New Coco Chanel biography claims drugs use, lesbian affairs, Nazi spy lover

London: A new Coco Chanel biography has claimed that the fashion icon used drugs, had lesbian affairs and loved a Nazi spy. Lisa Chaney’s forthcoming biography, ‘Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life’, lays bare hard evidence of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s use of opiates, as well as new insights into her bisexuality, multiple affairs and love with a Nazi spy. “Drawing on newly discovered love letters and other records, Chaney’s controversial book reveals the truth about Chanel’s drug habit and lesbian affairs,” the Daily Mail quoted Penguin as saying. “And the question about Chanel’s German lover during World War II (was he a spy for the Nazis?) is definitively answered,” Penguin stated. WWD goes one step further, saying the book is able to prove that the lover in question, Hans Gunther von Dincklage, did indeed spy for the Nazis throughout the Second World War. “Whether Chanel was aware of this is unknown, but after that war she lived in neutral Switzerland for a while, to avoid any proceedings against her,” WWD cited an email from Chaney’s Viking publicist. In the book, due for release in November, Chaney uses the newly discovered letters as well as documents from the Swiss Federal Archives to quell any doubt as to the truth of some of the less palatable aspects of Chanel’s colourful lifestyle. ANI