A restaurant owner has taken to social media to publicly criticise some of the Real Housewives of Cheshire stars for asking for a free meal and drinks.
Chis Laidler, the owner of independent wine bar and small plate restaurant Convino in Chester shared a screenshot on Twitter of an email he received from a member of ITV’s public relations team.
The message asked if they could provide a 'complimentary dinner and drinks' to Dawn Ward, Rachel Lugo and Perla Navia during a visit to Chester, in return for social media promotion, CheshireLive reports.
The email continued: "All ladies have a large following and would be able to promote the restaurant. They would be looking for a table around 7pm for 5 people."
Mr Laidler reposted the email screenshot with a vomiting emoji and received thousands of comments on social media, sparking a discussion about the integrity of celebrities who use their fame to ask for freebies.
One user said: "Absolute state of this, begging letter to a small business so millionaires can have a free dinner."
And another tweeted: "Everything that's wrong with the world now - 'I have followers, give me stuff'."
Speaking to CheshireLive, Chris described the email as 'just embarrassing'.
"I just think it's a shame that they have to operate like that really, abusing their position when so many young girls look up to them as role models," he said.
"I didn't respond to them because we're closed on a Monday so I missed the email but I know they do it to other restaurants all the time.
"And for the larger businesses, I do understand why they give away free stuff in exchange for promotion but for us, as a small independent business it leaves a bitter taste.
"I'm working for peanuts, on my hands and knees scrubbing floors and would have been down around £300 for a few seconds of 'advertising' on Instagram - it's just not on really," he added.
A number of other Chester restaurants tweeted that they too had been approached with a similar query.
