Rock and dole: Elliott sells off designer gear to make ends meet

KARLA ELLIOTT, the former glamour model and rock star wife now living on social welfare, sold her designer clothes collection in a car boot sale to try to make ends meet.

The 46-year-old divorcee, who was married to Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott, has been ordered by the Employment Appeals Tribunal to come up with unpaid wages for an employee of her failed beauty salon.

But in weekend newspaper interviews, the mother of one revealed she had nothing left from her one-time luxury lifestyle when she jetted around the world in designer outfits, drove a Ferrari and hosted parties at her exclusive Killiney home that everybody who was anybody wanted to attend. “I’m on Lone Parents allowance,” she said. “It’s not much. It certainly helps. I’m very grateful for anything. I’ve never had to ask for help ever in my life.”

The tribunal also heard that Elliott was in rented accommodation and on a waiting list for a local authority house. She said she had sold the home she had since her divorce from Joe Elliott to invest in Sanas, the beauty salon she bought in 2007.

The business closed suddenly in 2009, leaving staff owing wages. One staff member took her to the tribunal for €1,236 in unpaid wages which she has been ordered to pay or risk facing further legal proceedings. Elliott said in Sunday newspapers, however, that she had nothing left as she had sold all her possessions, including her jewellery and car, while her clothes went in car boot sales. “Everything I had went into the business and I lost hundreds of thousands,” she said.

“The recession was a huge factor. There are businesses which have been in business 50 years closing. I sank everything I had to try and keep it going which made it even worse.”

She said she had to remain positive for the sake of her 12-year-old daughter, whose father is a former fiance, but didn’t know what she could do to pay her debts or how she would get her life back on track.

After her break with Joe Elliott, she also dated Conrad Gallagher, but that relationship also soured. She said, however, she did not rule out romance in the future.