Jill Kelley plans to write a tell-all book about David Petraeus scandal
Jill Kelley, the Florida socialite at the centre of CIA director David Petraeus downfall, is planning a tell-all book, according to friends.
Jill Kelley, 37, is understood to have held preliminary talks with publishers to tell her side of the story that led to the resignation of General David Petraeus.
“Trust me, there is going to be a book in the New Year. You can count on it,” said a friend of the Tampa socialite.
She has not spoken about her pivotal role in the scandal which led to David Petraeus’s affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell being exposed last month.
David Petraeus, 60,resigned as CIA director when the affair became known following an FBI investigation that was sparked by Jill Kelley.
Another senior military figure, General John R. Allen, became embroiled in the scandal after allegedly exchanging inappropriate emails with the Tampa based Jill Kelley.
The mother of three had befriended David Petraeus and General John Allen when they were both stationed at US Central Command at the MacDill Air Force Base near her home overlooking Tampa Bay.
She threw lavish parties for the generals and used her connections to military to visit the White House on three occasions.
Jill Kelley was also accused of using her high powered connections to try to secure an $80 million check by brokering an energy deal between a New York businessman and her contacts with the South Korean Government.
Jill Kelley, the Florida socialite at the centre of CIA director David Petraeus downfall, is planning a tell-all book
Friends say Jill Kelley’s book will be “payback” for the humiliation she has suffered since her name became linked to the scandal.
“Jill is very angry, and it’s fair to say she wants to tell her side of the story,” said a friend.
“She has been lampooned on Saturday Night Live and feels she has been made to look like a fool.
“She said her best way of putting the record straight is a book. A TV interview only lasts a few minutes, but a book is there all the time. That is why she has said no to doing any TV. She wants it to be a matter of record and will do TV when the book comes out.”
As an apparently wealthy socialite who schmoozed some of America’s most senior military figures, Jill Kelley has an intriguing story to tell.
With its ingredients of sex, spies and lies any book would likely be a best seller – and generate a large sum of money for the cash-strapped Kelleys.
Jill Kelley and her cancer surgeon husband Scott have faced the embarrassment of having their personal financial details made public.
They owe millions to banks and facing foreclosure on their $1.3 million mansion overlooking Tampa Bay.
Jill Kelley, who enjoys shopping for designer clothes, is being chased for $25,000 in unpaid credit card bills
But despite her perilous financial state being laid bare she told friends the most humiliating part was being compared to the reality star Kim Kardashian.
Jill Kelley and her sister Natalie Khawam have been nicknamed the “Tampa Kardashians”.
A colonel at the MacDill Air Force Base said many people there were considered her a military groupie and likened her to the Kardashians.
“Of everything that has been written and said about her, that is what hurts the most,” said the friend.
“She finds it insulting as the Kardashians go out of their way to get publicity. Jill did not seek any of this.”
As part of the fallout from the scandal Jill Kelley’s role as a goodwill ambassador to the MacDill Air Force Base has been suspended.
She has also been stripped of her title of Honorary Consul that was bestowed upon her by South Korea.
Officials with the South Korean Government said she losing the title for misusing it for personal gain.
Jill Kelley received no official privileges from the title, but did try to claim diplomatic protection when the media swarmed over her house after her name became linked to the scandal.
She has also been ordered to remove the vanity license plate that says Honorary Consul from her silver Mercedes.