The model whose pet inspired the Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster headline has revealed for the first time what actually happened.
Louise Fox spoke following the death of the controversial comedian in his Spanish home, at the age of 76.
The Merseyside-born entertainer rose to fame in the 1970s with his wild humour and unpredictable behaviour on stage and on TV.
He made headlines in 1986 when with the notorious story about putting the live pet - called Sonic - in a sandwich and sticking it in his mouth.
Louise, who was known by her stage name Lea La Salle at the time, was good friends with Starr back in the 80s and he would regularly stop over at the home she shared with her fiancé in Aigburth, Liverpool, when he was touring the north west.
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She said: “It was my hamster. It was a long, long time ago and it’s not the same story that was printed in the paper.
“The thing was it arrived in the paper five years after the event and it was all misconstrued.
“He had the hamster in the sandwich but nobody ever said he ate it.
“There was nobody more shocked than me when that headline came out.
“He had been working in Wythenshawe and we had all been late back and he was nearly always hungry.
“He would often say “go and make me a butty” and this particular time I said “sod off go and make your own”.
“So he just went and got two big slices of bread, doorstop things, and buttered them and when he sat down on the settee he had the hamster between them.
“He did bite into the bread, but not the hamster. I was upset because the hamster was covered in butter which took two days for it to lick off.”
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Louise, who is now 56 and lives in Desford, Leicestershire, said she knew Freddie for about six years - his pet name for her was Doris - but had not been in contact since the 80s.
She said the story was put in a newspaper by disgraced PR man Max Clifford, to help raise Starr’s profile after a lull.
She was shocked by the news of his death last night, even though he had been such a difficult character at times.
She said: “It’s sad about Freddie - we knew him very well.
“He use to come and stay with us and he was totally unpredictable and very energetic. You never knew what he was going to do next.
“It was all very sad about him falling off his pedestal.
“Lea La Salle was my stage name back when I knew him and I was not always terribly happy with him in the years that followed about about what he said.
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“I was very bitter about it and don’t think it did my career any good whatsoever.
“People would say I benefited hugely but I never did, but I think it may have rekindled his career. Max Clifford had a lot to do with that.
“But I’m very sad for poor Freddie so it is all bitter sweet.
“We had brilliant times with him. He would stay with us when he was in Liverpool because he hated hotels.
“I was modelling, doing all sorts of things like beauty contests in the 80s, and the publicity that arose from that story didn’t help because it was a bit detrimental to me.
“But Freddie was always up on a platform - that was just the way he lived his life.
“He was also quite a low character who felt that everybody wanted a slice of him.
“But he was not a bad lad really, and it was quite sad the way things came about.
“He lit a lot of people’s faces up and was probably the funniest person many people had ever met.”
