The apparent 'real-life' Emily Charlton from The Devil Wears Prada has finally broken her silence after two decades. The first assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) was played by Emily Blunt in the 2006 movie, and is back for the new sequel.
Celebrity stylist Leslie Fremar has now come forward, claiming she is the inspiration behind the character in the book, which looked at author Lauren Weisberger's (the stand-in for Anne Hathaway's Andy Sachs) experiences under Priestly inspiration Anna Wintour for eight months at Vogue.
Confirming her identity, Fremar told Vogue's The Run-Through podcast: "No, I know I am. I am Emily."
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Recalling learning about Weisberger's book, she shared: "I got a call from Anna's office saying that she wanted to see me… [Wintour] said, 'Who's Lauren Weisberger?' And I said, 'She was your junior assistant. She was only here for a short period of time – maybe eight months'. And she's like, 'Well, she wrote a book about us, and you're worse than me'."
"I wanted to, like, ask more questions, but you can't really ask her that many questions," she added.
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Fremar claimed that an early copy of The Devil Wears Prada was "quite mean" and "dark" and they "softened" it for the final edit, nevertheless admitting it felt like a "betrayal" at the time.
"It just felt like this exposure," she reflected. "Even though someone obviously advised her to make it fiction, it was really based off of a lot of things that, you know, I lived, she lived."
The stylist confirmed that she "definitely" told Weisberger her famous line that "a million girls would kill for this job" as she "really believed" it, and her colleague "didn't necessarily wanna be there".
As for their relationship now, she revealed that they "never talked again after she left", and if they were to do so now, it would be "very awkward".
"I probably was not very nice, and I probably was high-strung because I felt like I was having to do her job as well," she continued of their time together. "So for me, that was really frustrating. I think she was probably just sitting there writing a book and not necessarily taking the job as seriously as I did."
During the chat, Fremar also recalled meeting Blunt, claiming that the actor wasn't particularly interested when she told her she was the real Emily.
"I said to her, I was like, 'I just need to let you know, I'm Emily'," she said. "She was not that interested, to be honest. I thought I was gonna get this, like, huge reaction. Like, no. It was like, 'Oh, OK.'"
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is released in cinemas on 1 May.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
