Apprentice star Baroness Brady today faces calls to tell all she knew about David Sullivan’s past, given her long association with the former West Ham chairman.
The former ad sales girl whose career has been closely tied to pornographer Sullivan’s for nearly 40 years, could find herself dragged into the controversy following the slew of historic sexual allegations against him revealed in last night’s BBC Panorama.
Approaches to Brady for comment led to a legal letter from high-profile media law firm Carter-Ruck, who said: ‘The joint-investigation by BBC Panorama and The Times has nothing whatsoever to do with our client.
‘The allegations which have been made against Mr Sullivan in a personal capacity do not relate to our client (or West Ham United), and it would be false and defamatory to make any suggestion otherwise.
‘Our client’s position is that she should not be included in any publication alongside the allegations which have been made against Mr Sullivan, given that they do not relate to her.’
When Brady, 57, resigned as vice-chair of West Ham in April, her parting statement failed to mention then chairman Sullivan, which sparked much behind-the-scenes speculation, given that the Panorama investigation into his past was widely rumoured.
Baroness Brady (pictured in 1995) faces calls to distance herself from David Sullivan’s (centre) past after he was accused of preying on women for sex. He denies any wrongdoing
Brady was appointed managing director of Birmingham City aged 23 when Sullivan co-owned the club and was vice-chair at West Ham for 16 years (pictured together around 1993)
In her 2012 autobiography Strong Woman, Brady wrote: ‘I have had David Sullivan in my life for virtually the whole of my career, and I know, if things get tough, that he will be on my side.
‘Loyalty goes both ways. And loyalty is created by mutual respect, by promoting people and allowing them to take credit for their work, and standing in front of them when things have not gone right.’
Elsewhere in her book, Brady, who has been a champion of women’s rights, despite the association with Sullivan’s business interests, tried to address the apparent paradox.
‘People tend to jump to conclusions about the pornography associations of Sport Newspapers, but I wasn’t working on any top-shelf titles,’ she wrote.
‘I was working on the Sunday Sport, and the paper was very different in those days. Nonetheless I still get criticism about that time – people say, “How can you stand up for women’s rights when you worked in the porn business?”
‘Well, the answer is that I didn’t work in the porn business. To me, that criticism is a bit like saying, “Sky has an adult channel, so if you work for Sky that means you work in pornography.” Of course it doesn’t.’
In 2019, questions were levelled at Brady over her links to ‘Sir Shady’ Philip Green after she quit as chair of his retail empire after two years.
The Labour MP Jess Phillips called on Brady to ‘answer to what went on under her watch’ following claims that Green’s company paid two staff about £1m each to settle sexual harassment and racial abuse claims.
The allegations included that the billionaire groped a female employee and told a black executive that his ‘problem’ was that he was still ‘throwing spears in the jungle’.
Two other female employees received hundreds of thousands of pounds each after alleging that Green had grabbed one woman by the face and put another in a headlock.
Brady, a Conservative peer, was chair of Taveta Investments, the company that ultimately owned the Green family empire of Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins outlets.
The Dragon’s Den star Duncan Bannatyne had described Brady as a ‘hypocrite’ for continuing to work for Green despite using her high profile to attack ‘serial predators’ such as the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, the actor Kevin Spacey and the former minister Michael Fallon.
‘I think it’s disgusting that she’s on the payroll of a billionaire who hasn’t got a great history with women,’ Bannatyne said before her resignation.
Brady (left, with husband Paul Peschisolido) at a West Ham game in September 2025 alongside Sullivan (second right, with partner Ampika Pickston)
Brady (left) serves as an aide to Lord Sugar (centre) on BBC show The Apprentice
When she quit, she refused to explain her decision and even a year later, she said she was still in touch with Green.
Asked how she could square her feminist credentials with some of the accusations made, Baroness Brady said: ‘I didn’t square them because I resigned so I think that says all it needs to say.’
Brady, who has built a reputation as one of the UK’s most prominent and successful female business leaders, has a track record of publicly shaming powerful men accused of sexual harassment.
She denounced Weinstein as ‘a serial predator with such colossal amounts of power that people think they have no choice but to put up with grotesque advances if they want a career in Hollywood’.
In her column for the Sun, she said: ‘What Michael Fallon [who resigned as defence secretary in 2017 over inappropriate flirtation], Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey [who was accused of sexually harassing actors] are accused of abusing their power in an organisation to get someone to do something they don’t want to do, or tolerate something they don’t like.
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‘Lots of men are asking: “When is it appropriate to touch a colleague?” If you are in doubt, how about… NEVER?’
In another column, she wrote: ‘It’s not just film. There is a Harvey Weinstein in every industry – the man at the top who abuses their power, who has no respect for women, who thinks women owe him something and it is a perfectly reasonable trade-off to exchange sex for work.’
In her book Strong Woman, she described Green thus: ‘He is without doubt the most dynamic, the most energetic, the most relentless businessperson I have ever come across, a whirlwind of energy and ideas.’
