Sting's staff live in a climate of fear because his wife subjects them to gratuitous abuse to make her "feel royal", an employment tribunal has heard. The couple's former chef says Trudie Styler had her sacked for becoming pregnant and is claiming damages for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination. Jane Martin worked for Sting for eight years, cooking for celebrity guests such as Madonna, Sir Elton John and Bob Geldof.
In that time, she regularly ordered truffles by motorcycle dispatch from France and travelled 100 miles just to make soup for Miss Styler. And in return for her devotion to serving the couple's "flamboyant lifestyle", the accomplished chef was rewarded with lavish birthday gifts of Tiffany jewellery, cashmere twinsets, pashminas and a ruby and sapphire necklace. But when she fell pregnant at the age of 39, she suddenly fell from grace with Miss Styler, who she says forced managers to fire her in April last year.
Miss Martin, 41, from Winchester, told an employment tribunal employees were "entirely driven by fear of Trudie Styler" and her managers initiated a sham redundancy after she went on maternity leave. Miss Styler erupted with fury after the chef fell ill with gastroenteritis just months after she became pregnant, the tribunal in Southampton heard. She is said to have raged: "Who the **** does she think she is?
She's my chef in the UK. She needs to be available if I need her, or she should rethink her position." Accordingly, the chef's birthday gift, days after going on maternity leave, was less generous than usual - eight tulips.
Miss Martin told the hearing: "I believe that the redundancy process was a sham, commissioned by Trudie Styler. I am the only member of staff who made a point of standing up to Trudie. "Most members of staff made the mistake of trying to ingratiate themselves, which results in them demeaning themselves and Trudie picking on them.
Their behaviour is entirely driven by fear of Trudie Styler." When Miss Martin learned that a redundancy process had been initiated she wrote to management to protest at the move. She told the hearing: "The Lake House "management" was never going to expose itself to Trudie's gratuitous abuse by suggesting to her that she would be ill-served by losing me.
"My strategy was to dissuade her by making it too much effort, in the hope that she would go back to picking on those she found more conducive to making her feel royal." Miss Martin, who worked for Sting for eight years on a salary of 28,000, claimed she was forced to work 14 hours a day while heavily pregnant. But her boss Andrew Bowling of Lake House Estate - the company which runs the 800-acre property in Salisbury, Wiltshire - denied discrimination.
He accused Miss Martin of attempting to cash in on the fame and fortune of Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner. Mr Bowling said: "The Sumners played no part in this process and gave no instructions at the time. "It strikes me that Jane Martin had no genuine interest in working at Lake House and she just wanted to get a financial windfall.
I feel aggrieved that an employee who was treated well should seek to exploit the celebrity status of her employers. "This is an opportunistic claim. Because the Sumners are famous and wealthy, she would like a relative sum of that wealth.
" In a hearing last October a panel upheld Miss Martin's claim for unfair dismissal on the grounds that her employer had neglected to offer the chance to appeal. The panel is yet to rule on the allegation of sexual discrimination, which carries unlimited damages.
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