“The camaraderie that we’ve built between us now has really given us a lot of empowerment,” Lindsay says. “I just don’t think that we would be this far along in our recovery had we not got each other.”
Lindsay worked as Al Fayed’s personal assistant for five months between 1989 and 1990. She says he sexually harassed her, assaulted her on a daily basis, and then trafficked her to Paris, where he attempted to rape her.
She says that after the documentary aired in September, the women set up a group chat on the messaging app Signal, named “Stronger Together”.
“We draw strength from that [group],” Lindsay says. “If we’ve got any worries, we put it on there and everyone’s got your back. I’m feeling much stronger because we’re part of a whole collective of fabulous, strong women.”
But this is more than a new friendship. Though many of the women only met two months ago, their shared trauma means their bond has deep roots - ones that Jen says will last “probably for the rest of our lives”.
“No one in this world can understand what we’ve been through and the impact it’s had, other than these women and the other women in the group,” says Gemma, who worked for Al Fayed as one of his personal assistants between 2007 and 2009.
She says she became increasingly frightened of Al Fayed during work trips abroad, and was raped by him in Paris.
“It’s almost like the unsaid - you don’t have to say. You just know what each other’s thinking.”
This means that while they have to describe their abuse for the public, there’s no need to “keep reliving the past” with each other.
“There are certain stories that I could never tell my school friends or my family - they just wouldn’t believe me,” Gemma says.