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Coronavirus: KFC heiress pledges to raise $1m to support LGBT+ community amid pandemic

Kaila Methven. (Madame Methven)
Kaila Methven, above, is a model and fashion designer, and the heiress to the KFC fortune. (Madame Methven)

KFC (YUM) fortune heiress and celebrity lingerie designer Kaila Methven has pledged to raise $1m (£800,000) for members of the LGBT+ community who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Co-inciding with Pride month, Methven’s newly-launched charity PLUR — Peace Love Unity Respect — will hire LGBT+ people, as well as domestic violence suvivors and recovered alcoholics, as independent contractors.

In addition to helping the community secure employment in the lucrative fashion industry, a percentage of the programme’s proceeds will be donated to LGBT+ charities.

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While the coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on the daily lives of everyone in UK, national health organisations have warned that LGBT+ people could be disproprtionately impacted due to higher rates of HIV, cancer and smoking, as well as health care discrimination.

“The Independent Contractor Program primarily assists the unemployed and disenfranchised members of the LGBTIQ+ community, the domestic violence survivor community of both men and women, and the sober living community community,” said Methven.

The 28-year-old is the heiress to the KFC fortune. Her grandfather Stanley Methven founded the South African company Rainbow Chicken Limited, which at one time supplied 90% of KFC’s chicken.

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She interned at her first Paris fashion show at just 16 years old, before attending the International Fashion Academy in Paris.

Methven has now dressed some of the world’s highest-profile celebrities, including Demi Lovato, Katherine McPhee, stars of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Abigail Ratchford and more, through her highly-acclaimed lingerie label Madame Methven.

She plans to raise money through sales of her new festival lingerie line, Special K, among other means “to help as many people as possible.”

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“I want my contribution to the world to be the soldier spreading the message and true meaning of PLUR,” Methven said.

“I aim to use my voice as a philanthropist, it’s my dream to make a difference in the world.

She added: “This is the beginning of days, we all unite globally as human beings.”

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