A new biography, published by a very respected publisher yesterday, claims legendary designer Coco Chanel willingly collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. She also had a spy code-named “Westminster”, had a German officer for a lover, and was deeply anti-Semitic. She apparently even went on missions to help recruit new agents willing to serve Germany.

The book is called Sleeping With The Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War and was published by Alfred A. Knopf. It was written by Paris-based American journalist Hal Vaughan.

Understandably, a representative for the Chanel fashion house immediately poured doubt on the book’s allegations:

“What’s certain is that she had a relationship with a German aristocrat during the War. Clearly it wasn’t the best period to have a love story with a German even if Baron von Dincklage was English by his mother and she (Chanel) knew him before the War. As for being anti-semitic, she would not have had Jewish friends or ties with the Rothschild family of financiers if she were.”

[Source: EWN]