We’re still talking about Jack Brooksbank and the “yacht” off the coast of Capri. Jack was in Capri late last week for the UNICEF ball, which was a work trip for him as a brand ambassador/director of European relations for Casamigos. Casamigos was one of the sponsors of the UNICEF ball, and Jack was in town with a few attractive female coworkers. Before the charity event, Jack and his coworkers rented a boat and spent a day on the sea. A few of the ladies decided to go topless. Wouldn’t you know, a photographer was there, on another boat, to document the whole thing. It might have been – and probably was – an innocent work-related outing. But the optics were terrible and disrespectful to Jack’s wife, Princess Eugenie. Now one of the topless women is speaking out. Her name is Erica Pelosini Leeman and I am now obsessed with her rich-bitch Instagram (I’m including some of the photos in this post).
A model pictured cavorting topless with Jack Brooksbank on a boat in Capri today said she ‘regrets’ it and apologised for ’embarrassing’ Princess Eugenie. Stunning Erica Pelosini and two bikini-clad models enjoyed an afternoon on the sun-kissed Italian coast on a vintage speedboat with Mr Brooksbank clasping a glass of rose while Eugenie was in Windsor looking after their five-month-old son, August. Eyebrows were raised as the 35-year-old wrapped his arm around Pelsoni’s waist during the cruise around the chic Mediterranean island. And speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Ms Pelsoni said she regretted taking off her bikini top during the excursion.
She said: ‘I usually never go topless, but my bikini got wet and I decided to take it off. I know it does not look right for Jack and his family. I felt very bad for them when I saw the images of him surrounded by three women because his wife was not there. It led people to make improper suggestions and jump to conclusions and it’s very hurtful that people are thinking this. I’m very sorry if I caused any embarrassment to Princess Eugenie and Jack. It wasn’t appropriate for me to be topless.’
Ahead of the UNICEF bash, Jack spent Friday afternoon aboard the classic 26ft ‘gozzo’ boat, exploring the caves and grottos dotted around Capri’s coast. Joining him and Ms Pelosini were Rachel Zalis – a former editor of Glamour magazine who is now Casamigos’s global director, and who soaked up the rays in a black bikini – and Maria Buccellati, a model turned fashion ambassador.
Ms Pelsoni said: ‘Looking at the images, I can understand how they could be misinterpreted. I’m topless, Maria is hugging him, and Rachel is also a very beautiful woman, but people are assuming the wrong things. We were there as friends and work colleagues having a wonderful afternoon in the Italian sun. Jack is a very dear friend of mine and I have known him for a number of years. He’s also good friends with the other two women. It’s very upsetting for me that people could be thinking the wrong things.’
Ms Pelosini revealed that ahead of the ball, she decided to take the group to her favourite restaurant, Lo Scoglio, which is on the Italian mainland on the stunning Amalfi coast. They hired a boat because it is easier to get to it than by road. After a near four-hour lunch, they were returning to their hotel when they decided to stop for a swim.
“I decided to take off my bikini top because it got wet” is a very special kind of excuse/explanation. Imagine if everyone decided to take off their swimwear the second it got wet! At least Erica has the decency to understand that the optics were indeed terrible. There was a lot of European-versus-American arguing about just how accepting Europeans are of topless swimming and all of that. I fought that war before and I don’t care at this point, but it’s interesting that she acknowledges that it looked bad. The topless women were only one part of why this particular incident was pretty skeevy and disrespectful to Jack’s wife.
Photos courtesy of Erica’s Instagram and Getty.
A less charitable view would be that Erica is attempting to extend her 15 minutes of fame.
I am in the less charitable camp!
Same
Uhm, yeah. I can’t really think of any other reason why she would feel the need to apologize for anything. ‘ I’m very sorry if I caused any embarrassment to Princess Eugenie and Jack.’ Wait, what? If anything, it’s Jack who’s causing embarrassment to Eugenie, nobody else.
Yes. And if that’s how she feels, she could do it privately not through the DM.
Interesting she’s posing in one pic next to a boat’s life preserver donut labeled “Eden Roc”. Isn’t that the resort that Pips’s FIL owns??
Oooooh TheOG yes you are right. I saw that and the name sounded familiar to me but I couldn’t place it.
Upon binging though it seems to be a chain.
I have an additional take on this – I think she is trying to milk her 15 minutes, but she can do whatever she wants with her bikini. It’s not her responsibility to keep Jack’s image intact.
Another take is that Casamigos was behind releasing those shots and milking their 15 min as well, any publicity is good publicity etc.
Bingo!!!!
“I should not have been toplessly topless with my naked breasts out and my nipples taught in the coastal breeze, coated in a light dewy mist of ocean spray and sweat, with tousled hair, posing for photographs with a married man…” (Please go look at my IG)
I had the same thought as well.
Non-story but at least Ms Leeman was able to get some money for her exclusive to the Daily Mail.
She reminds me of Sienna Miller…her Instagram IS delightfully decadent…and…to quote the iconic ZZ TOP…
“She’s got LEGS…she KNOWS how to use them…”😝
That’s who I was reminded of too.
I thought she was Rachel Zoe in the thumbnail photo. Her legs are lovely but her facial expressions are frighteningly vacant.
Hasn’t that been “the look” for at least the last 10 yrs of these “models”? That “dead-eyed”, vacant, “nobody’s home upstairs” esthetic of all the nepo-models and instafame wannabes? Geez, even Kate Moss, in her heroin chic days had *something* going on in her expressions.
Perhaps she has lockjaw from an unfortunate tetanus encounter and her mouth actually can’t close.
I strongly feel that the legs are significantly photoshopped. In the boating photos she looked like a normally proportional woman and noticeably shorter than Jack, who himself seems to be only average height. If her legs were truly as long as her Instagram portrays them, she would have towered over him and everyone else on the boat like some kind of enormous praying mantis.
“Some kind of enormous praying mantis“. 😂😂😂
As it happens the female is often larger than the male and often notoriously eats the male’s head while/after mating. Maybe Erica is a maneater.
Yes, she does have nice legs but she’s also got atrocious hammer toes. Ugh.
What does she do for a job and how do I get it? Because I want to spend my summer on yachts and private planes hanging out with Christie Brinkley. (is she a model? if so then I’m out of luck, lol.)
Nice to see that she apologized and explained at least.
I’d guess she’s in the hospitality industry, or at least the version of it that caters to wealthy people.
Maybe she’s a “brand ambassador.”
Whatever her job is called, I’m sure it’s in that amorphous category of employment known as “pretty people hired to make rich old guys look interesting.”
When I read the “I took my bikini off and my top got wet”, I also went “um, aren’t bikinis supposed to get wet?”
She might be trying to extend her 15 minutes by keeping her name in the tabloids OR she might genuinely realise it didn’t look good optics wise and feels bad OR someone told her she needed to apologise hence a weird excuse. (Or she might genuinely be like that).
I thought maybe she was trying to dry off the bikini top for an Insta photo-shoot or something. Although, yeah, logically, a swimsuit should get wet.
No idea about this! But I imagine you would grow out of it as an adult, no? Maybe you don’t or it just stayed with her.
I feel like that makes sense for bottoms/a one piece because that can be somewhat uncomfortable and take longer to dry. The top part would have dried pretty quick and doesn’t get all that uncomfortable. So, even with that habit, it still feels like a weird excuse.
I have been to the beach in Italy with family several times and I have never seen this. Her excuses just make the whole thing sound worse.
We can only speculate about her reasons for an “apology.” I’m just flummoxed by a tiny, flimsy bikini top needing to be removed to dry like a thick pair of wet woolen socks in the cold damp of winter, but also the idea that the optics are troubling partially because he was surrounded by “beautiful” women. So, if he was surrounded by non-model women, would this have been a non-issue? Wait, is she apologizing for being beautiful with similarly beautiful companions, and topless by dire necessity? Surely the best apology is done directly to those hurt, and without pouring fuel into the offending bonfire.
Lol, it got wet, y’all.
My bikini got wet. It’s ruined!
Why oh why did I go into the water with it?
Would it be a big surprise if he changed jobs to a different,uh, milieu, sometime in the next few months?
Not at all. Although he probably brings decent publicity for the brand, maybe they’ll give him some kind of vanity executive job so he is no longer embarrassing the Royals by partying with random normies.
I was just at her Instagram and her like to followers ratio makes zero sense so I would say she has bought followers and trying to milk this . The wet bikini thing I understand I’m Greek and we were never allowed to stay in wet bathing suits as kids till we grew up and rebeled but maybe it just stayed with her?
Yes, her Instagram is suspect and also hilarious. I am cracking up at the fact that she only follows one account, which appears to be her own dog.
It got wet is almost as bad as the glove doesn’t fit. Dear lord, these people.
Ha! Seriously, and people debating whether it’s a thing. It doesn’t matter! Even if it’s a thing, she could have still put on another top, or he could have chosen not to pose with her until later.
For some reason, I can believe she’s not having an affair with Eugenie’s husband. For someone like her who looks attractive in that Insta-influencer kind of way, I don’t really get why anyone would want or need to, I suppose. Clearly, I don’t find Eugenia’s husband that attractive — ha ha.
I will however give her points for her half ass public apology, because jack whinis the married one in this situation, is still yet to make a public apology to his wife regardless of if it was totally innocent or not
That fact that she apologized makes me think she didn’t do anything with him. A person who actually did something on purpose probably wouldn’t see what they did as wrong or would be stubborn about it, and wouldn’t apologize.
Her life looks and sounds exhausting. Can you imagine always having to look good?? (HARD PASS)
Why is she making that face in every photo? Is it supposed to be sexy ? Cause she looks dumb. I’m not saying she is dumb. It’s just that the emotionless blank stare with the slightly open mouth makes her look like like there’s literally nothing going on in her head. Like, she doesn’t even look bored. It’s like someone switched her off.
I said something similar above. Her expressions embody the phrase “the lights are on but no one is home.”
She must have taken lessons from the Kardashians. They are masters of the vacant, no-brain-exists-in-my-head stare.
Is it just me or is she hunched over in that red and black outfit?
I wanna just yell st her to stand up straight already!!!
I don’t think she’s particularly attractive ( my opinion only y’all)
She said all of the right things and she didn’t need to say anything, really. This is her time in her life to be young and yachting, royal-adjacent, topless, off the coast of Italy; she doesn’t have to answer to anybody and she sure as hell shouldn’t be slut-shamed for simply being alive.
Now, I do feel for that man’s child when he/she (sorry, not sure?) see these pics as a 8 year old, when you KNOW what is going on… that’s gotta hurt.
(I thought this was Sienna Miller too)
When is the last time you were at a work event and someone decided to go topless?
Why is a woman apologizing for the choices a man made.
Also don’t buy her “wet bikini” excuse, but hey it drove people to her Instagram which drives up her brand ambassador worth so she has game.
I’m mad that this woman felt the need to apologize or, worse, was forced to apologize for simply being on vacation. It is her body and her decision. She didn’t need to be aware of the optics. Perhaps the married man should have been responsible for himself?!
Perhaps they both did a very stupid thing and now regret it. She’s thirsty as hell and he fell for it. She wasn’t forced to do anything and as a member of the BRF Jack should know better. Bad optics all around.
Agree that there is nothing she needed to apologize for.
it’s called staying in the news, of course she’s not sorry. working her 5 minutes of fame.
I honestly wonder who would want to bed Brookbanks. He is very unattractive, looks like he drinks too much of the tequila he represents and is kind of a loser. Poor Eugenie. If he had half a brain he would have known how bad the optics were of that yacht party with photogs all over the place.
Aww, I think Jack’s cute. I also think he’s the perfect match for Eugenie. She’s obviously beautiful, but she’s no leggy super model. Nor is he some glistening Italian hottie. They seem to be a great match together.
What a loser to work as a brand ambassador for a company owned by Diageo. It’s the drinks equivalent of LVMH. 🙄
Nope, nope, nope. Topless women swimming and sunbathing are not disrespectful to anyone (particularly anyone’s wife). This contributes to the idea that women are sexual objects and that merely having bodies is something that we have to apologize for.
This is why we can’t breastfeed in peace. A grown woman took her bikini top off after an impromptu swim. I don’t see anything sexual about her actions. I can understand if Jack would have been slightly embarrassed, but what would have been appropriate for him to do here. Ask her to cover her breasts or swim back as soon as he saw human breasts? Men don’t cover their nipples when they swim, married or not.
Agreed 100%
This woman knows she compromised Jack, otherwise she wouldn’t be running her mouth to the Fail. Blood and married in royals should know by now that situations like this leads to an unforced error of bad press. Lesson learned Jack.
Naked Cavorting, Social Scandal and Sheepish Regret. I bet Brand Ambassador Jack gets a pay raise from his bosses at Cassamingo for orchestrating this tequila trifecta. At the very least, I think they’d give him a bonus and a hi-five-attaboy for avoiding Injury/Illness and not (being seen or caught) Breaking the Law.
Oooof, Tequila, I’m so glad I quit you.
Yes! So much free publicity and privately they will definitely be praising Jack.
I admire her hustle.
Well Princess E probably doesnt have a great picker for men. Look at her parents. This guy wont go to his grave married to her.
This whole thing is so stupid. Her statement/apology just keeps it in the news. She has nothing to apologize for, right? Maybe the royal family married-in needs to be more careful about his public actions. But like many have said, the bigger thing is why this was even made into a story in the first place. The FK and FFK are ruthless.
Is it just me or does she look like a clone of Rachel Zoe??
Well all I can say is that her instagram encouraged me to not go back for another piece of bread and butter that I was considering, LOL.
If I were Eugenie, I’d put the blame squarely on Jack. Where it belongs. That is all, except I thought Edo would bring all the problems, but now I’ve got my eye on Jack, too.
Those legs!
Those feet!
THat was my first thought too april. 😉
What is this activity known as ‘cavorting’? Is it an exercise that strictly requires partial nudity? Is it like jumping jacks? How many calories can you burn off while ‘cavorting’? Inquiring minds want to know. (cavorting is such an odd word.)
She took of her tits out because her bikini was wet?? Sounds very Prince Andrew who couldn’t have been at the night club because he can’t sweat. Is this some sort of translation error?
She took of her tits out because her bikini was wet?? Sounds very Prince Andrew who couldn’t have been at the night club because he can’t sweat. Is this some sort of translation error?
Ok but why should she single person apologize for their behavior? It’s her body and if she wants to go topless she should. Why does she need to feel responsible for a man looking bad? It was his choice to be on a boat with a bunch of women. It’s bullshit.
There is a 2017 open house TV interview of her on youtube, It’s hilarious.
Two things she knew upfront:(1) it was a photo shoot (2) Jack is married. It was all about her. Jack is an adult he knew what he was doing and he also know that being connected to the RF makes him tabloid fodder, He just opened a door that won’t be so easy to close. However, I don’t think the general public is thirsty for Jack & Eugenie news right now. Do better Jack.