M&S model Noemie ‘attempted suicide in Paris’

The French model Noemie Lenoir, known in Britain for posing in lingerie ads for Marks & Spencer, is reported by the Parisian press to be out of danger having apparently attempted suicide at the weekend. She was taken to hospital in the capital after being found by a passer-by unconscious on the edge of the forest in the suburb of La Celle-Saint-Cloud.

Lenoir was said to have taken a cocktail of drugs and alcohol. As one French website put it, the 30-year-old had suffered "un gros coup de blues".

It seems the model, who has fronted campaigns for Victoria's Secret and L'Oreal as well as M&S, took the drugs at the home of Claude Makelele, the former Chelsea footballer who is now captain of Paris St Germain. He was her boyfriend for many years and the couple have a son.

Reports claim that she phoned the emergency services herself from his house, saying she "felt very ill", but then made a follow-up call cancelling the ambulance. She was then seen staggering towards the forest where she was discovered by someone walking their dog.

The French media say Lenoir has been suffering from anxiety as a result of the sex and blackmail scandal surrounding her new boyfriend, the 29-year-old Swiss nightclub owner, Carl Hirschmann.

Hirschmann is a notorious playboy who once had a fling with Paris Hilton. He is accused by Swiss police of plying young models with vodka-based cocktails at his Zurich club, the St-Germain, before videoing them in sex acts. He then demands cash in return for not posting the videos online, the police claim.

It is thought Makelele was not at the house when Lenoir was taken ill, but was attending a ceremony in Paris where he was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Only this week, he was asked by French manager Raymond Domenech to reconsider his retirement two years ago from international football so that he could join the French squad the World Cup. He refused. ·