Why is Lottie Moss lashing out at her ‘crisis-hit’ sister Kate? Friends fear the supermodel, 48, is facing ‘relationship issues’ after missing a string of high-profile fashion events and being branded ‘unsupportive’ by her younger sibling
Christmas in the Cotswolds with Kate Moss is usually a family affair: the ‘Mossy posse’ gathers for a festive picture outside Kate’s honeybrick farmhouse, wearing tweeds and wellies and carrying dogs.
Most years, these gatherings extend to trusted friends. But this year, when most of us are looking forward to a lively get-together after more than two years blighted by Covid, the Moss family celebrations look set to remain muted.
For not only has Kate’s sister Lottie dropped a bombshell by accusing her superstar sibling of ‘never’ supporting her — more of which later — the supermodel herself appears to be in no mood to party.
Indeed, the fashion crowd is alive with rumours about 48-year-old Kate’s abrupt disappearance from the spotlight. Earlier this month, she wasn’t at British Vogue’s Forces For Change dinner (hosted by her close friend, Vogue editor Edward Enninful) at The Londoner hotel. And the following night she missed one of the biggest events in the fashion industry calendar, the Fashion Awards. Moss’s daughter Lila, 20, was at the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, but there was no sign of Kate, nor at the after-party.
Lottie Moss lashed out at her big sister Kate after missing a string of high-profile fashion events
Vanishing act: Social butterfly Kate has, unusually, not been out on the town recently
People wondered where on earth she was — all the more so because Diet Coke, with whom she has a lucrative advertising deal, was sponsoring the awards. A source told me: ‘She was definitely due to attend both events and it was the talk of the room as to why she wasn’t about.’ A few days later, Lila worked the room on her own again at a party thrown by Marc Jacobs, a family friend, for the Perfect fragrance at New York’s Hotel Chelsea. Again, no sign of Kate.
So where was she?
The answer doing the rounds is that she has withdrawn from the social scene temporarily in order to ‘recharge her batteries’.
Rumour has it that there may be issues once again in her romance with her long-time boyfriend Count Nikolai von Bismarck, a fashion photographer 12 years her junior who has struggled with — and conquered — addiction issues. He has not been seen with her since the September launch of her wellness brand, Cosmoss.
Several friends tell me there is a ‘crisis’ in the model’s life that has led to her deciding not to take part in any pre-Christmas parties.
Kate’s absence is all the more unexpected as she had seemed in storming form in November, attending various bashes in London. On November 10 she brought her crowd of friends to Annabel’s nightclub to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of Diet Coke. There was no sign of von Bismarck.
Cutting remark: Lottie (pictured left) has claimed Kate (pictured right) ‘never really supported me’
Wearing a see-through cowlnecked silver dress, she was spotted leaving at 4.30am with gal pal Tish Weinstock, a beauty editor who is married to Tom Guinness, the son of Lord Moyne. Kate had been at their wedding at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, a month earlier, with von Bismarck in tow.
A few days before the Diet Coke party she had been in New York to present a fashion award — and there she put on a worrying display. Kate is not a confident public speaker, but even so, she seemed to cling to the lectern and fumbled her words, slurring at times. It looked as though she needed to consult her phone for prompts. Some expressed concern that she might be struggling in some way. Kate, of course, made no comment. She never does.
How unfortunate, then, that when Kate is so ‘down’ (and possibly single), her half-sister Lottie should have gone on the attack. Lottie — whose father Peter was married to Kate’s mother Linda — wrote on Instagram this week: ‘I understand that I have come from a very privileged position being the sister of someone very famous. But believe it or not, that person never really supported me.’
Lottie is currently in Bali and there is some talk of a family member, maybe half-brother Nick, coming out to fetch her home.
Lottie added that she had been ‘pretty much on my own’ as a teenager, when navigating the ‘toxic industry’ of fashion.
Kate has spoken of the intense pressure she felt under after being scouted as a model aged 14 — she once fled a shoot in tears after being asked to pose topless — so these comments are far from ideal.
A friend of Kate’s told me: ‘What Lottie said on Instagram, and the timing of it, is very sad and rather shocking. They haven’t had anything to do with each other whatever for a time now because Kate needed to stay away from Lottie and her party lifestyle. But Kate did make efforts with Lottie and even had her to stay in the Cotswolds for months during lockdown.’
The friend added: ‘I feel for Lottie’s parents who are so decent. They must be horrified by this, and by her getting a tattoo on her face.’ Last weekend, Lottie revealed on Instagram that she was drunk when she had the word ‘lover’ tattooed on her cheek. ‘We’re going to learn to love it, the world will learn to love it and my mum will learn to love it,’ she insisted.
Last weekend, Lottie revealed on Instagram that she was drunk when she had the word ‘lover’ tattooed on her cheek
Perhaps not. A friend said: ‘It’s the most tragic thing to see what she has done to herself. She insists she is happy and knows what she is doing, but the family are devastated. They cannot understand why she has had the face tattoo done. ‘There has been an immediate professional impact from doing the tattoo, with some brands not wanting to work with her — it’s the influencer stuff.’
Lottie’s modelling career has turned out to be a mere shadow of her older sister’s. Now 24, she makes money via explicit content sold on the pornographic website OnlyFans. Her early promise at the pukka end of the industry — with editorial shoots in Vogue — has faded.
Although the Kate connection certainly opened doors for her, the paths she has taken — leading to a ‘really bad addiction to coke’ and rehab last February — have not been positive.
Lottie’s modelling career has turned out to be a mere shadow of her older sister’s
It should all have been so different. Lottie had a privileged country childhood, growing up in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, with her father, travel agent Peter Moss and Norwegian mother, Inger Solnordal. The family runs the Toll House, a shop in nearby Lindfield, which sells vintage clothes, jewellery, homewares and food.
Lottie’s career as a model began at the age of 13, when she was a bridesmaid at Kate’s wedding to musician Jamie Hince. She looked like an angel with a garland of wildflowers in her hair.
‘It was so funny. My mum was like: “Your sister is going to be so p****d.” No one noticed her, everyone was like: “Who’s that?” ’ Lottie said later. ‘I had a meeting with Storm [Model Management] the next week.’
In her late teens, she decided modelling was the career for her, telling an interviewer: ‘My sister and I are two different people and she is on her path and I am on my own. It kind of runs in the family. Kate was a massive part of why I started.’
Those first few years of Lottie’s career were very blue-chip, with campaigns for Bulgari and Valentino. But she had mixed feelings about her success.
‘It’s hard when your sister is Kate Moss,’ she once said. ‘I had a great time modelling but everything was handed to me. I never felt like I worked for anything.’
Pretty soon, she began to develop a reputation for a ‘busy’ social life. On a night out at the Chiltern Firehouse in London she lost her Louis Vuitton bag — including her passport — because she was so busy ‘snogging’ an admirer. Then there was a fling with Brooklyn Beckham — whose parents were not amused — and another dalliance with rocker Machine Gun Kelly (before he got together with actress Megan Fox) and tattooed rapper Milkavelli.
In 2021, Lottie started posting naked snaps on the subscription website Glow and has since migrated to OnlyFans.
She says that she has been making more than £70,000 a month with her sometimes fully nude pictures and boasts: ‘I’m a very sexual person. I’m just taking fun pictures you’d send to your boyfriend. It’s fine, it’s harmless, it’s not hurting anyone. It’s so good.’
Though, financially, not that good: recent accounts for her company, LottieM, which handles earnings from her modelling work, show she had just £66,000 in capital after owing creditors £170,599.
She remains defiant, saying recently: ‘Why should I be made to feel [ashamed] because I’m doing something I enjoy? Everyone always says, “Be yourself and do what you love” until it’s something that isn’t considered “reputable” or to their standard of what is considered OK.
‘I am who I am and I do what I want, whether that is modelling or anything else. The success of my sister does not affect me in my choices.’ Professionally, Kate has kept her distance. Lottie was not among those signed by the modelling agency her half-sister set up in 2016. She was also dropped by the agency Storm.
Personally, though, Kate has extended a hand of friendship — though when Lottie stayed with her in the country during lockdown, there were frictions. Kate’s daughter Lila, who abhors drinking, refused to be pictured on Lottie’s Instagram and it seems Kate found Lottie’s habits hard to tolerate.
A friend said: ‘Kate was frustrated because Lottie kept on drinking a lot and posting sexually provocative stuff on Insta all the time’
A friend said: ‘Kate was frustrated because Lottie kept on drinking a lot and posting sexually provocative stuff on Insta all the time. It isn’t easy for Kate to be around people who are drinking. Lottie left in a foul mood and I’m told she left two bottles of Kate’s favourite wine in the fridge, which was interpreted as a “F you” gesture.’
Maybe Lottie was thinking of this when she regretfully wrote later that spring that: ‘My struggles have caused me to act out of character. Ultimately, I was becoming a person I didn’t really like, which is why I numbed myself with substances and put myself down through neglect of my mental and general health.’
In February this year she went into rehab for cocaine addiction. (In 2005 Kate was famously photographed with lines of powder, and has also spent time in rehab.) So, it’s not surprising that Kate has chosen to steer clear of Lottie this year.
Kate’s sobriety is important to her, and over the past four years she has made sacrifices to try to stay clean of alcohol and drugs. She sold her £10million house in London’s Highgate — which she loved — so that she could put herself out of reach of the temptations of the capital and live a quiet life in the country.
A friend of Lottie’s said that at the moment she has no relationship with Kate: ‘Saying she wasn’t supported seems to be Lottie’s way of taking charge of the narrative. The relationship hasn’t been there since Lottie’s rehab.’
The friend added that Kate’s brother Nick had been trying to act as the go-between. ‘Lottie says she’s never been happier, which everyone hopes is true. She has been phoning up old friends and apologising for her bad behaviour in the past. Everyone hopes that she is in a good place, but she is drinking again.’
Another friend said: ‘The family view is that Lottie is hell-bent on carving her own path and that is why she is trying to shed the image of being Kate’s sister. But of course, the more she talks about it, the more she is seen that way.’ One thing is for sure: Christmas chez Moss won’t be filled with sisterly love.
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