Jennifer Arcuri said she is heartbroken about how Boris Johnson treated her (Picture: Reuters/Rex)

US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri has accused Boris Johnson of casting her aside ‘like some gremlin’ when she rang the PM to discuss media scrutiny about their relationship.

Jennifer Arcuri’s links with Mr Johnson were dragged into the spotlight earlier this year after it was alleged she received favourable treatment for her business ventures during his eight-year stint as Mayor of London.

She is accused of having an affair with the PM but has refused to confirm or deny the rumours.

In an interview with ITV Exposure, she said she wished he had declared their personal relationship as a potential conflict of interest to avoid her ‘humiliation’.




The show, When Boris Met Jennifer, alleges the pair were involved in an affair for more than four years.

Mrs Arcuri has refused to say whether this went on but said she had come under pressure from friends to ‘admit the affair’.

Boris Johnson and Jennifer Arcuri’s relationship has come under intense media scrutiny (Picture: Rex)

She said: ‘When the story broke half the people that reached out told me to categorically deny, deny, deny, the other half told me to, admit the, er, affair, fall on the sword get it over with.’

The business women was reportedly given £126,000 in public money and privileged access to three foreign trade missions led by Mr Johnson while he was in City Hall.

She said the prime minister acted as though she was a ‘one night stand [he] picked up in a bar’ after the allegations were made, leaving her feeling ‘heartbroken’.

Addressing Mr Johnson directly, Ms Arcuri told ITV: ‘I’ve been nothing but loyal, faithful, supportive, and a true confidante of yours. I’ve kept your secrets, and I’ve been your friend.

‘And I don’t understand why you’ve blocked me and ignored me as if I was some fleeting one-night stand or some girl that you picked up at a bar because I wasn’t – and you know that.

It was alleged she received favourable treatment for her business ventures while Johnson was Mayor of London (Picture: Rex)

‘And I’m terribly heartbroken by the way that you have cast me aside like I am some gremlin.’

Mrs Arcuri said she became ‘collateral damage’ from the controversy while Mr Johnson escaped ‘unaffected’.

In October, a City Hall investigation into their relationship was paused following a request by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Meanwhile, a £100,000 grant she was given by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport through a cyber skills fund was ruled ‘appropriate’ despite her firm being based in the US.

In the interview, she spoke of another earlier attempt to contact Mr Johnson after he became Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson has been accused of treating Mrs Arcuri like a ‘gremlin’ (Picture: Reuters)

She said: ‘When I expressed the interest to want to speak to him, I was told there are bigger things at stake and I was brushed off as if I was one of Kennedy’s girlfriends showing up to his White House switchboard, you know, here to do my, you know, calling.



‘And I felt so disgusted and humiliated that I was told bigger things are at stake, never mind you, he’s too busy for you.’

She claims on one occasion she was spoken to in Chinese when she tried to call the PM on his personal number and that on another occasion he ‘hung up on her.

In the show, which airs tonight, one of her industry colleagues claims Mrs Arcuri boasted of having Boris Johnson ‘wrapped around her little finger’ after he attended one of her company’s conferences.

Mrs Arcuri opened up about media scrutiny over her relationship with the PM for an ITV documentary (Picture:Rex)

Professor Alan Doig, a former member of the public standards board for England, suggested Mr Johnson could have breached the Greater London Authority code by not declaring a private relationship with someone he had dealings with in the course of his public duties.

In response to the programme a Conservative Party spokesman hit out at ‘politically motivated attacks’ on the Prime Minister.

The spokesman said: ‘Any claims of impropriety in office are untrue and unfounded. We consider these are vexatious and politically motivated attacks from the Labour Party in City Hall.

‘Previous vexatious and unfounded allegations against the Prime Minister have been thrown out by the courts. An independent review by the Government Internal Audit Agency showed the claims made by the Labour Party about Ms Arcuri’s company were false.

An ITV documentary alleges Boris Johnson and Jennifer Arcuri had a four year affair)

‘Given that City Hall has made an unfounded complaint to the IOPC, we will not be making detailed comments until that process has finished. Full assistance has been offered to the IOPC so the matter can be quickly resolved.’

When Boris Met Jennifer airs on ITV tonight, 17 November, at 11.05pm.