Fiennes mile-high fling 'ruined my life'

The Age

LISA ROBERTSON: The former Quantas hostess says a fling with Hollywood actor Ralph Fiennes ruined her life.

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Lisa Robertson, the former Qantas flight attendant whose 2007 mile-high sex romp with actor Ralph Fiennes launched a million fantasies, now says the reality of the incident has probably ruined her life.

"It hasn't enhanced it any way," Robertson told The Age. "Not financially, personally or in any other way."

Told yesterday by a Melbourne magistrate her life had "spiralled downwards" since her fling with Fiennes, Robertson revealed she has recently been "coming to terms with liking myself again".

She spoke of not having many friends "because people have strange motivations for wanting to be friendly", and had struggled to form relationships.

Robertson admitted her colourful past - NSW undercover cop, the Fiennes fling, call girl and undischarged bankrupt - meant it was "embarrassing for some people to be associated with me".

But she wanted it known she was not bleating or crying poor.

She told The Age: "I don't want people to think I'm trying to get sympathy, because I'm not.

"I did what I did. Some people don't like me, it's clear, but I really don't care.

"I do not want people to think this is a 'poor me' story, because it's not how I am at all."

Robertson, 41, was yesterday convicted and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to charges including concealing AU$201,000 in payments by Channel Nine and a British newspaper about the Fiennes incident from bankruptcy proceedings.

Magistrate Phillip Goldberg, who heard Robertson abused alcohol after the notorious inflight toilet romp and was now a pensioner, said her life "since that time has spiralled downwards".

In the exclusive - and unpaid - interview with The Age, Robertson said she sold her story "when I was under a lot of pressure at that time to make a decision".

"I do regret it," she said. "If I had my day again I certainly wouldn't have opened my mouth."

"But when it comes to sex, the community acts in all different, weird ways," she said. "It's just so complicated and it makes me angry, all the hypocrisy."

She felt embarrassed and humiliated, has had major family issues and ongoing health problems, but longs for a rebuilt self esteem and not living as a housebound "hermit".

Robertson is also tired of being scrutinised and having people look at her and talk about her, promising that "when this is all cleared up" - including a future contested hearing into assault charges - "I'll go away for a long time and turn up a few years down the track".

"I sort of feel like I've lost a few years," she said, "but I'll get those years back, hopefully."

Robertson said the blaze of publicity earlier this year after she was charged with assaulting a woman in St Kilda caused witnesses to come forward in her defence.

She is due in court again later this month.

- © Fairfax NZ News