Naomi Campbell may not like to talk about it, but she did, in fact, receive a gift of diamonds probably from former Liberian President
Charles Taylor, she said today at his war crimes trial. Campbell testified that two men gave her a pouch containing a few “very small, dirty-looking stones” following a
Nelson Mandela-hosted dinner in 1997,
the AP reports. Her agent and
Mia Farrow clued her in that the “gift” was diamonds, most likely from Taylor.
Taylor is accused of providing weapons to rebels in
Sierra Leone in exchange for blood diamonds, but Campbell said at the time she "had never heard of
Charles Taylor before, never heard of the country Liberia before, had never heard the term 'blood diamonds,'" adding that "they were kind of dirty-looking pebbles. When I'm used to seeing diamonds I'm used to seeing them shiny in a box." For more on the trial, click here.
