Jodie Marsh blames 'trolls' for ruining animal sanctuary 'life dream'

Jodie Marsh has blamed online trolls for ruining her 'life dream' of running an animal sanctuary as she appeared in court today to appeal a council's licensing refusal.

The 46-year-old former glamour model said online trolls are behind much of the criticism of her animal sanctuary Fripps Farm in Lindsell, near Braintree in Essex.

The media personality, who trained as a bodybuilder, also defended taking a meerkat called Mabel to the pub during the case at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court today.

Marsh also defended taking a meerkat called Mabel to the pub during the case to appeal against Uttlesford District Council's decision to refuse her application for a wild animal licence to keep lemurs at her sanctuary.

She told the court: 'I've wanted an animal sanctuary since I was five years old - this is my life dream.'

Marsh also said that 'everybody in the public eye has trolls', adding: iconwin 'They lash out, they pick on you, as in my case.'

'When I was bodybuilding they trolled me for that, when I was modelling they trolled me for that; now it's the animals,' she said.




Former model Jodie Marsh outside Chelmsford Magistrates' Court in Essex this afternoon





Jodie Marsh (right) is at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court to appeal against a council's decision to refuse her application for a wild animal licence to keep lemurs at her animal sanctuary





Three protesters outside Chelmsford Magistrates' Court today where Jodie Marsh is appealing

Marsh appeared in the ITV series Essex Wives in 2002 and went on to feature in several reality shows and magazines.

Her Instagram account describes her as a 'former model and documentary maker. Now owner of Fripps Farm animal sanctuary'.



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Uttlesford District Council last year rejected an application for lemurs to be kept at the animal sanctuary, and Marsh is appealing against this decision.

Her lawyer Paul Oakley asked her a series of questions about a report, prepared for the council by vet Dr Stephen Philp, which raised questions about whether it was appropriate to grant the licence.

Marsh said the vet was 'basing his evidence off my trolls and neighbours'.

She described as 'banter' a comment, made in an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, that she took a meerkat called Mabel to the pub 'four nights per week'.

'That was banter, that was me being funny,' she said. 'Nigel and I laughed the whole time.'

She said she took the meerkat to a pub 'on a few occasions when I was hand-rearing her'.




Jodie Marsh founded her animal sanctuary Fripps Farm in Lindsell, Essex, in 2020 










Jodie Marsh told the court she had 'wanted an animal sanctuary since I was five years old' 

'The pub I would take her to was a friend's pub a mile from my house,' she said. 'It's a food pub, not a drinking pub. It's never busy in the week.'

She said she would go and get a 'bowl of chips or something for my dinner then come back'.



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'Most of the time when I did take Mabel to the pub nobody even knew she was there, she was in my jumper or in her case,' she said.

She said that 'it's not illegal to take a meerkat in a pub' and that Mabel 'was hand-reared from a baby, she lives with me in the house as well'.

Asked about a separate incident, Marsh said: 'The only animal I've given CBD to was the llama and the vet told me to give it to her.'

She said that an incident, where she lifted a goose by the neck while filming a video about ducklings, was 'so it wouldn't attack the baby ducklings' as the goose approached and that the goose was not hurt.

'I plopped it (the goose) onto the pond,' she said. 'I didn't swing it or throw it.'

She told the court that a horse 'certainly didn't bolt' during a photoshoot for a glamour calendar.




Jodie Marsh was a contestant on reality television show Celebrity Big Brother in 2006





Marsh (pictured in 2003) is a former glamour model, media personality and bodybuilder

'The horse wasn't scared, absolutely not,' she said, adding: 'He was loving all the fuss and he was only out for about five minutes tops.'

She said that the animal sanctuary was 'not overstocked, we have that in writing from Defra who are the only people who matter when it comes to animal welfare'.

Asked by Mark Smith, for Uttlesford District Council, about issues of noise in relation to lemurs, Marsh said: 'The noise was never a factor.'

'We're all set in five acres of land,' she said.

She added that her application 'didn't get rejected because of noise - it got rejected because I touched a goose by its neck and took a meerkat to bed with me'.

Marsh has previously spoken of how she has helped fund the animal sanctuary through her use of the website OnlyFans.

In 2023, she told BBC Essex that OnlyFans was 'amazing' and 'paid my staff wages for the first year'. She added: 'They all joke and say 'your boobs pay our wages'.'

The case continues.