Ambassador’s wife apologises for “cowgirl” photos

The wife of the Swiss ambassador to Berlin has apologised to the foreign minister, Joseph Deiss, for posing as a "cowgirl of the Alps" for a German magazine.

Shawne Fielding, a former Miss Texas, said she regretted the controversy and embarrassment caused by the pictures, which appeared in the German publication “Max”.

She added that she would not be attending the formal opening of the Swiss embassy in Berlin on Friday since it would lead to more media attention.

“In no way, Sir, have I ever consciously tried to harm you or Switzerland,” she wrote in her letter to Deiss.

Fielding, the 31-year-old wife of ambassador Thomas Borer, was pictured in a series of revealing photographs taken around the Swiss embassy in Berlin.

One showed her in a red miniskirt on the roof of the building, with the Swiss flag clearly visible. Fielding was also pictured in a strapless evening dress astride a horse on the embassy steps.

In her letter to Deiss, she promised that she would not pose for photographs of any kind in the future without written permission from the foreign ministry.

Fielding’s apology came less than 24 hours after she dismissed the uproar over the pictures as “an extremely narrow-minded reaction”.

In an interview with “Max”, Fielding denied there was a conflict of interest with her husband’s position as Swiss ambassador. “I am not paid by the Swiss government. I am merely the wife of the ambassador and I have my own life,” she said.

Photographs of Borer and Fielding frequently appear in the German press. Last December, Borer was hauled before Deiss after he made derogatory remarks on television about a rock star, who had been photographed with his wife.

swissinfo with agencies