Leaked texts suggest Playboy model begged Geoffrey Edelsten for cash after denying romance
Text messages have emerged appearing to detail conversations between former millionaire Geoffrey Edelsten and 26-year-old model Ashley Kirk, with the Playboy model begging the entrepreneur for thousands of dollars on various occasions to pay bills.
The leaked text message exchanges came just weeks after the American model denied being in a relationship with Edelsten, 73, who gushed to the Daily Telegraph last month about his new love.
“She’s gorgeous, articulate and fun and is attracted to me, I believe, because I’ve a lot to offer,” he said of Kirk, who works as an actress and model in Los Angeles.
Her manager Gisela Shiffer told the media last month Kirk was not in a relationship with Edelsten. However the Melbourne businessman claimed they were an item and that Kirk denied the reports only because she was upset she was not getting paid for a newspaper interview.
"She just told lies," Edelsten told the Daily Mail on Monday, verifying the messages.
"I don't have anything to do with her anymore, I don't respect her, and that's it."
In the text messages which seem to come from the busty blonde to beg for help with her rent and bills, while also sending the prominent Australian identity a "press kit", telling him she needed "to make millions".
On September 30 she appeared to ask if Edelsten could pay her rent for the month.
The texts show another request coming on October 7, asking for money to cover bills after a recent car accident. The messages claimed the woman's power has been cut off and she needed $5,000 to make ends meet.
"Babe I'm really in debt w credit from with hospital bills can u help me please [sic]," the text read, followed by a request of US $5,000.
When Edelsten said it equated to AU$7,500 and was "too much" his former girlfriend appeared to immediately threaten to leave him.
"What can u do? I have tried to stay with you and have been loyal," came a response.
The message conversation goes back and forth with the millionaire finally agreeing to send the model $2,500 to cover "urgent matters".
In other exchanges, the pair discuss an appearance together on Australian television, in which the messages believed to be from Kirk express disappointment in not being paid "a million" dollars for the interview.
The messages also include a number of sexy photos, where Kirk can be seen posing topless with her arm covering her breasts, and another laying on her bed wearing nothing but fishnet stockings.
Following weeks of text messages asking for sizable handouts, Kirk appears to tell Edelsten "I work hard! I want to be a successful business woman. No one ever handed me anything."
"Help me," it follows.
“I want to make lots of money,” the message to Edelsten states. “So I never have to be poor again.”
Expressions of love are exchanged throughout the messages, with Edelsten promising to make the woman's life "fantastic".
Kirk previously denied she was after the former doctor's money.
"He's made me look like a gold digger and I'm completely not," she told the Herald Sun earlier this month.
"I'm upset about that. I never wanted money. I never said that."
Edelsten, who denied leaking the text messages, told the Daily Mail he was disappointed in the whole situation. He said he had told many friends about the messages and assumed one of them had leaked them to the media.
Edelsten generated most of his wealth in Australia after selling the chain of 24-hour medical clinics he established for $28 million.
He declared bankruptcy in the US in 2014, prompting his bankruptcy trustee to launch Federal Court proceedings which resulted in Edelsten's Australian assets being handed to an administrator.
At the time, Edelsten was being chased by more than 40 creditors, including the Australian Taxation Office, for millions of dollars.
