> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=436846&in_page_id...=
>
> Air stewardess: secrets of my five-mile high sex romp with Ralph
> Fiennes
>
> By JO KNOWSLEY in Sydney
>
> Qantas stewardess tells how she fell for Hollywood star in Seat
> 2K...and how after a mad, passionate fling he abandoned her to face
> the sack...
>
> The attraction had been immediate and overwhelming from the moment
> they first made eye contact.
>
> But as Qantas stewardess Lisa Robertson leaned over towards Hollywood
> star Ralph Fiennes to offer him a drink, she could not have imagined
> how the evening would unfold - or that she would end up in a
> passionate tryst with him in the aircraft lavatory.
>
> When rumours first emerged that Ralph Fiennes joined the Five Mile
> High Club in the business-class lavatory on flight QF123 from Darwin
> to Bombay, Qantas issued a statement from Lisa vigorously denying the
> allegation.
>
> But The Mail on Sunday can now reveal the truth about what happened
> that night - how the English actor had unsafe sex with the 38-year-old
> Australian stewardess on the flight and went on to seduce her in an
> evening of almost non-stop love-making at his lavish hotel in India.
>
> Speaking for the first time, exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Lisa,
> a former high-flying police officer, said: 'It's true. We did make
> love on the plane that night. At first I denied it because I was so
> desperate to keep my job and I didn't want to hurt Ralph.
>
> 'I know some people will think it's disgusting. And I'm not proud of
> what I did - it was inappropriate behaviour. But I don't regret it.
> Ralph is gorgeous and the chemistry between us was amazing. What woman
> wouldn't want to make love with him? This sort of attraction happens
> to people all the time. It's just not usually with a Hollywood star at
> 35,000 feet.
>
> Although Lisa makes no bones about having been an enthusiastic
> participant in the unedifying episode and is clearly still thrilled to
> have attracted the attention of an international film star, it is hard
> not to see her also as his victim.
>
> Despite her tall, trim figure, there is sadness in her eyes,
> highlighted by the medication she takes for depression since she left
> a tough front-line job as a detective with an elite New South Wales
> police drugs squad.
>
> One can't help asking whether Ralph Fiennes didn't spot a vulnerable
> woman, use her, and then abandon her to face the sack from her job
> with Qantas.
>
> Lisa recognised the 44-year-old star of films including The English
> Patient from the minute she went to his window seat 2K to offer him a
> selection of champagne, orange juice and water.
>
> And she admits she was star-struck. He was dressed casually in beige
> chinos and a long-sleeved shirt, and as he quietly asked for a glass
> of water she gushed: 'Oh my God, it's you. I am such a fan of your
> films. I love your work. I've seen The English Patient 20 times.' She
> recaptured her composure and added: 'I'm so sorry. This is so
> unprofessional of me.'
>
> Fiennes, however, looked relaxed and amused.
>
> 'He leaned forward, gazed deep into my eyes and stroked my arm as if
> to reassure me,' said Lisa. 'He whispered, 'It's OK. Anyway, I think
> you're gorgeous.'
>
> She admits: 'I felt overwhelmed. I felt like you do when you're a
> teenager. My heart was pumping with excitement. We kept looking at
> each other and giggling. He was just so gorgeous. I noticed he had
> lovely soft skin, beautiful hands and wonderful eyes.
>
> 'I expected him to be aloof. But he was just so nice. He had a strange
> kind of vulnerability about him. For the rest of the evening, although
> I was working on the other side of the cabin, we kept looking at each
> other. He was watching me serve drinks, staring intensely. He didn't
> have a meal and drank only a couple of glasses of Shiraz.
>
> 'But every time I looked up I saw that he was watching me. We were
> seriously flirting across the cabin, which is not like me. I've served
> a lot of famous people, including Shane Warne and Ian Thorpe, and I'm
> not usually like that at work.'
>
> Lisa, who is divorced, continued with her duties, serving the evening
> meal before the cabin lights dimmed. There were only 12 passengers in
> business class that night.
>
> Then, as she was preparing to go on her break, Fiennes made an
> unexpected suggestion. Lisa said: 'We had chatted a bit about India -
> where I've been five times - and his movies.
>
> 'When I told him I was going for a break, he said, "I might come and
> visit you for a chat, if that's OK." I was a bit surprised, but also
> thrilled. I said, "Sure."'
>
> Lisa admits she was smitten by the star, but says she did not make the
> first move and had no thought of what might happen next.
>
> It was 11pm and most of the other passengers were asleep. Lisa retired
> behind the curtained crew area, next to the cockpit, took off her
> shoes and put her feet up. But moments later she was interrupted by
> Fiennes.
>
> 'I'm sorry, were you sleeping?, he said. 'No,' she replied. 'Come in
> and take a seat.'
>
> Lisa is not proud of what happened next, but she found Fiennes
> 'irresistible'. 'At first we just chatted,' she said. 'He sat really
> close to me. He told me he was learning lines for a new movie with
> Colin Farrell, playing the part of a gangster. He said he was
> practising his cockney accent.
>
> 'I asked him to give me an example. He did and it was really good. I
> told him again that The English Patient was just the best movie, but
> he said, 'That was over ten years ago. Why don't people value my later
> work?'
>
> 'I apologised and said I didn't mean to offend him. I guess we talked
> for about an hour about lots of different things. He thought it was
> funny that I lived alone with my dog, a Lhasa Apso-poodle cross called
> Finn.'
>
> Fiennes told Lisa he was touring Indian villages for Unicef to talk
> about AIDS awareness. He asked what she would be doing in Bombay,
> where she was staying, and said, 'Do you want to meet up?'
>
> Stunned and deeply flattered, Lisa said: 'Yeah. That would be cool.'
>
> By this point they were sitting so close their faces were just inches
> apart. Lisa said: 'He held my hands. Then he started kissing me. The
> kissing was very passionate and his hands were all over me. I just
> melted.
>
> 'He was caressing my neck, holding my head and he started undoing the
> buttons on my dress. The way he was going, he would have made love to
> me right there.
>
> 'I was very turned on and so was he. I had butterflies in my stomach.
> I was touching his face and his hair. He had beautiful skin. I was
> undoing his shirt as well. It was a bit surreal, like a scene from one
> of his movies.
>
> 'But I was afraid my supervisor might pull back the curtain and catch
> us. Eventually, I couldn't bear it any longer. I just grabbed his hand
> and said, "Come in here a minute."
>
> 'By this time, we had half our clothes off and I didn't care about
> anything. I led him into the cabin lavatory next to where we had been
> sitting and locked the door.
>
> 'Ralph was a great lover. And I thought if I was going to get the
> sack, it would be worth it. I knew it was against the rules and wrong
> but I didn't care.
>
> 'I was a bit shocked that he didn't wear a condom. Looking back, I
> think of it as dangerous behaviour and hypocritical given that he was
> going to India to talk about AIDS.
>
> 'He asked me, "Have you ever done this before?". I said, "No, never."
> I asked him the same question and he said, "No."
>
> 'The only strange thing was that he kept his eyes open the whole time,
> staring at me intensely, although we were kissing madly.
>
> 'I realised that people would miss me and wonder where I was as my
> break was almost over. I told him we had to get out of there quickly.
>
> 'I helped him get dressed and he told me that when he got out of the
> toilet he would press his call button to distract the other flight
> attendants so that I could leave.
>
> 'But a male member of staff saw Ralph come out of the toilet and he
> saw me lock the door after Ralph. When I came out, the member of staff
> was still there. I prepared to get back to work but the cabin manager
> wanted a word with me. She asked, "Did you go into the toilet with a
> male passenger?"
>
> 'I said, "No." But she said three people saw me do it. She told me I
> had crossed the line and that she was going to report me when we got
> back to Sydney.
>
> 'Ralph called me over and asked, "Is everything all right?" I told
> him, "No,"and sat down next to him. He was very concerned, but I
> downplayed it and said I would sort it out.
>
> 'I knew I was in big trouble. I was ordered to spend the rest of the
> flight working in economy and I was the talk of the other cabin crew.
> I was able to talk to Ralph again to reassure him that everything was
> fine. I wanted to see him again in Bombay. I didn't want him to freak
> out and not call me.'
>
> Even now, almost a month after the incident on January 24, Lisa still
> seems to find the events surreal. She claims her behaviour was out of
> character but says: 'I just had no control over myself. I wanted him
> so much. I couldn't resist him.'
>
> She has had only one other liaison with a man she met while working on
> a flight - an American with whom she had dinner and later spent a
> weekend in New York.
>
> 'But that was very much out of office hours,' she said. 'Men
> travelling business class are always coming on to me. They invite me
> to go for weekends away to lavish locations and nice hotels and give
> me their cards. But I usually just throw them away.'
>
> Lisa had a sheltered upbringing with her two brothers in the town of
> Wagga Wagga near Sydney. Her father Graham, a butcher, and her mother
> Sandra were so protective that she did not have her first sexual
> relationship until the age of 20 when she went to the New South Wales
> police academy.
>
> Lisa recalled: 'My mother had cancer when I was 11. She survived but
> it was traumatic. I never really had time for boys. I was the only
> girl in the middle of two brothers and I had a lot of responsibility.'
>
> She also had low self-esteem. 'My brothers teased me about being
> flat-chested, so I've had breast implants. They said I was skinny and
> gawky. And I hated being 5ft 9in tall. I never felt attractive.'
>
> She married a fellow police officer, John Duncan, and had a
> high-flying career in undercover drug work and hostage negotiation.
>
> After 14 years her police service ended due to her suffering
> post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. And her marriage did
> not survive.
>
> Indeed, she seems wary of men, saying she has been repeatedly
> exploited by them. 'So many treat you badly,' she said. 'They're just
> after sex. They're losers.' Ironically, she thought Fiennes was 'so
> sensitive, so different'.
>
> Only now has Lisa begun to wonder. She has seen last week's reports
> claiming that he has been dumped by his girlfriend of five months,
> interior designer Sirin Lewenden, because of his wandering eye, mood
> swings and constant demands for sex. Their romance began after he
> split from his long-term partner, actress Francesca Annis.
>
> On flight QF123, however, Fiennes seemed to Lisa an impossibly exotic
> lover, very different from the men she usually encounters. And while
> she says she never expected a romance, she didn't hesitate in saying
> yes when he asked her if he could meet her at his Bombay hotel.
>
> Brimming with anticipation, Lisa stood next to Fiennes before he left
> the plane so they could talk. 'He was wearing a funny old white hat
> and a Kathmandu backpack, which made him look very eccentric,' she
> said.
>
> 'I gave him my mobile number and he repeatedly said he would call me.
> I was sad to see him go. I just wanted to go with him.'
>
> Lisa had been at her hotel - the Grand Hyatt - for only about half an
> hour when Fiennes called her. He was on his way to his hotel, the
> Intercontinental, and wanted her to come over.
>
> Lisa said: 'I had a shower, put on a little floral sun dress and my
> flip-flops. I put on minimum make-up and had a glass of Sauvignon
> blanc because I was a bit nervous.'
>
> At the Intercontinental she found Fiennes was checked in, under his
> own name, to room 663, a lavish corner suite on the sixth floor. After
> calling the room, she was escorted up by security guards.
>
> She said: 'Ralph opened the door with just a white towel around his
> waist. He said, 'Hi, how are you darling? Come in, I'm just having a
> bath. Make yourself a drink.'
>
> 'He dropped the towel and was wandering around naked. I was laughing,
> I thought it was hilarious. But I wander around naked a lot at home,
> so it didn't bother me. He had quite a nice body. It's obvious he's
> not a gym work-out kind of guy. For a man he's got quite a slender
> body, but I was attracted to him. It was a luxurious room - better
> than where I was staying. There was a bottle of red wine with a note
> on it saying, Welcome Mr Fiennes. I was like a kid in a sweet shop.
>
> 'He changed into a casual blue shirt and chinos and asked if I would
> like to have dinner with him. He'd heard there was a lovely restaurant
> on the roof. I said that would be great. I'd thought he would just
> keep me in the room, make love to me and throw me out.
>
> 'But it surprised me that he was a gentleman and he was treating this
> meeting like a real date.
>
> 'I wasn't particularly hungry and he doesn't eat much, so we just had
> snacks and ordered drinks. He had a Martini. There was a pool and the
> people around it recognised Ralph. He held my hand and had his arm
> around me, as if I was his girlfriend.
>
> 'He had been in Sydney performing a Beckett play and started to recite
> bits to me. He asked if I'd seen it. I told him it wasn't my kind of
> thing. I found that part of the date a bit boring.
>
> 'He didn't mention he had a girlfriend. I said I knew he went out with
> a famous actress, Francesca Annis, and that they'd broken up. He said,
> 'Yeah, it's been a bad year.'
>
> 'From his look of sadness and vulnerability, I guessed he was still in
> love with her. It was obvious that he was single and struggling with
> it.
>
> 'We had a couple more drinks. I spoke to him about The English Patient
> and asked him to say that line, 'It's a really plum plum' when the
> nurse is feeding his character the fruit. He did and I was thrilled.
> We went back to his room and I suggested we crack open the bottle of
> red. I poured us a glass each. He put on a DVD - Lock, Stock And Two
> Smoking Barrels - which he said he was watching for research.
>
> 'I sat on the end of the bed. He came over, put his wine by the bed,
> threw off the top sheet and took off his clothes. I undressed at the
> same time. There was no conversation and in no time we were kissing
> and right into it.'
>
> According to Lisa, they made love twice more through the evening -
> once in the middle of the night. But he told her, before they went
> back to sleep: 'I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to kick you out in
> the morning. I've got a lot of calls to make and things to do.'
>
> Lisa said: -I felt fine about that. I understood but I was
> disappointed.
>
> 'I wasn't under any illusions that this would be the start of a
> romance. He is an upper-class Englishman and I knew it would be just
> about sex. But I thought we could keep a friendship and that we might
> make love when he visited Sydney.'
>
> Lisa was woken at 7am by the sound of a mobile phone ringing, followed
> by Ralph talking. She said: 'He was sitting at the end of the bed.
> When the call ended he turned around and started kissing and cuddling
> me. We made love for about 20 minutes. It was excellent, really nice.
>
> 'But then he said, 'I'm going to have to kick you out now.' Just
> before I got out of bed, he said in a sincere, gentle voice, 'Lisa, I
> really like you.'
>
> 'I didn't even have a shower. I just went into the bathroom, tied my
> hair back and put on my flip-flops. He said, 'See you on the next
> Qantas flight,' to which I said, 'You will never fly Qantas again.'
> And he said, 'Oh yes I will.'
>
> 'He walked me to the door and kissed me and said, 'Goodbye, darling.'
> The casual way he said it was like he would see me next week.
>
> 'I had mixed feelings as the door closed behind me. I hoped he would
> call me again. I understood he had Unicef commitments but I was going
> to be in Bombay for two days, so I hoped he would find time to squeeze
> me in for another quick love-making session - or even a phone call.
> When he didn't call I realised I had to get over it. He was never
> going to.'
>
> Lisa met her flight crew for drinks and confided in one friend, a
> pilot, what had happened. But she was horrified to learn that everyone
> seemed to have heard her making love with Fiennes in the lavatory. She
> says some of the girls were envious and giggled, saying: 'I wish it
> had been me.'
>
> But Lisa knew her supervisor had reported her. 'I knew I was in big
> trouble,' she said. On January 26 she flew back to Sydney, where she
> was told by her management company, airline services contractor Morris
> Alexander Management, that she had been suspended without pay pending
> a disciplinary hearing.
>
> On the advice of a lawyer she tried to make contact with Fiennes,
> leaving an urgent message at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, which had
> been behind his Beckett performances in Sydney. Within a few hours he
> called.
>
> Lisa said: 'I told him I was in a lot of trouble and that I had been
> suspended from work. There was silence at the other end. I told him
> people had seen us leaving the toilet, but all he said was, 'Nothing
> happened.' He kept saying, 'We weren't in the toilet.' I told him I
> couldn't deny it. I said I had to answer the allegation.
>
> Fiennes' reply, when it came, shocked Lisa to the core. She said: 'It
> was clear he was turning his back on me. He said, 'We don't know each
> other very well. I'm very sorry, I can't get involved. I can't help
> you.'
>
> 'I was desperate and suggested we said I was doing something like
> helping him with a contact lens. But he wouldn't agree.
>
> 'Then he told me, I've been scarred by an incident about a year ago
> when my life was dragged through the tabloids. My whole relationship
> was destroyed. It's ruined my life. You're just a hostess and you don
> ,t even like your job. You're not happy in your job. You can get
> another job.'
>
> 'I felt humiliated. It was like talking to a different person. He made
> me feel like a low-life, like I was asking him for money or something.
> Then he said, 'Let's have no further phone contact. I'll call you in a
> month
> ,s time, just to show you I'm a human being.' I was stunned.
>
> 'I told him, 'You're right. In the big scheme of things, it's not that
> important. It's just a job. If I do lose my job, it was worth it.'
>
> 'I ended the conversation on good terms, but I was angry and
> disappointed at his attitude and uncaring lack of support and
> sympathy.
>
> I expected him to take some responsibility for our problem which
> suddenly became my problem.
>
> 'I thought about resigning to protect him. I felt sorry for him
> because of the speech he made about what he'd been through with the
> British papers. But I was frightened, I was depressed, I felt
> completely alone and I had no support.'
>
> The betrayal evoked bitter memories of Lisa's troubled past. On
> leaving the police, she sued the force for lack of care over her
> mental health problems, but lost the case and was driven into
> bankruptcy.
>
> She briefly studied law at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.
> Then she met a stewardess and thought the job sounded fun. But the
> hard work and long hours did nothing to ease her depression, for which
> she still takes medication.
>
> Now, after her fling with Fiennes, she is alone and faces losing her
> job. Her family have been critical of her and over the past week,
> since the story first emerged, their communication has been punctuated
> by fierce rows.
>
> Now Lisa is even more wary of men. 'I've never been lucky in love,'
> she said. 'I just choose the wrong people. My last relationship, with
> an Italian flight steward, ended in June.'
>
> Yet bizarrely she insists that, given the chance, she would make love
> to Fiennes in the lavatory again. 'It must sound crazy,' she said,
> 'but I wouldn't miss that experience for anything.'
>
> She has convinced herself that Fiennes did care for her, however
> briefly, and that 'the experience was a lot more than just about sex'.
>
> Does she feel used? 'No,' she insisted. 'We were both fantastically
> attracted to each other. I am sure he cared about me.
>
> But she pauses, twisting a ring on her finger, as if for the first
> time considering the more brutal alternatives. 'Then again,
> , she said,
> +he is a very good actor.'
>
> And she concedes that she was stung by his failure to support her
> story about the contact lens. It was a lie that might have helped her
> keep her job. 'I am upset by his betrayal,' she said. 'He is a
> millionaire movie star and I'm a struggling air hostess on £12,000 a
> year. I have financial problems and nothing to fall back on.
>
> 'He could have written a letter giving a version of events which the
> airline would have been forced to accept.
>
> 'What will I do now? Who knows? But I will bounce back. I always do.
> Maybe I'll finally take some time out to find out what I want and who
> I am. I should have done that years ago.'