MASK OFF

Real-Life ‘Devil Wears Prada’ Villain Reveals Herself

The stylist who inspired Emily Blunt’s high-strung character in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ is speaking out.

Stylist Leslie Fremar is finally addressing the Devil Wears Prada rumor that has followed her for two decades.

Speaking on The Run-Through With Vogue podcast on Wednesday, Fremar just came out and said it. “She’s me—I am Emily,” she said, referring to Emily Charlton, the icy first assistant played by Emily Blunt in the 2006 film.

The admission lands as buzz builds around The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is slated for release Friday—and has reignited long-running speculation about who inspired the film’s characters. And while author Lauren Weisberger, 49, has never officially confirmed the real-life counterparts, the parallels have long been widely believed in fashion circles.

Before becoming a top stylist for A-list clients like Charlize Theron, Fremar worked at Vogue under editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, 76, as a first assistant. Below her was Lauren Weisberger, a second assistant who later parlayed her short, eight-month stint at the magazine into her 2003 New York Times bestselling novel The Devil Wears Prada.

GROUNDBREAKING

‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Is a Tragically Messy Knockoff

Nick Schager

Fremar said she didn’t even realize the book existed until Wintour herself summoned her.

“I get a call from Anna’s office saying that she wanted to see me,” Fremar recalled. “I was petrified.”

Instead of a dressing-down, Wintour had a question: Who exactly was Lauren Weisberger?

When Fremar explained she was a former junior assistant, Wintour reportedly delivered the kicker: “Well, she wrote a book about us, and you’re worse than me.”

That reputation stuck. In both the book and its film adaptation, Emily Charlton is portrayed as fiercely demanding, cutting, and unapologetically loyal to her boss—a characterization Fremar doesn’t entirely dispute.

“I definitely told her a million girls would kill for the job,” Fremar said of her time supervising Weisberger, adding that she still stands by it. “That was definitely my line because I actually really believed that, and I knew that she didn’t necessarily wanna be there.”

Still, Fremar admits she wasn’t exactly easy to work for.

“I probably was not very nice,” she said. “And I probably was high-strung because I felt like I was having to do her job as well.”

When she eventually got her hands on an early draft of the novel, she said it felt harsher than what readers ultimately saw.

THAT’S ALL

Anne Hathaway’s ‘Devil Wears Prada’ Bag Is Shockingly Cheap

Layne Van Vranken

“It was quite mean,” she said, noting that the final version had been “softened” before publication.

Even so, the experience left her feeling “betrayed” by Weisberger.

“It just felt like this exposure,” she said, noting that while fictionalized, much of it was rooted in reality. A lot of the material “was really based off of a lot of things that, you know, I lived, she lived.”

Despite the cultural phenomenon that followed the film—which grossed more than $326 million worldwide—Fremar said she and Weisberger have never reconnected in the two decades since her character’s debut.

“We’ve never talked about it—we never spoke again after she left,” she said, adding that any reunion now would likely be “very awkward.”

She also tried—unsuccessfully—to get a reaction out of Blunt, 43, who brought the character to life on screen.

“I thought I was gonna get this huge reaction,” Fremar said of telling the actress she was the inspiration. But instead, she got the impression Blunt “was not that interested” in learning more about the character’s origin.

Obsessed with pop culture and entertainment? Follow us on Substack and YouTube for even more coverage.

Tamilore OshikanluContributor

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.