AN A-list bodyguard who has protected the Kardashians and Hadid sisters revealed his ‘favorite’ client in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun after years of working with the top stars in the world.
Before Simon Newton launched his own successful career in acting, modeling and fashion, he used his British military experience to provide safety for many entertainment legends – including Michael Jackson.
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In addition to the King of Pop, Simon, 46, has watched over Gigi and Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Halsey, Rita Ora and more stars.
He first started working as a bodyguard to the world’s biggest celebrities in 2006 when he was assigned a two-week trip with none other than Thriller icon, Michael.
Despite the chaos that ensued wherever MJ traveled, Simon was able to successfully keep the music legend safe – which ultimately catapulted his entertainment career.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Simon confessed who he most enjoyed looking after during his time as a celebrity bodyguard.
READ MORE ON HADID SISTERS
“My favorite was probably Bella Hadid. I spent the most time with her too,” he admitted.
Simon continued: “Just because the job I was on with her, I did quite a number of visits, all in London, but quite a number of visits of her coming and going for various fashion shows and just fashion-related stuff.
“It was normally always work with her. She didn’t really come here for social pleasure, but I spent the most time with her. To be fair, I’d never had any bad ones. I could always choose who I wanted to look after.
“I had a really good run. I was quite heavy in the model world at some stage because I started off with Kendall [Jenner], actually, and then Bella.
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“And I did a little bit of Gigi as well because obviously Bella’s sister, because I got to know their mom, Yolanda, as well, because they were all together at times.
“Then I did a few singers, which was Rita Ora. I did, obviously, at the time, she lived in the UK. Halsey, who’s out in LA. I’ve done quite a lot with her. I know her quite well.
“I still got a good friend who still looks after her, actually. I mean, there’s quite a few. I forget half of them if I’m honest, because I’ve been around so many.”
When recalling who was the most difficult to work with, Simon admitted that he had gotten along with all his clients for the most part but there was one that was extra difficult – though not for reasons the star could control.
“With [Michael] Jackson, obviously, because he was such a big deal, there were five guys. Might have been six, actually.
“It was a very different job to anyone else in the fact that you never went anywhere unnecessarily,” Simon said.
‘NONE OF THE JOBS WERE THE SAME AS MICHAEL’
He continued: “You couldn’t just pop out and do something. Everything always had to be organized. It does have to be organized anyway with celebrities, but even more so with someone like Michael Jackson.
“There was six or seven rows of fans outside the front of the hotel the whole time. It was fans that were paid to stay in the same hotel so they could be in the lobby when he would come down.
“There were London black taxis on meters all day paid for by fans just so they could jump in whenever they wanted and follow us.
“It was a lot of money, I don’t know where they’d get the money for these kids because a lot of these diehard fans, it wasn’t just London.
“They would fly, they would go to the next country that he was in and the next country, and they spent their whole life following him around. So I don’t know where they got the money from.
“There wasn’t another job like that, really. But Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid and all the other famous people I’ve been with, but none of those jobs were the same as Michael Jackson, really.”
Simon admitted that due to the stress of the high-profile situation, people in his position “don’t get to enjoy yourself one little bit.”
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“To be honest, it’s actually quite stressful for us, especially when you work on your own. Everything from leaving the hotel to everything you do that night to going back to the hotel is planned as much as possible.
“You can’t take your eyes off people for a second because you just never know what’s going to happen, and especially with the celebrities, because obviously, they have a lot of paparazzi around them and just fans wanting with their phones and stuff,” he said.
He noted that if “anything goes wrong,” and “even if it’s tiny” that it will be documented instantly.
“The first thing anyone always says, ‘Where was her security? Where was his security?’ It’s always us. We always get frowned upon. ‘Did he do it right? Did she do it right?’
“There are sometimes you can find safer rooms to go in where maybe you can relax a little bit, green rooms. If you go shopping and you get personal shopping rooms where you can go and sit and stuff like that.
“If we did things like that, it could be slightly more relaxed, but walking around stores or going to events, red carpets, going in and out of concerts, festivals. It’s very difficult job.
“You don’t really get a second’s rest from when you wake up to when you sleep as a bodyguard. You always wake up before them and you always go to sleep after them. That’s because you need to be there. It can be quite a tough job at times.”
After having a successful run as a celebrity bodyguard, Simon has since transitioned into an impressive career as a model, actor and fashion designer.
His line, Simon Newton London, includes a range of high quality shirts, polos, bomber jackets and will soon be releasing a line of tracksuits.
Simon’s latest film role is starring in the upcoming action thriller, Rise Of The Footsoldier: Ibiza.
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