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Chloe Green

Chloe Green and Jeremy Meeks are polar opposites. She is the heiress to a billion-pound fashion empire and he is a handsome former convict, who became an online sensation after his mugshot went viral.

So when pictures the pair kissing passionately aboard a superyacht on the Mediterranean emerged online, social media went into overdrive and more than a few eyebrows were raised.

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Insiders tell the Sun that the 26-year-old Topshop heiress is "quite taken" with the married father-of-two after meeting at Cannes in May, but her protective father Philip Green is "likely be concerned his daughter is getting close to a married former gangster."

At the risk of giving her father heart palpitations, she defiantly confirmed the romance with a snap of her jailbird lover on Instagram that read: "Just the beginning... We appreciate all the love and the hate."

She later deleted her Instagram account after receiving a barrage of abuse from disappointed fans who accused Meeks of cheating on his wife of eight years, Melissa Meeks.

Body language expert Judi James is not surprised that Green, who previously dated Jennifer Lopez's ex-husband Marc Anthony, is pursuing a relationship with men with an edge.

She says the pictures show an intent to flaunt what is looking like a very intimate relationship. "In all the other poses it's very clear that Chloe wants to stamp her power all over their signals, either with her arm slung around his neck or sitting on his lap and using him as a chair as she lounges back puffing on a fag," she explains.

"These power displays suggest this is/was part of a Lion-tamer relationship, several steps on from the normal 'Bad boy' fling and showing the power to attract and then tame a guy who has 'previous.'"

Lion-tamer syndrome

In 2014 Meeks, whose piercing blue eyes and chiselled looks earned him the title 'World's most handsome criminal', was charged with possession of a firearm and gang activity, and sentenced to 27 months in prison. Upon his release in March 2016, the father-of-two embarked on a fashion career, saying he was a changed man after finding God.

Despite Meeks' desire to distance himself from the 'hot convict' brand and reinvent himself as a model, James believes that it is his checkered past that makes him so attractive to Green.

"Jeremy is undeniably beautiful but it's his 'Hot Felon' tag that is proving irresistible to some women. Tame him and you boost your own status and power-levels plus you get to feel protected from the rest of the world by dating a 'tough guy,'" she explains.

"This syndrome has been growing with the TOWIE generation who seem to adore having a relationship with their own beast in captivity, being photographed on prison visits and presumably assuming they now have their own alpha male who is unable to cheat on them while locked away. (Wrong in some cases!)"

James adds that Green's father may be the reason she was drawn to Meeks, saying that women that have a penchant for bad boys "often have a strong alpha paternal influence in their lives which might make it difficult to find a guy who can match or even outdo their power-levels.

"When the status comes from wealth it might seem easier to sidestep any rival budding entrepreneurs and opt for the physical alpha instead. If the guy involved happens to be married it might just seem to enhance the woman's feelings of victory in 'winning' someone else's prize. You can almost feel the diamante collars being slipped around the bad boys' necks as the women involved assume they have achieved power by proxy."