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SYDNEY - The flight attendant who admitted having in-flight sex with actor Ralph Fiennes has revealed she worked in an Auckland brothel while employed by Qantas.
Lisa Robertson, 38, told the Sunday Telegraph she worked in the Pelican Club in Auckland, then earned up to A$2000 ($2300) a
night as a prostitute when she returned to Sydney.
She told the paper she first turned to prostitution in New Zealand when she was struggling to pay bills while working part-time for Qantas, which sacked her after her mile-high antics with Fiennes were made public this year.
"One day I got home (from a long-haul flight) and my phone's cut off, the electricity's cut off, the car battery's flat, I had all these bills to pay and no money to pay them," she told the Telegraph.
"When I was working undercover (as a police officer) I had to pretend to be a prostitute so I found I could detach myself from the reality and treat it like a role.
"The mind is a very powerful thing and I thought if I could do undercover work I could do anything."
Robertson said she earned just $29,000 a year while based in Auckland for Qantas, working on long-haul flights.
Working under the name Kendall, she earned between $500-600 a night at the Pelican Club.
She said her first client was a wealthy businessman who paid her $1000 to have dinner with him, before flying her to New York for several days.
Robertson returned to Sydney last year and continued working in a brothel, but was sacked after being spotted getting into a taxi with a client at the end of her shift.
She also admitted she took one shift at another brothel immediately after Qantas suspended her for having sex with Fiennes in a business-class toilet on a flight from Darwin to Mumbai in late January.
"After I got (suspended) because of the Ralph Fiennes incident, I worked one night a week at The Gateway Club under the name of Skye," she said.
"I did one night's work because I couldn't pay the rent and I was too proud to ask anyone for money. I earned A$800 that night and then, two days later, the story broke."
Robertson said her decision to turn to prostitution was linked to her lifelong battle with mental illness, including suicidal tendencies and depression, which was exacerbated by her 14 years as an undercover police officer.
She hasn't seen any money from several paid interviews about the Fiennes incident after being declared bankrupt when she racked up A$500,000 in legal bills after losing a negligence case against the police force.
- NZPA