i­sa­tions – and then, per­haps, for the ben­e­fit of them­selves. We can say, how­ever, that Mr Blair was in re­flec­tive mood, and mused on life af­ter Down­ing Street. Lord Browne lis­tened sym­pa­thet­i­cally and of­fered sug­ges­tions.

The din­ner took place just a few days be­fore Mr Blair and his wife Cherie flew off to Sin­ga­pore for some last-minute cham­pi­oning for Lon­don to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Cherie did not at­tend the meal. But Anji Hunter, who had been Tony Blair’s ‘gate­keeper’ be­fore leav­ing to work for Lord Browne at BP, was in­vited.

The din­ner took place just a few days be­fore Mr Blair and his wife Cherie flew off to Sin­ga­pore for some last-minute cham­pi­oning for Lon­don to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Cherie did not at­tend the meal. But Anji Hunter, who had been Tony Blair’s ‘gate­keeper’ be­fore leav­ing to work for Lord Browne at BP, was in­vited.

Mr Che­va­lier re­called: ‘I re­mem­ber be­ing re­ally ner­vous, par­tic­u­larly when six se­cu­rity of­fi­cers came around to sweep the flat the pre­vi­ous day.

‘Then they came back with Mr Blair the next evening. I re­mem­ber they sat in the kitchen with Barry the but­ler while we all had din­ner.

‘John was scrupu­lous about when th­ese meals be­gan and ended – they would usu­ally go on for no longer than two or two-and-a-half hours, a lit­tle like a board meet­ing.

‘We shook hands and were in­tro­duced in the draw­ing room. We stood there chat­ting in a group of four. I re­mem­ber look­ing at Mr Blair and think­ing that he hides his ex­tra weight re­ally well. He also has the eyes of some­one who never sleeps. He was also taller than he looked on TV and there was a slightly re­li­gious tone to the con­vic­tion with which he spoke about things. On speak­ing to me, Tony would call me by name and clar­ify for my sake cer­tain things which were said re­gard­ing busi­ness and pol­i­tics which I might not have un­der­stood.

‘We shook hands and were in­tro­duced in the draw­ing room. We stood there chat­ting in a group of four. I re­mem­ber look­ing at Mr Blair and think­ing that he hides his ex­tra weight re­ally well. He also has the eyes of some­one who never sleeps. He was also taller than he looked on TV and there was a slightly re­li­gious tone to the con­vic­tion with which he spoke about things. On speak­ing to me, Tony would call me by name and clar­ify for my sake cer­tain things which were said re­gard­ing busi­ness and pol­i­tics which I might not have un­der­stood.

‘When busi­ness be­tween Tony and John got a bit more private, Anji spoke with me to al­low the two to talk. He shook my hand good­bye and said that it was nice to meet me – and called me by my name again, which I ap­pre­ci­ated.’

Mr Che­va­lier found him­self on the Blair Christ­mas card list – the hand­writ­ten greet­ing go­ing out ‘to John and Jeff’. And, so long as he re­mained favourite at the court of the ty­coon nick­named the Sun King, the rest of Euro­pean so­ci­ety was equally ea­ger to be­friend Mr Che­va­lier.

Home for the young Mr Che­va­lier was Lord Browne’s stun­ning Lon­don apart­ment, which oc­cu­pied the whole floor of a build­ing in Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. And when the pair were not en­ter­tain­ing in Lon­don they were hav­ing din­ner par­ties for other friends and busi­ness as­so­ciates at the peer’s £3mil­lion home in Cam­bridge and lux­ury flat in Venice. Mr Che­va­lier was given the use of his boyfriend’s per­sonal but­ler Barry, his driv­ers, and the peer’s share of a private jet.

Home for the young Mr Che­va­lier was Lord Browne’s stun­ning Lon­don apart­ment, which oc­cu­pied the whole floor of a build­ing in Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. And when the pair were not en­ter­tain­ing in Lon­don they were hav­ing din­ner par­ties for other friends and busi­ness as­so­ciates at the peer’s £3mil­lion home in Cam­bridge and lux­ury flat in Venice. Mr Che­va­lier was given the use of his boyfriend’s per­sonal but­ler Barry, his driv­ers, and the peer’s share of a private jet.

The Cana­dian said: ‘I was made com­fort­able in all the homes by the staff and by John. When I broke a rock crys­tal wine glass that had cost over £2,000 I was not made to feel bad about it. Since ev­ery­thing sur­round­ing me cost so much I could not help but feel out of place de­spite re­as­sur­ances.

‘I re­mem­ber the in­te­rior re­dec­o­ra­tion of the Cam­bridge house ap­peared in the US Ar­chi­tec­tural Digest in 2004 with Lin­ley’s for­mer as­sis­tant Tim Gosling cred­ited as the main de­signer.’

Au­gust would be spent in Venice: Lord Browne bought an apart­ment in a sump­tu­ous palazzo built in 1475 on the Grand Canal, and used El­ton John’s ar­chi­tect to fit it out.

WE AT­TENDED the open­ing of La Fenice, the Venice Opera house which burned down in 1996 and was re­built at a cost of over €1bil­lion. Twelve hun­dred guests were in­vited and we had prime seats,’ says Mr Che­va­lier. ‘I re­mem­ber Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in­sist­ing John come to their box to watch the sec­ond act.’

Mr Che­va­lier would meet Princess Michael on sev­eral oc­ca­sions at La Fenice – al­though she never seemed to quite work out who the young Cana­dian ac­tu­ally was.

‘She said to me, “You must be a bril­liant pi­anist”,’ he says. ‘I said I was not and she replied, “Well, what­ever you do I am sure you are bril­liant.”’ At the same time there were in­tro­duc­tions to Ro­mano Prodi, the Prime Min­is­ter of Italy, and many other Euro­pean no­ta­bles.

‘She said to me, “You must be a bril­liant pi­anist”,’ he says. ‘I said I was not and she replied, “Well, what­ever you do I am sure you are bril­liant.”’ At the same time there were in­tro­duc­tions to Ro­mano Prodi, the Prime Min­is­ter of Italy, and many other Euro­pean no­ta­bles.

In Venice the pair would head for the pool at the exclusive Cipri­ani ho­tel. But this too be­came yet an­other set­ting for net­work­ing – and the am­bi­gu­ity of Mr Che­va­lier’s po­si­tion be­gan to gnaw away at him.

‘It was stress­ful for me as I could not re­lax around a pool where ev­ery­one knew ev­ery­one and would con­stantly in­ter­rupt our re­lax­ation,’ ex­plains the Cana­dian. ‘ Lady McAlpine, David Fur­nish and El­ton John, US Con­gress­men and Sen­a­tors, the heads of Cor­po­ra­tions, Jude Law and Si­enna Miller and count­less other no­ta­bles would approach us – or on rare oc­ca­sions we would approach them – and th­ese pool af­ter­noons would turn into busi­ness meet­ings, al­beit on a ca­sual level. There was no en­joy­ment in sit­ting by the Cipri­ani pool in the com­pany of John be­cause of the con­stant in­tru­sions.’

Trav­el­ling with Lord Browne usu­ally meant go­ing by private jet, as the Labour peer was not a fan of trav­el­ling on com­mer­cial air­lines. Even when given five-star treat­ment by lead­ing car­ri­ers, Lord Browne

Trav­el­ling with Lord Browne usu­ally meant go­ing by private jet, as the Labour peer was not a fan of trav­el­ling on com­mer­cial air­lines. Even when given five-star treat­ment by lead­ing car­ri­ers, Lord Browne

Was con­stantly mon­i­tor­ing whether some other VIP was re­ceiv­ing greater pam­per­ing than him.

Mr Che­va­lier says: ‘ John and I would usu­ally get 1A and 1B seats in Club Class or First Class on Bri­tish Air­ways. The air­line’s Spe­cial Ser­vices would es­cort us from our car out­side Gatwick or Heathrow and fast- track us to the First or Emer­ald Lounge. We would then be given the op­tion to ar­rive ei­ther first or last on to the plane and be per­son­ally es­corted by Spe­cial Ser­vices. De­spite this, John still felt it a bur­den to fly com­mer­cial. When we did not have 1A and 1B on a BA flight, John would want to know why we didn’t get the prime seats.

‘ Of­ten it would be some­one he knew in 1A, and he took it per­son­ally that he had not been given the seat. Once we had no clue who was in the seat and John de­manded to know who it was. He would of­ten ask in ad­vance which seats we had and at­tempt to change them if we didn’t have pole po­si­tion.

‘ Of­ten it would be some­one he knew in 1A, and he took it per­son­ally that he had not been given the seat. Once we had no clue who was in the seat and John de­manded to know who it was. He would of­ten ask in ad­vance which seats we had and at­tempt to change them if we didn’t have pole po­si­tion.

‘Only once did he not mind – when we flew to Bar­ba­dos on Box­ing Day 2004 and Mick Jag­ger was given 1A. He ac­cepted that … ’

Al­though Lord Browne’s celebrity sta­tus was judged to be in­fe­rior to Mick Jag­ger’s, it ap­pears that he was given prece­dence over Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan – who were seated be­hind on the same flight. For his part, Hugh Grant seems to have been in a bad mood.

‘In the BA lounge be­fore we flew off there was Mick and L’Wren Scott and his chil­dren, as well as Hugh and Jemima. Hugh had in­sisted on hav­ing the tele­vi­sions in the lounge turned off as the sports broad­casts were an­noy­ing him,’ re­mem­bers Mr Che­va­lier.

‘Mick’s son was play­ing Uno with his sib­lings and Mick for some time. Mick then in­structed his son to ask ‘that man over there’ (Hugh) to play Uno with him. Hugh didn’t look ter­ri­bly en­thu­si­as­tic – Jemima looked as if Hugh had re­acted neg­a­tively.’

‘Mick’s son was play­ing Uno with his sib­lings and Mick for some time. Mick then in­structed his son to ask ‘that man over there’ (Hugh) to play Uno with him. Hugh didn’t look ter­ri­bly en­thu­si­as­tic – Jemima looked as if Hugh had re­acted neg­a­tively.’

When the hor­rors of pub­lic trans­port be­came too much for Lord Browne, he found the so­lu­tion in a private jet leas­ing ar­range­ment. Mr Che­va­lier said: ‘John con­tacted the head of NetJets Europe and asked for a trial ser­vice, which con­sisted of a cou­ple of free flights.

‘Af­ter that he be­came com­pletely sold on it and pur­chased a NetJets ser­vice, and we would use it for trav­el­ling in Europe. It cost hun­dreds of thou­sands of pounds a year for what amounted to about 50 hours’ travel.’

THE cou­ple at­tended the Opera Fes­ti­val in Salzburg ev­ery year with the banker John Studzin­ski and other friends. ‘Studz’ would also in­vite them to a villa he rented ev­ery Christ­mas and New Year in Bar­ba­dos.

THE cou­ple at­tended the Opera Fes­ti­val in Salzburg ev­ery year with the banker John Studzin­ski and other friends. ‘Studz’ would also in­vite them to a villa he rented ev­ery Christ­mas and New Year in Bar­ba­dos.

‘I re­mem­ber for Studz’s 50th birth­day he threw a lav­ish party on the grand­est of scales which John and I at­tended. Studz booked the en­tire Ho­tel Sacher for the guests and we were en­ter­tained for sev­eral days in a variety of ways,’ says Mr Che­va­lier.

‘He had Maxim Vengerov, the world’s pre­mier vi­o­lin­ist, per­form for us at a lunch and at a church ser­vice where there was a ded­i­ca­tion to Studz and a eu­logy writ­ten es­pe­cially for the oc­ca­sion. The fi­nal night oc­curred in the schloss where The Sound Of Mu­sic was filmed; it was red dresses and tiaras for the women and black tie for the men. The largest fire­works dis­play to take place in Aus­tria took place af­ter­wards – all at Studz’s ex­pense.

‘The cast of Bom­bay Nights per­formed for us to­wards the end of the evening and we were shut­tled back to the ho­tel. It was the grand­est party I could have imag­ined.’

Back in Eng­land Lord Browne and Mr Che­va­lier were also reg­u­lars at the Royal Opera House in Covent Gar­den.

‘John and I would take stall seats, the Di­rec­tor’s Box or the Royal Box at the ROH de­pend­ing on who our guests were. We would at­tend the opera ap­prox­i­mately 10 times a year and would al­ways go with guests – some­times busi­ness, some­times friends. How­ever John has few friends who are not af­fil­i­ated with him in a busi­ness sense, so the con­ver­sa­tions would tend to veer to­wards BP is­sues, busi­ness is­sues or po­lit­i­cal is­sues.

‘In to­tal John would at­tend about 150 so­cial-cum-busi­ness par­ties a year. He would also host din­ner par­ties for about 12-14 peo­ple in Lon­don and Cam­bridge at least once a month. From about 2003 on he would ex­pect me to try to at­tend all of th­ese.’

So­cial con­tacts might be Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan one evening, Ron­ald Lauder of the Estée Lauder dy­nasty the next, or Michael Por­tillo the next. A din­ner and lunch guest was Peter Man­del­son, a for­mer Cabi­net mem­ber and now a Euro­pean Union Trade Com­mis­sioner. He ar­rived for din­ner with his own long-time part­ner, Brazil­ian Reinaldo da Silva.

So­cial con­tacts might be Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan one evening, Ron­ald Lauder of the Estée Lauder dy­nasty the next, or Michael Por­tillo the next. A din­ner and lunch guest was Peter Man­del­son, a for­mer Cabi­net mem­ber and now a Euro­pean Union Trade Com­mis­sioner. He ar­rived for din­ner with his own long-time part­ner, Brazil­ian Reinaldo da Silva.

Mr Che­va­lier re­calls: ‘ There were only the four of us and I re­mem­ber think­ing the mo­ment I met them what an odd cou­ple they were. Peter was very smooth and charm­ing, ap­pear­ing to hang on John’s ev­ery word.’

The non-stop so­cial­is­ing was part

Of the cor­po­rate cul­ture in­stilled at BP by Lord Browne. It seemed, too, that the peer was not above us­ing the pres­tige of BP to get priv­i­leged treat­ment for him­self.

Mr Che­va­lier says: ‘John would also of­ten book or re­ceive in­vi­ta­tions to at­tend private tours of mu­se­ums when they were not open to the pub­lic. We re­ceived a tour of the Lou­vre, just the three of us, John, the guide and me, in April 2005. We had pre­vi­ously done private tours at the Bri­tish Mu­seum, Tate Bri­tain and the V&A but this was the most un­be­liev­able ex­pe­ri­ence.

Mr Che­va­lier says: ‘John would also of­ten book or re­ceive in­vi­ta­tions to at­tend private tours of mu­se­ums when they were not open to the pub­lic. We re­ceived a tour of the Lou­vre, just the three of us, John, the guide and me, in April 2005. We had pre­vi­ously done private tours at the Bri­tish Mu­seum, Tate Bri­tain and the V&A but this was the most un­be­liev­able ex­pe­ri­ence.

‘Most mu­se­ums were in­ter­ested in BP do­na­tions and were more than glad to ac­com­mo­date John’s re­quests for private tours of new ex­hi­bi­tions.’

As they left the Lou­vre, Lord Browne said that BP had no in­ten­tion of mak­ing any do­na­tion to the mu­seum: he had sim­ply wanted a private tour with­out the crowds.

MR CHE­VA­LIER re­calls: ‘ Din­ner at home would of­ten cost more than go­ing to a good restau­rant. Both of us pre­ferred quiet meals at home. We would usu­ally start with a good vin­tage Puligny Mon­tra­chet or Chas­sagne Mon­tra­chet and then move on to a de­cent red, usu­ally Ital­ian.

‘For my birth­day John would usu­ally try to find a good 1979 vin­tage – the year of my birth. John also smokes Epi­cure No 2s at a cost of £20 each, four times a day.’

Ac­cord­ing to Mr Che­va­lier, Lord Browne also saw his friend­ships in terms of peo­ple he could de­rive mu­tual busi­ness ben­e­fit from. This added to the feel­ing that his lover – and there­fore he – were never re­ally off-duty.

‘Most of John’s friends have some busi­ness con­nec­tion in one way or an­other,’ he says. ‘Be­ing born to the fa­ther of a BP worker and then join­ing BP upon grad­u­a­tion from Cam­bridge makes this un­der­stand­able. How­ever it did be­come ap­par­ent over time that vir­tu­ally ev­ery­one he con­sid­ers friends ben­e­fit from him in one way or an­other.

‘Whether an em­ployee, a busi­ness af­fil­i­ate, such as Martin Sor­rell, an art dealer or a mu­seum head, th­ese peo­ple were not ex­actly in the po­si­tion to be a trusted friend. I did learn to trust some of his col­leagues and as­so­ciates but I felt it dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand just who John’s true friends were.’

‘Whether an em­ployee, a busi­ness af­fil­i­ate, such as Martin Sor­rell, an art dealer or a mu­seum head, th­ese peo­ple were not ex­actly in the po­si­tion to be a trusted friend. I did learn to trust some of his col­leagues and as­so­ciates but I felt it dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand just who John’s true friends were.’

And Mr Che­va­lier no­ticed a bitch­i­ness among the su­per-wealthy, too.

‘John and I would see Michael Win­ner on many oc­ca­sions but never speak with him,’ he says. ‘He was cer­tainly loud enough. Whether in Bar­ba­dos, the Cipri­ani or in a restau­rant in Lon­don, we would of­ten en­counter the sound of his voice ru­in­ing the mood of which­ever place we were in. While in Venice he spent a great deal of time dic­tat­ing in­struc­tions and memos to his sec­re­tary on his mo­bile while ly­ing like a beached whale by the pool.’

Sport was also had with Con­rad Black, the for­mer news­pa­per pro­pri­etor now fac­ing trial in Amer­ica for al­leged fi­nan­cial wrong­do­ing, whom Mr Che­va­lier met at a party held by Sir Ron­ald Co­hen, boss of Apax Part­ners ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists, and an ad­viser to Gor­don Brown.

Mr Che­va­lier says: ‘John and I were in­tro­duced to Con­rad Black and his wife Bar­bara Amiel at Ron­nie Co­hen’s 60th in the South of France . The gos­sip from ev­ery­one was “why was Black here?” He was ap­par­ently not on the guest list but he and Bar­bara came as guests of an in­vi­tee. Ev­ery­one spoke of him be­hind his back and as­sumed that Ron­nie had in­vited him. John spoke with him for around 15 min­utes, but had lit­tle chance to get a word in edge­ways.

Mr Che­va­lier says: ‘John and I were in­tro­duced to Con­rad Black and his wife Bar­bara Amiel at Ron­nie Co­hen’s 60th in the South of France . The gos­sip from ev­ery­one was “why was Black here?” He was ap­par­ently not on the guest list but he and Bar­bara came as guests of an in­vi­tee. Ev­ery­one spoke of him be­hind his back and as­sumed that Ron­nie had in­vited him. John spoke with him for around 15 min­utes, but had lit­tle chance to get a word in edge­ways.

‘Con­rad spoke of his in­no­cence like a bro­ken record. Studz, Lord Howard and sev­eral oth­ers re­layed the same in­for­ma­tion – that all Con­rad would dis­cuss was his ‘in­no­cence’. To­wards the end of the con­ver­sa­tion Bar­bara was clutch- ing Con­rad’s leg with her claws. She was clearly not in­ter­ested in hav­ing Con­rad speak with John. We said our good­byes and left their ta­ble. They were the talk of the party and clearly no one at the func­tion – their sup­posed friends – gave any sug­ges­tion that the man might be in­no­cent of what he has been charged with. They were all laugh­ing and mak­ing snide com­ments about him be­hind his back. It was amus­ing to see Con­rad’s peers com­ment­ing be­hind his back that they didn’t be­lieve him.’

Fi­nally, how­ever, the pres­sure of be­ing the part­ner at th­ese busi­ness/so­cial meet­ings be­came too much to bear for Mr Che­va­lier.

HE SAYS: ‘I was open to a lifestyle that peo­ple could only imag­ine about. It was all new to me and for the first few years a nov­elty. But af­ter a while it be­came al­most un­bear­able. Bil­lion­aires re­mem­bered me, but I did not re­mem­ber them. The anx­i­ety grew from not re­mem­ber­ing th­ese no­ta­bles who knew me but whom I did not re­mem­ber. Ul­ti­mately I ex­pe­ri­enced panic at­tacks from the thought of not know­ing to whom I was speak­ing. John could not un­der­stand why his world was so dif­fi­cult for me.

HE SAYS: ‘I was open to a lifestyle that peo­ple could only imag­ine about. It was all new to me and for the first few years a nov­elty. But af­ter a while it be­came al­most un­bear­able. Bil­lion­aires re­mem­bered me, but I did not re­mem­ber them. The anx­i­ety grew from not re­mem­ber­ing th­ese no­ta­bles who knew me but whom I did not re­mem­ber. Ul­ti­mately I ex­pe­ri­enced panic at­tacks from the thought of not know­ing to whom I was speak­ing. John could not un­der­stand why his world was so dif­fi­cult for me.

‘Nei­ther could I com­mu­ni­cate to him the fear I was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing from all the par­ties, din­ners and nights at the opera. John in­tro­duced me to all his ac­quain­tances: friends, co-work­ers, bil­lion­aires, celebri­ties and the like. By 2004 I pan­icked be­fore, dur­ing and af­ter ev­ery func­tion, be­cause the peo­ple I met were so nu­mer­ous and no­table. I lost all abil­ity to func­tion as John Browne’s part­ner. He did not un­der­stand my anx­i­eties and I had no abil­ity to un­der­stand his con­cerns. We were worlds apart and we both grew to re­alise this.

‘Lord and Lady so and so, bil­lion­aire and his wife, the PM and Anji, CEO of Voda­fone or what­ever com­pany. . . it soon be­came too nu­mer­ous for me to re­mem­ber. My me­mory is quite good but, when the likes of Ron­nie Co­hen or Lord Howard re­mem­bered hav­ing met me but I could not re­call hav­ing met them, I suf­fered ex­treme so­cial anx­i­ety. I could not re­mem­ber all the “im­por­tant” peo­ple and that made me feel in­fe­rior.’

Hav­ing bought his young lover at the out­set, it seems that Lord Browne con­tin­ued to be­lieve that he owned him. The perks were stu­pen­dous – but Che­va­lier felt trapped.

His clothes were cho­sen for him. Even the guest lists for his birth­day par­ties were dic­tated by Lord Browne and his staff.

‘Vir­tu­ally ev­ery as­pect of my life was man­aged by other peo­ple,’ he says now.

‘I was un­able to opt out of many func­tions and was told I sim­ply had to go. When I started to try to put my foot down in 2005 over which func­tions I at­tended and did not at­tend – to no avail – it was then I felt like a pup­pet.’

‘I was un­able to opt out of many func­tions and was told I sim­ply had to go. When I started to try to put my foot down in 2005 over which func­tions I at­tended and did not at­tend – to no avail – it was then I felt like a pup­pet.’

Al­though Mr Che­va­lier sought treat­ment for the con­di­tion, noth­ing seemed to work and even­tu­ally Lord Browne ran out of pa­tience at his boyfriend’s re­fusal to at­tend the par­ties be­cause of his med­i­cal con­di­tion. The peer ended the re­la­tion­ship last year – vir­tu­ally cut­ting Che­va­lier off with­out a penny.