Her BMW sex with Hugh Grant fulfilled star's fantasy of being with a black woman and made her a millionaire. But now Divine Brown is a fugitive on the run from police... read her cry of anguish to the Daily Mail

Detailed summary

Divine Brown leveraged her tryst with the movie star to make $1.6 million dollars. Her life has since gone off the rails and she is now on the run from the law.

By NATASHA ANDERSON, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER and WILL POTTER IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Published: 15:29 GMT, 13 November 2026 | Updated: 15:41 GMT, 13 November 2026

Staring stonily at the Los Angeles Police Department's mugshot photographer, Divine Brown likely had no idea the snap would become one of the most iconic of the 1990s.

Indeed, the 1995 picture ended up making her a celebrity and millionaire, thanks to the identity of the man she was arrested for selling sex to: movie star Hugh Grant.

But 31 years after the seedy $60 encounter in Grant's white BMW on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, Brown has once again found herself in trouble with the law.

Her life appears to have spun badly out of control, with Brown, real name Estella Marie Thompson, now a fugitive on the run from police.

Brown, 57, is wanted by cops in a suburb of Atlanta where she now lives, over an incident at the dilapidated house where she rents a room. The single-story property is a far cry from the Beverly Hills mansion she previously owned.

She was arrested in January and charged with criminal damage over claims she deliberately damaged her landlord Reginald Southern's classic Chevrolet Impala sedan, according to a grand jury indictment.

The incident caused more than $500 in damage to the car, prosecutors alleged, with the Daily Mail obtaining a mugshot showing Brown with swollen eyes and unkempt hair.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Mail. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.