Naomi Campbell reveals iconic Skepta GQ cover was meant to stay private

Naomi Campbell has lifted the lid on her iconic GQ cover shoot with rapper Skepta, revealing that the photos were never initially intended to be published.

The supermodel chatted with Manny Norte on Capital Xtra when she shared the story behind her picture with the 37-year-old Energy rapper, real name Joseph Junior Adenuga, who was rumoured to be her boyfriend at the time.

“The [GQ] shoot that you done with Skepta with the Mains that was insane!" Norte began

The 49-year-old grinned as she responded: "Well can I tell you a secret about that, which I hope Skeppy won’t mind?"

"Junior actually, I don’t call him Skepta, I call him Junior. We basically did that shoot on our own, it wasn’t for any publication, and once I saw the pictures I was like ‘no, no, no we should come out.’ And so then I started making some calls."

The cover, which was released in February 2018, caused a stir online as the pair posed topless and each modelled a pair of boxers from the artist's MAINS fashion collection.

Campbell carried on: "It wasn’t like I was going to wait months for it to come out – it’s either got to come out in the next few or it ain’t coming out at all."

"So first I had to send someone with the pictures and da-da-da, and then, you know, of course Dylan [Jones] did have other people lined up for that cover. Dylan Jones from GQ, he had other people lined up, and so I was basically telling him “unline them”."

"And I was like ‘you need to put this [on the] cover!’ And actually I’ve gotta give him the credit, he did do it and he did push it up and it came out in March and I think, you know, for me it was for the culture. It was for us, it was for all of us."

"It was fun shooting it, and Junior just loves the camera. He’s great. And the whole team, we shot that in one day in New York, like hours, because I remember he got off a plane straight from London and came to the shoot."

The conversation then turned to Skepta and his new track with AJ Tracey Kiss and Tell.

"We don’t kiss and tell," said Norte said jokingly before the model confirmed: "We do not kiss and tell!"

"But we kiss though right?" Norte replied to which Campbell added, "We love to love…"

Elsewhere in the interview, she confirmed that she and fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington are part of a secret Whatsapp group.

“I mean, yeah, they’re family to me. I’ve grown up with them,” she revealed.

“You know, everyone’s out there doing their own thing and you know it’s really great when we do come together because Linda and Christy and Kate [Moss], you know, they’re my solids and so…”

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