Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)IT was meant to be an unforgettable night of high passion.
And it certainly was, but for all the wrong reasons for Spanish actress Loles Leon
She had spent a night dining and dancing in Madrid with actor Jeremy Irons and was invited back to the plush Santo Mauro Hotel for further shenanigans.
However, disaster struck when the star of Pedro Almodovar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! crashed down a flight of stairs in Irons’ suite.
Leon, from Barcelona, was left nursing a broken pelvis and wrist and had to endure 36 days in hospital in October 1999.
“There were 18 steps, and I fell to the bottom. I could have been killed.”
Now, after a decade-long legal battle, Leon, 57, who met Iron on set of TV programme Vertigo, has been awarded 44,000 euros in compensation.
“I went to turn the light on and I fell. I went flying. Everyone was screaming, including me,” explained Leon.
“There were 18 steps, and I fell to the bottom. I could have been killed.”
Leon initially demanded 551,000 euros but the Spanish Supreme Court found the hotel only partially responsible for not having emergency lighting.
Despite Irons, 61, having been married to Irish actress Sinead Cusack since 1978, Leon insisted that a night of romance looked to be on the cards.
“God knows what would have happened if I hadn’t fallen. I think he was up for it,” said Leon.
“We had a very good feeling all night. He was charming. We spoke in French about the theatre and writers.”
