Three months ago, the Moss family had a meeting in a pub in Notting Hill, West London.
Hosted by Nick, Kate Moss’ younger brother, it provided a rare opportunity for Kate to get together with her wayward half-sister Lottie – along with Peter, their father and his second wife Inger.
It was hoped that model Kate, 49, who has appeared on the cover of Vogue more than 40 times, would quietly forgive 25-year-old Lottie, who makes money by stripping naked for racy snaps on the tawdry website OnlyFans.
You may be wondering what the tattooed Lottie should be forgiven for. Those in Kate’s camp say the problem is her habit of aiming for her half-sister every time she talks, though her career direction is also a factor.
Unfortunately, neither woman came away feeling warmer towards the other. And Kate was apparently especially shocked to see Lottie’s recent facial tattoo – the word “lover” under her eye.
Opposite direction: Lottie Moss, left, and half-sister Kate Moss
A friend says: ‘She knows how valuable your face is as a model. It was the last straw. She loves her like a sister, but they have nothing to do with each other.’
Another source close to Kate says she believes Lottie has “cheapered” the Moss brand with her career direction — she’s been “modeling” for adult subscription websites since 2021.
The Moss name is something Kate is keen to protect as she steers the career of daughter Lila, 20, who models as Lila Moss rather than Lila Hack (her father Jefferson’s family name).
Lila is one of a select group of 20 represented by Kate’s very own Kate Moss Agency, founded in 2016.
Lila now lives in New York and has worked for her mother’s close friend, designer Marc Jacobs.
Kate is worried about her name. Her legacy is in her career, but also in Lila’s,” says a source. “The name Moss is dear. She thinks it is a big factor in making money and becoming a success.
“Kate doesn’t like being professionally associated with Lottie. There was a time when she floated the idea of Lottie using her mother’s maiden name instead of Lottie Moss,” the source said.
You can only imagine how unwanted Lottie would have felt as a result.
But the truth is that, despite sharing a father, their childhoods never coincided – and the age gap between them is huge.
Lottie grew up in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, with her travel agent father, Peter Moss, and her Norwegian mother, Inger Solnordal, his second wife. She attended the fee-paying Bede’s School in Hailsham.
Meanwhile, Kate and her brother Nick grew up a world away in Sanderstead, Croydon. Their mother, Peter’s first wife Linda, worked as a barmaid and Kate worked Saturday shopping jobs and hung out in the park drinking cider. School was the local comprehensive, Riddlesdown High School.
She was spotted at the age of 14 by Sarah Doukas, boss of the Storm modeling agency, at New York’s JFK airport; a shoot for The Face when she was 16 launched her career.
Both women have a rebellious outlook, but while Kate is considered the epitome of cool, Lottie’s rebellion makes her look lost.
Take the question of their numbers.
Kate, with a flat chest and loose teeth, and too small for the catwalk at 5ft 7in, was worlds away from supermodel perfection, but made a fortune of £40 million.
Lottie, 5ft 10in, had surgery as a teenager to give her the breasts she wanted so much, and changed her beautiful face with lip fillers.
Kate, with a flat chest and loose teeth, and too small for the catwalk at 5ft 7in, was worlds away from supermodel perfection, but made a fortune of £40 million. Six-foot-tall Lottie had surgery as a teen to give her the breasts she craved, and changed her pretty face with lip fillers
Lottie told a podcast this year, “I knew Kate was famous — growing up I idolized her. However, I never got much love or attention from her, which upset me. How do I tell people I don’t know her and she won’t answer my texts?’
That wasn’t always the case. After all, Kate invited her 13-year-old half-sister to be bridesmaid at her wedding to Jamie Hince in 2011. Lottie signed on for Storm, then Kate’s modeling agency, shortly after.
Lottie crowed—somewhat tactlessly—that her mother Inger had told her that no one had looked at Kate on her wedding day, but had marveled at Lottie’s beauty.
Although Lottie initially booked jobs with Bulgari and Valentino, these soon faded away and the trajectory of her career went downhill. She and Kate have hardly been seen together since.
Just before the pandemic, she went to California, where she said she turned her back on haute couture and its “toxic” people. However, she spent part of the lockdown with Kate in the Cotswolds, but moved on and left wine in the fridge, interpreted as a sharp remark about Kate’s sobriety.
For her part, Kate was said to have lamented Lottie’s heavy drinking and habit of posting suggestive messages on social media.
Subsequently, Lottie signed for OnlyFans and was dropped by Storm. This week, Lottie has sought publicity to promote her appearance on E4’s Celebs Go Dating, which airs tomorrow at 9 p.m.
In interviews, she took further lashes at her older half-brother in clear reference to Kate’s own reported struggles with substance abuse: ‘Obviously my sister has struggled with things herself. She can have that.
She doesn’t have to want a relationship with me. When I was younger I couldn’t understand it. I thought, “Why doesn’t anyone in my family want a relationship with me?” I do not get it.
‘But now I’ve learned, talking to other friends. . . that family is complicated. Just because she’s a really high-end model doesn’t mean it’s any different in our family. We just don’t agree on a lot of things. I love her. She’s my sister, but we’re just not close. It is what it is.’
Friends of Kate can’t argue with this, but wish Lottie would just stop talking about her: ‘Kate has kept her mystique by only giving a handful of interviews. But Lottie seems to treat them like free therapy and says the first thing that comes to mind.’
Sure, Lottie made headlines recently, commenting on rumors that she was dating married Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews.
“It’s not true,” she replied. Spencer is a great guy. We partied, but there was no more to it!’
She also added that she was in contact with Kate’s daughter Lila, which Kate’s friends dispute.
“Apart from family gatherings, they have very little to do with each other,” says one.
There are also other factors at play. Lottie entered rehab in Arizona in 2021 and said on social media that she had a “serious addiction to coke.” She now believes her struggles were in fact a result of undiagnosed ADHD, saying this week, “I’m in a very happy place in my life right now, being very true to myself for the first time in a long time.”
That face tattoo, which she got last year while drunk in Bali, was an expression of her newfound sense of freedom, she says, but she tends to cover it up with makeup.
Of course, Kate has had her own alleged struggles. Last November, she suddenly fell out of sight to recharge her batteries, coinciding with her breakup from her long-term boyfriend, Count Nikolai von Bismarck.
A friend of Kate’s says she has to be “very wary” and “on her guard” to stay sober. “It’s clear to her that she can’t be around people who drink heavily or do drugs.”
Lottie now plans to emulate her sister’s modeling agency by launching her own – or OnlyFans – models.
She said: ‘I have the right amount of knowledge and expertise to help girls with things online. As an agency, we manage their accounts. And I’ll make sure they get the money they deserve.’
She added, “I want to make sure the girls are taken care of.”
Who, one wonders, is looking after Lottie?