8 of Naomi Campbell's Biggest Scandals: Financial Misconduct, Blood Diamonds, Assaults and More

Naomi Campbell started dealing with her drug addiction in the early 1990s, and the grief she dealt with made her battles more challenging to face.

In 1999, she infamously collapsed during a photoshoot and initially claimed she only used cocaine at the time.

“When you try to cover something up, your feelings — you spoke about abandonment. I tried to cover that with something. You can’t cover it,” she said in the Apple TV+ documentary series, The Super Models. “I was killing myself. It was very hurtful.”

The incident led her to check into rehab, and she called the move “one of the best and only things I could have done for myself at that time.”

In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Campbell admitted to first trying the drug when she was 24. But apart from her cocaine addiction, she also struggled due to her alcohol use. She finally gave it up in 2012 and claimed she started feeling better without it.

The Cool as Ice actress has been slapped with more abuse allegations over the years.

The British model was charged with second-degree assault in March 2006 after she admitted to throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper, Ana Scolavino, during a dispute, which left the staff with an open wound in the back of her head.

"She must have suffered some pain and Naomi was sorry about that," Campbell's then-lawyer, David Breitbart, said after their appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court. "As I told the judge, with her history of people threatening her, with her history of people stalking her, it would be a dangerous thing for her to be doing community service outdoors."

In November 2006, maid Gaby Gibson — who worked for her from November 2005 to January 2006 — filed a civil lawsuit, accusing Campbell of personal injury, civil assault, employment discrimination and battery after the Zoolander 2 star allegedly struck her in the head. They settled the case for an undisclosed figure in January 2009.

Former assistant Amanda Black, who was hired in February 2005, also sued Campbell after suffering from a series of "verbal, physical and emotional attacks" throughout her employment period.

Campbell's vicious temper was further publicized when she was arrested for assaulting a police officer at Heathrow Airport in April 2008. The incident reportedly started after she learned one of her three bags went missing on a British Airlines flight.

The Chiffy Kids alum was also cuffed for disorderly conduct with a British Airways staff, leading the airline to ban her for five years. Months after the April 2008 incidents, she pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting police and one public order offense.

Speaking about the airline assault, Cambell revealed what had left her fuming at the time.

"I was called a racial name on that flight and that was part of my reaction," she told Sky News. "I was called a 'Golliwog supermodel' — I don't think that's really fair, do you?"

In 2010, the New York City police chased Campbell after she allegedly hit her limousine driver on East 58th Street before leaving the scene. The driver did not press charges, but police said he sustained extensive bruising after the incident.

A representative later addressed the issue in an interview.

“There shouldn't be a rush to judgment. Naomi will cooperate voluntarily, and there is more to the story than meets the eye," the representative told Extra.

The I Feel Pretty actress made headlines after she admitted to receiving blood diamonds as a gift from Charles Taylor. During her court appearance in August 2010, she revealed she did not know Taylor and that she had no idea what the diamonds were until she spoke about them with her then-agent.

According to Campbell, she donated the diamonds to the then-head of Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Jeremy Ratcliffe.

Campbell found herself in her latest predicament after the Charity Commission found "multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement" at her charity, Fashion For Relief, leading her to be banned from being a charity trustee in England and Wales for five years.

The three-year inquiry found that the organization was "poorly governed and had inadequate financial management," with only 8.5 percent going toward charitable causes between April 2016 and July 2022, as most of the funds were spent on Campbell's trip and personal expenses.

Campbell responded to the Charity Commission's findings in a statement, saying the verdicts were "deeply flawed."

"First of all, I recognize that, as the face of Fashion for Relief, I am ultimately responsible for its conduct," said Campbell. "Unfortunately, I was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization, and I entrusted the legal and operational management to others."