DP is a bodyguard - AMA

[1clavdivs]

AMA, and if I'm allowed to answer I will.

Are you Whitney Houston?

😂

Does he wear shades?

Do you trust him if they are women?

Do you worry about him getting killed.

What does he think about the recent Donald Trump incident in general,
and the fact that some of the close protection officers were women and smaller than Trump so when they formed a close ring around him his head was still clearly visible?

Are we right in all assuming your DP is male?

Yes, DP is male. Lol, definitely not Whitney Houston, just a very boring middle aged woman.

I used to worry about him getting killed or harmed in the early days before I'd realised that a lot of the job is doing things like figuring out routes to take, looking at where all the CCTV cameras are, and generally hanging around while the principal gets on with their life.

Donald Trump incident - he was just muttered something scathing about how the lot of them should be in trouble for not pre-planning, ignoring signs and generally not doing their job properly.

A bodyguard to who?

He wears shades a lot when we're out, I don't know if he does when he's working actually. He likes to face mirrored surfaces though.

I don't give it a second thought if he's working with women. He's very focussed on surroundings and says he's only ever treated like the hired help.

People of high net worth, potential political targets, celebrities.

Does he look like an obvious bodyguard? I work with a lot of people who use security and some are clearly doing it for the optics (vast, muscle bound guys who couldn’t run at speed because they’re so huge) whereas the serious ones have smaller wiry guys who blend into the background & are often ex forces and have that rat sticker on their cars (nice guys, all of them)

Yes, he very much looks like a body guard; he's 6'6'' and rather big generally. He does say this 'type casts' him for certain jobs; as you say there are a lot of close protection officers who are small and wiry, and tend to get the more interesting jobs (as he puts it). He says he tends to get hired for show as it's really clear what he's there fore. He's been considered as a flight Marshall in the past (long ago) and was turned down as they thought he'd be too big for the plan and too obvious.

to me it’s an interesting turning point in someone’s career when they (or their management) decide to hire someone like your husband!

With celebrities, it seems it's done mostly for show and to avoid over-zealous selfie-takers. So he'd be hired to be at gigs or festivals where they might come into contact with a large number of fans. He also gets hired, it seems, purely for show where he has to trail people who he says can be totally obnoxious around designer shops and in high end restaurants.

With political-type work, this tends to be where someone with a platform has criticised the wrong person (not UK politics btw). Then they know in advance that they're likely to become a target and get their security lined up. This is the sort of close protection work I worry the most about, tbh

Other than that the work is stuff that's connected to close protection but not bodyguarding itself; he has consulted on films for example, and had to stand in as an extra in film work. He does a lot of training, especially in martial arts, firearms, general security - that sort of thing. When he needs to for extra money he'll do bog standard door work, which tbh I feel is the riskiest of them all.

How much does he charge?

Does the job make him very hard or does he remember how to be at least low level kind to randomness?

Anywhere between £200 and £500 a day, depending on threat level, profile of the principal etc.

Does he have to do anything defensive very often?

He's an introvert so doesn't really chat much to randomns, but he's polite and very professional when he's working. He hates conflict so would rather de-escalate and divert than anything else. He's always switched on to potential threat and feels he's responsible for keeping the people he's with safe, even if he's not working, but he's pretty low-key about it. In his personal life he's extremely kind and generous.

Does his personality match his job? He is quite structured/organised? Or is he quite flaky and forgetful when off duty?

One more question: what is the most significant event is his career/personal experience?

Sorry, ignore my first lot of Qs you just answered them 😆

Not very much, unless he's not telling me (possible). If he's had to defend, it seems to have mostly been to do with paparazzi, press and fans with bad boundaries; sometimes he might have had to physically move people in that situation. I know he's had to do defensive driving to get people out of situations either in cars or on motorbikes. Generally he tries to do his homework so it doesn't get to that point, so he'll spend lots of time checking routes, checking vehicles etc.

Disorganised and flaky when it comes to things like housework. Very organised and structured professionally or if we're going anywhere and doing things. Very proactive; knows what I need before I need it and has it sorted - that kind of thing. Very practical in a lot of ways. Never forgetful, and very rarely wrong about things (annoying).

Not sure what the most significant event would be, he has a lot of anecdotes, a lot of people he's really proud of having helped or stopped from getting in trouble. He talks a lot about a period where he was training with Gurkhas in Nepal and that being a really significant experience, but he won't give me details.

What is his background that qualifies him for the role? Ex Police / military? Or did he go to bodyguard school?

I had a bodyguard (they called it Close Protection = CP) for 1 week, which I won’t go into. I had the same guy for the week and he was supported by a background team which I didn’t have any direct contact with just him. He was Navy Special Ops. Did find out he was married with small kids. I was only young then and this was before smart phones were invented but thought it must have been hard on his family as he seemed to have zero contact with them for a week. Have you had similar experiences? How did you find it? I wasn’t in the UK so my guy was armed but in the UK you can’t even carry a knife. How does he feel about not being armed? My guy said he didn’t particularly like CP in the UK for this reason as the most he could legally carry was a “useful torch”.