The businesswoman at the centre of a controversy involving Boris Johnson said the prime minister cast her aside as though she was a ‘gremlin’ after she tried to contact him for advice on how to handle the media interest.
In an interview with ITV Exposure, Arcuri continued to refuse to say whether an affair took place and again would not be drawn on the nature of their relationship on the programme, but did say she had come under pressure from friends to “admit the affair”.
She said: “When the story broke half the people that reached out told me to categorically deny, deny, deny the other half told me to, admit the, er, affair, fall on the sword get it over with.”
Addressing Johnson directly, she said: “I’ve been nothing but loyal, faithful, supportive, and a true confidante of yours. I’ve kept your secrets, and I’ve been your friend.
“And I don’t understand why you’ve blocked me and ignored me as if I was some fleeting one-night stand or some girl that you picked up at a bar because I wasn’t – and you know that.
“And I’m terribly heartbroken by the way that you have cast me aside like I am some gremlin.”
Johnson has said his dealings with Acuri were “done with complete propriety”.
Asked by journalist John Ware if she wished Johnson had declared their relationship as an interest, Arcuri said: “I didn’t know anything about having to declare me.
“Now if you’re asking if he had declared me, would I have preferred that to avoid all of this humiliation? Absolutely.”
She said she became “collateral damage” from the controversy while Johnson escaped “unaffected”.
“When I expressed the interest to want to speak to him, I was told there are bigger things at stake and I was brushed off as if I was one of Kennedy’s girlfriends showing up to his White House switchboard, you know, here to do my, you know, calling,” Arcuri said.
“And I felt so disgusted and humiliated that I was told bigger things are at stake, never mind you, he’s too busy for you.”
When Boris Met Jennifer will air on ITV at 11.05pm on Sunday November 17.