The New Paper on 4 May 2007, part 3

source: The New Paper, 4 May 2007, pages 8 and 9

4 May 2007
The New Paper, page 8 and part of page 9

GAY DEBACLE IN UK 

Browne has my sympathy, says lover's ex-lover 

THE GRAY DILEMMA 

Ex-BP boss split from gay lover allegedly because of latter's anxiety

It seems Mr Jeff Chevalier has lots of charm.

And the men he got involved with have lots of money.

The 27-year-old Canadian had a four-year affair with Lord John Browne, chief executive of BP, who has resigned after losing a court battle to keep the details out of the press.

Lord Browne, 58, took him on expensive jaunts and shopping binges, and they would rub shoulders with the likes of singer Elton John and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Yet, Mr Chevalier had little in the way of an education or steady employment, The Globe And Mail reported.

'He wasn't cheap,' the paper quoted Mr John Trickey, 48, a former lover of Mr Chevalier's, as saying.

And if the flow of money dried up, he could be mean.

After his relationship with Lord Browne ended last year, Mr Chevalier issued a 'thinly veiled threat' that he would embarrass the oil tycoon, according to court papers.

Mr Chevalier alleges that Lord Browne used BP money to support him, and shared company secrets.

Lord Browne denies those allegations. And BP chairman John Sutherland has said that the company has investigated the allegations and found them baseless.

Mr Trickey believes he is somewhere in Toronto, living with his brother.

A sister, Miss Courtney Chevalier, 21, said it had been a culture shock for her brother, who had a modest upbringing.

She said Lord Browne was extremely generous. 'Jeff had free reign of John's credit card,' she said.

Miss Chevalier said she regularly visited the couple at Lord Browne's three English homes and one summer accompanied them to Venice.

'Jeffrey even saw Elton John's place in Venice.

He said it was amazing.

Tony Blair was often at some of the parties my brother went to.'

Mr Chevalier used to be a prostitute.

'At the time I met him, he was 17 or 18 and working as a male prostitute,' Mr Trickey said.

'The first time I paid him 80 Canadian dollars ($110) for sex. That was the only time I paid him, because he moved in with me the very next day.'

He told Mr Trickey that he had been working as a rent boy for four months because he came from a broken home and it was the only way he could make money.

'It broke my heart, and I fell in love with him,' Mr Trickey said.

'He was thoughtful, kind and extraordinarily eccentric; he would never let people look at him while he was eating. He would only ever turn to his right, never the left, when he was walking anywhere, and the whole time we were together, he wouldn't let me go in the kitchen.

'For his 19th birthday I took him on holiday to Britain, and he absolutely loved it. We went to London, Wales and the Cotswolds, and I wasn't surprised when he eventually went back there.'

Their relationship hit the rocks in 2001. Mr Trickey had quit his job with a Toronto TV firm and set up his own company, but it flopped and he became depressed.

'He took me to the balcony of my 12th-floor apartment and told me to jump,' Mr Trickey claimed. 'When I refused, he screamed abuse and tried to push me over. It wasn't a serious attempt to kill me, but it wasn't pleasant.'

Mr Chevalier then moved to England. The two kept in touch at least once every two months.

Mr Chevalier met Mr Browne and started studying business at the University of Westminster in London.

But according to Mr Trickey, the relationship started getting rocky.

 
ECCENTRICITIES

'He told me that John Browne kicked him out because John couldn't stand his eccentricities,' Mr Trickey said.

He returned to Toronto last September and lived with Mr Trickey for a month before heading to Vancouver to stay with a cousin.

The last time Mr Trickey saw Mr Chevalier was in early April. He had returned to the city and the two had a falling out.

It is suspected that Mr Chevalier is in hiding because a newspaper has paid him for an exclusive story about his relationship with Lord Browne. It is reported that the paper is paying his expenses, plus a modest fee.

Mr Trickey said: 'He was cute, smart, one of the most intelligent people you could ever meet. I'm sure it was those qualities which attracted Lord Browne to him.'

The rent boy had grown up in the Etobicoke suburb of Toronto where his mother Maureen, a court stenographer, brought him up, along with his brother Blair and sisters Courtney and Vanessa, after her husband left when Jeff was 8.

His mother 'kicked him out' when he was in his late teens, said Mr Trickey, and he ended up living with an alcoholic aunt, then turned to prostitution.

'He had no real friends here, and when we broke up he went to England, where he met Lord Browne. We stayed in touch and he told me he was with someone else, but it was two years before he told me his boyfriend was Lord Browne.

'Then he told me that he had met Tony Blair and stayed with Elton John and David Furnish in Venice. He mentioned lords and duchesses that he had met, but the names meant nothing to me.'

He said Mr Chevalier had started suffering from anxiety attacks, and he believed part of the reason he had split from Lord Browne was that he was unable to attend functions with him any more because of the panic attacks.

Mr Trickey's sister, Ms Alison Clement, who lives in Boston, believes her brother saved Mr Chevalier's life when he was going off the rails.

She said: 'John helped Jeff turn his life around. He came from a very poor background. But he was very bright with a high IQ and eventually, I believe that high IQ turned to manipulation.'

Mr Trickey alleged: 'He moved out after he accused me of sexually assaulting him. He had fallen asleep on my bed, drunk, then he woke up and tried to break my left arm. Afterwards he told the police I had assaulted him and I was taken away in handcuffs.'

He said Mr Chevalier went to stay with a cousin in Vancouver, where he ended up checking into hospital because of all the pills and drinking. 'Then, two weeks ago, he e-mailed my sister accusing me of being a drug addict.

'He is a different person from the one I first knew. Lord Browne has my sympathy.'

* * * * *

 
4 May 2007
The New Paper, page 9

'Work is the curse of the drinking classes'

Mr Jeff Chevalier has a profile on Facebook, the popular social-networking website.

Soon after the news of MrBrowne's resignation spread, MrChevalier began removing photos from the site.

Even his sister, Ms Courtney Ross, failed to contact him.

She wrote in an e-mail: 'Even I can't reach him at this time.'

According to the entry on his site, Mr Chevalier graduated from Toronto's Martingrove Collegiate Institute in 1997 and studied business and economics at the University of Westminster, London, until last year.

However, the principal at Martingrove Collegiate declined to comment on Tuesday, Toronto's Globe and Mail reported.

His favourite quotes on Facebook include: 'Work is the curse of the drinking classes' and '80percent of success is showing up'.

And his list of so-called activities: Sleeping, eating, breathing, introspecting, convalescing, enumerating and evaluating.

When asked on Facebook about himself, he wrote: 'When I find out I will let you know.'

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reported that he has been a regular contributor on Facebook.

He left a series of intriguing and intimate jottings on his personal page, leaving readers trying to decode any references to his former lover.

In one of his entries he recommends Woody Allen's short story The Whore of Mensa as 'essential reading for anyone who has ever been in a relationship with a neurotic, control freak, self-obsessed, vain person'.

Footnotes

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Addenda

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