Jersey resident features in programme on Dubai's wealthiest

Friday 07 January 2022

A woman based in both Jersey and Dubai has featured in a new BBC documentary on the lifestyle of some of Dubai’s wealthiest residents.

Gaynor Scott appeared in the first episode of the ‘Dubai: Playground of the Rich’, flying on an £80,000 private jet round-trip to the island with her family.

A working-class-born woman from Stoke-On-Trent, Scott is married to one of the "richest businessmen in the Channel Islands", according to the documentary.

During the programme, she discussed the "exclusive", "ultra-private" gated community she lived in, and how her villa had once been rented by Victoria and David Beckham before the footballer went to the World Cup in Japan.

Pictured: One of Mrs Scott's 'designer' lifebuoys.

She also mentioned the "amazing" New Year's Eve parties held by the family of Robert Mugabe, who own property in the area.

Throughout the episode, viewers were shown round her house, seeing features such as her swimming pool with 'designer lifebuoys' from Hermes and Chanel.

"They do actually work, they are real lifebuoys in case we need them," she reassured the programme's crew.

After being serenaded by a pianist playing her favourite song as she went through the airport, being served a coffee with her face drawn in it and being provided with 25 separate bags of nibbles for the eight-hour flight, she explained how she wanted her daughter to understand not everyone lived the same way.

"There's good and bad things about seeing the wealth all the time. We feel very lucky bringing up our young daughter here, but when you live somewhere like this and you see a lot of wealth around you, I think it's really hard for the young age group," she said.

"She doesn't see me put the washing in the washing machine or doing the ironing - so that's something I want her to be aware of that not everyone's lives are like this."

Pictured: Mrs Scott had a coffee with her face on it to calm her nerves before her flight to Jersey.

The programme also followed Mrs Scott's house-staff. It was explained that her chef sends back "almost all" of her salary to pay for university fees for her son and support her low-earning husband, both living separately in the Philippines. It was added that the chef had seen her now 20-year-old son "just once a year since his first birthday."

"I really love working in Dubai, especially that I have found an employer, a very nice employer. I think they are one of the best, I always say they are one in a million, really in my heart, I would say that every day," she said, when describing working in the household.

Responding on Twitter to the programme, many viewers were taken aback by the programme's depiction of the wealthy Dubai lifestyle, with some labelling it as "obscene" and "vulgar".

One commenter asked: "Who's the comedian playing Gaynor in #InsideDubai? She's so funny. No idea how she's keeping a straight face with these lines."

British Solicitor Nazir Afzal OBE also commented on the programme more generally: "Given the revulsion of most to #Insidedubai, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dubai tourist board buy up every copy of the programme and burn it.

"If I was the Sheikh I would pay the BBC to never ever show future episodes. Absolutely appalling depiction of the rich/poor divide."