Michelle Mone’s life coach speaks out for the first time in explosive new documentary investigating the £200million PPE scandal

Michelle Mone’s life coach has spoken out for the first time in an explosive new documentary about the £200million PPE scandal, claiming she is ‘sensitive’ and ‘never deliberately trying to mislead’ the British public.

The new Channel 5 documentary states that Dr Ted Anders, who lives in Ocala, Florida, has ‘never spoken so publicly and candidly about the woman he calls a friend’.

Speaking of the criminal probe into Michelle, 53, and her billionaire husband Doug Barrowman, 59, over a £200million deal to supply NHS personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic, the life coach insisted: ‘She’s never deliberately trying to mislead.’

He added: ‘She is actually very sensitive. It hurts when the press goes at her.’

Despite being based in Florida, Dr Anders has known Glasgow-born Michelle for nearly 25 years.

‘Michelle and I were introduced in 2000,’ said Dr Anders. ‘She immediately came across as one of these bright, creative, energised, impassioned people.’

But the qualified life coach also saw some ‘remnants of insecurity’ in Michelle. ‘Perhaps from the early very tough economic childhood in public housing in Glasgow,’ he theorised.

After growing up in a cramped tenement flat where her brother died young and her father fell seriously ill and became paralysed at the age of 38, Michelle left school at the age of 15 to become a model.

Described by her long-time friend Dr Anders as a ‘bold, hard-wired entrepreneur’, Michelle did not stay modelling for long and launched her bra company Ultimo in 1996. The gel-filled lingerie hit the shelves of Selfridges by 1999.

Michelle lived the ultimate rags-to-riches story and Dr Anders told the documentary crew: ‘There was a lot of jealousy watching Michelle who had not gone to public schools finding her way up, up, up and a lot of people were cruel.’

Indeed Rod Stewart famously branded the entrepreneur as ‘a manipulative cow’ when she dropped his then girlfriend (and now wife) Penny Lancaster as an Ultimo model in favour of his ex-wife Rachel Hunter.

‘I don’t think Penny has got a single bad bone in her body,’ the Forever Young singer told The Sunday Mail at the time. ‘But Michelle’s entire skeleton reeks of self-interest.’

Years later, the self-made lingerie tycoon would garner more media attention when she threatened to take her business out of Scotland if the nation voted ‘yes’ in the 2014 independence referendum.

She told the Sunday Times: ‘I will move my business and I will move personally.

‘I don’t think we can survive on our own and I think it would be really bad for business.

‘Everything would go up and I really don’t think we need it at the moment.’

Although Dr Anders said he was ‘never quite clear’ on what Michelle’s politics were, he said he was visiting her when David Cameron first reached out asking if she would like to be a Baroness.

‘The main remit that David Cameron wanted was for her to be Michelle, be this entrepreneurial model,’ said the life coach.

Michelle was appointed to the House of Lords in 2015 – an action that arguably led her to founding a PPE company in early 2020 and selling masks to the government for millions of pounds.

Summarising the case against Michelle and her husband in the explosive new documentary, Jo Maugham KC, a campaigner at the Good Law Project, said in the documentary: ‘Michelle Mone took advantage of her political connections to sell, at an enormous profit, to the government duff PPE.’

PPE MedPro was set up on May 12, 2020. The government subsequently bought £80million worth of face masks from the company as well as £121million worth of surgical gowns.

It later emerged that Michelle had emailed Michael Gove, who was the Cabinet Office minister responsible for PPE procurement during the pandemic, recommending PPE MedPro on May 8, 2020 – four days before it was even registered with Company House.

During the pandemic, Michelle lived on the Isle of Mann with Doug and the pair were married there in a lavish wedding ceremony before embarking on a honeymoon in the Maldives.

Commenting on their union, Dr Anders said: ‘Michelle finally found a man that is so strong and entrepreneurial himself that he understands the power, the strength and the light of Michelle.’ 

As the press caught wind of PPE MedPro, Michelle said she had absolutely no connection to the company but later admitted to lying to the press, and by extension the British public, in order to protect her children.

In a car-crash interview with Laura Kuenssberg, the lingerie tycoon revealed her husband stood to gain a staggering £60million profit from the deal but continued to deny she did anything wrong.

‘I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer,’ the Baroness told the BBC. ‘I can’t see what we’ve done wrong.

‘Saying to the press I’m not involved to protect my family, can I just make this clear, it’s not a crime.’

Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail columnist and former health minister, also makes an appearance in the new documentary.

She said: ‘It’s really important because that is taxpayer’s money that was paying Michelle Mone at the same time as nurses died.

‘At the time when nurses were cutting up black bin bags in order to protect themselves, she was using her contacts to get a PPE contract.

‘She lied for three years to the press, lied to her own lawyers.’ 

Supporting his friend in the new documentary, Dr Anders said: ‘I know from conversations with Michelle and in her life that she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. 

‘She doesn’t want to treat anyone badly, she just wants to get to her goal. 

‘She’s never deliberately trying to mislead. She is actually very sensitive. It hurts when the press goes at her.’

Providing an insight into Michelle’s thinking around the PPE scandal, he added: ‘She really felt like that was an example of what David Cameron had her join the Lords for – model entrepreneurship, especially in difficult times.’

The Channel 5 documentary ends on a poignant note as Dr Anders gives his long-term friend some advice.

‘I would suggest to Michelle that what she has been through is obviously a really tough set of experiences,’ he tells the cameras. 

‘I would say now pick yourself up and use your notoriety and your celebrity to do greater good in the world. 

‘That’s the advice I would give her now.’

ITN Production’s Channel 5 documentary The Michelle Mone Scandal: Where Did Our Money Go? airs on Monday January 20th at 9pm.