David Gest’s bodyguard reveals furious star ‘hired a £40,000 hitman to kill Elton John at a gig’ after the singer suggested I’m A Celebrity star was ‘gay’
The late I'm A Celeb star's bodyguard lifts lid on entertainer's life on the first anniversary of his death and says he spent £500 a day on cocaine
FURIOUS David Gest hired a hitman to kill Sir Elton John after the singer was said to have suggested the I’m A Celeb star was gay.
The US entertainer had married Hollywood legend Liza Minnelli weeks earlier when Sir Elton reportedly joked: “I’d love to buy Liza a heterosexual husband.”
David Gest was so angry he paid a would-be gunman £20,000 but his bodyguard and best friend Imad Handi talked him out of it days before the planned hit.
Imad, 39, lifts the lid on Gest’s extraordinary life on the first anniversary of his death at 62.
Imad said: “David flew into a range and yelled, ‘I’m going to kill that mother******. He’s a dead man.’
He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I want him dead’.
“I think he was so angry because Elton rumbled who he really was.”
Gest was living in Honolulu when he read Sir Elton’s comments.
Imad recalled: “David spent a lot of time in the bars and got talking to a Maori doorman who was connected on the island.
“David approached him about the possibility of bumping Elton off.
“No one knew his name but the Maori man said he had friends who could sort it for £40,000.
“I had to do the research to work out when Elton would next be in Los Angeles for the hit.
"David then gave me $25,000 (£20,000). The following night, I took the money in a white laundry bag to the Hilton village hotel and gave it to the man.
"He said he wanted the remainder afterwards. I felt guilty but I felt loyalty to David.”
The day of the hit was to be January 17, 2003, when Sir Elton was due to perform in Anaheim, California.
But Imad added: “I started to really worry about being implicated and at the start of 2003 I pleaded with him to call it off.
“He eventually said OK but told me I had to get his money back.
“The man only gave me £8,000 back so David lost £12,000 but at least Elton didn’t die.”
Dad-of-one Imad also reveals Gest was:
- BISEXUAL and infatuated by “dream man” Simon Cowell.
- DEALING drugs and had a crippling £500-a-day cocaine habit.
- BESOTTED with singer Amy Winehouse and had drug-fuelled parties with her.
- UNABLE to stop gambling and once blew £800,000 in one evening.
- FLOGGING fake Michael Jackson memorabilia from eBay at charity events.
The entertainer was found dead from a stroke at a London hotel with bottles of prescription drugs by his bed.
Imad, who started working for him in 2002, is angry after being left just £23,000 of Gest’s estimated £40million estate and has spoken of “the real David behind the lies”.
He said: “He dealt drugs, took drugs on a massive scale, had sex with who he wanted, hid his sexuality, gambled for days on end and was nothing like the person on TV.
“I’ve defended him as his best friend but people need to know the truth.
"He was a dangerous character and if he wanted you killed, he’d try and do it.”
Imad said he felt sorry for Liza because Gest, her fourth husband, made her “miserable”.
After their messy divorce in 2007, he said Gest’s affections turned to men.
He added: “He was obsessed with Simon Cowell. He was his dream man because of his power.
"David bragged that Simon had invited him to Lisbon with him because he was supposedly working there. I think it was in David’s fantasy.
"He’d talk about men, his love for well-endowed blokes.
"If anybody asked if he was gay, he flatly denied it but he regularly went to gay sex parties in the English countryside.”
Imad said Gest also fancied troubled Amy, who died in 2011.
He added: “He had a real thing for Amy. I went to a flat he owned and she was laying on his couch, they were spaced out on drugs.”
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He said Gest started using drugs after appearing in I’m A Celeb in 2006 and developed the £500-a-day cocaine habit.
He said: “Twice, in 2007 and 2008, I had to take him to a private hospital in Harley Street because he’d taken too much and was having palpitations.”
Gest also appeared in Celebrity Big Brother weeks before his death but had to leave early due to illness.
Imad, who now lives in Morocco, said that was due to drug withdrawal.
He said: “When TV work started drying up in 2013, David agreed to ferry drugs.
"Every six weeks he jumped on a Virgin Train to Manchester from London and handed over a gym bag full of drugs to dealers.
"He made £40,000 for some deals.”
Imad revealed: “Casinos would fly him to the US as he was such a big spender.
"In 2014, he blew £800,000 on slot machines in one night.
"To make money, he hawked memorabilia given to him by Michael Jackson.”
Imad added: “David bought hats and gloves off eBay for pounds that he passed off as Michael’s belongings. People paid thousands for them.
"David was a shameless fraud.”