One lover cheated, the other was accused of sleeping with a minor. The truth about why M&S model Noemie Lenoir tried to take her own life

She was in a pitiful state when she arrived at the hospital in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the suburbs of Paris: her hair was caked in dirt; there were cuts and bruises on her body; her face was emaciated.

To the medical team, the young woman found unconscious on a forest footpath and now being wheeled into casualty wearing an oxygen mask was just another sad statistic, someone who had apparently tried to end it all with a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.

It's a scene with which any doctor in any hospital in any city will be familiar.

Poster girl: Noemie Lenoir modelling underwear in one of the M&S adverts. She tried to take her own life earlier this week

Except we - all of us - knew this victim. How could we not. Noemie Lenoir has been in our living rooms almost constantly over the past few years, fronting the now famous advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer along with Myleene Klass and a string of top models including Twiggy.

But Miss Lenoir, 30, was always the one chosen to wear the bikinis and the lingerie - she was always the most drop-dead glamorous of the lot.

The last TV commercial went out at Christmas. It also starred Philip Glenister - Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt in BBC1's Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes - who is asked what makes 'Christmas Christmassy', to which he replies: 'Oh, come on, it's that girl prancing around in her underwear.' Noemie Lenoir was that girl. And it earned her around £10million.

The contrast between the girl on the huge traffic-stopping billboards and the girl found by a passerby walking his dog in woods in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, on the outskirts of the French capital last Sunday, is shocking indeed.

Apart from the M&S campaign, Miss Lenoir worked for Gucci, L'Oreal, Next, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, and Victoria's Secret in the U.S.. She was voted one of the sexiest 100 women on the planet in a magazine poll, and was featured in a line-up of the world's most successful black models by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Noemie (far left) in an M&S advertising campaign with Elizabeth Jagger, Twiggy, Erin O'Connor and Laura Bailey

'Always professional, always on time, a really sweet girl,' is the verdict of someone who worked with her at M&S - a rare compliment for a supermodel.

Yet her private life was marked by terrible betrayal of one kind or another; not on her part, but by the men she chose as lovers.

Her relationship with former Chelsea football star Claude Makelele was dogged by persistent rumours of his infidelity. The two finally separated last year, but remain close. The couple have a five-year-old son, Kelyan.

Miss Lenoir was staying at Makelele's Parisian home when she is believed to have called emergency services complaining 'she felt very ill', before making a second call cancelling an ambulance. She then left the house.

She was found several hours later slumped on the ground next to a bottle of spirits and pills. She was still in hospital yesterday but off the 'danger list'.

How did she end up here? Well, friends - as well as internet sites in France - say she became depressed after Makelele dashed her hopes of a reconciliation. But they also point to Carl Hirschmann, another man in her recent past. Or, should we say, the sex scandal that has embroiled him in his native Switzerland.

Noemie with Claude Makele, with whom she has a five-year-old son

It was the reason why Miss Lenoir's apparent suicide attempt was front-page news there this week. 

The backdrop is Zurich, home to the jet set and 'Eurotrash', although it is not always possible to tell the difference, particularly with men such has Carl Hirschmann.

His father was a new entry in the Sunday Times Rich List this year with a family fortune - including a home in London - put at £600million, founded on their aviation business which was sold in 2005.

Hirschmann, 29, wears Armani and Ermenegildo Zegna, and drives a Porche Cayenne as well as a Ferrari. Among his old flames is a former Miss Switzerland - and American socialite Paris Hilton.

Hirschmann and Miss Lenoir met at a society party in Switzerland last year.

They were later spotted together at Cipriani restaurant in London, 'kissing and cuddling' along the Champs Elysees in Paris and dining at the Terrasse in Zurich.

That was in October. The following month, Carl Hirschmann was arrested. He was detained in prison for three days on charges of 'sexual compulsion'.

Shortly after sordid revelations surfaced, Hirschmann and Miss Lenoir split up, but they are said to have remained in contact.

More damaging headlines were to follow, however. In March this year, Hirschmann was arrested again. And the allegations? That he had sex with a girl under 16.

Hirschmann, who denies the charges, is now on £300,000 bail and is not allowed to leave the country.  

Noemie's ex-boyfriend Carl Hirschmann, who was arrested in March on allegations he had sex with a girl under 16

Did Miss Lenoir know about his reputation when she decided to get involved with him? Perhaps not.

And it seems that for her, having one drink too many was not unusual. 

Even before the tragic events of last Sunday, Miss Lenoir's drinking had become a source of concern back in France.

She has, it is claimed, been seen a little the worse for wear at a number of functions - 'staggering around and slurring her words', to use the words of one observer.

Can anyone be the least bit surprised considering what she has gone through over the past six months or so.

Miss Lenoir has cancelled all public engagements for the 'foreseeable future'. This time last year she was at the Cannes Film Festival wowing the crowds in Armani. Now she is in a private room in hospital, not far from the council estate where she grew up (her white father was a jobbing electrician, her black mother a cleaner).

'She wanted to get away from the drug-running and the violence,' said a friend. 'Modelling was her escape route.'

In fact, she was spotted by a talent scout buying stamps in a post office near her parents' home in 1998 and signed up by an agency. Soon, she was on the cover of Vogue and Marie Claire.

But, like so many others, success in front of the camera was not matched by the happiness she so desperately craved away from the limelight.

Claude Makelele is said to have cheated on her when she was pregnant (reportedly shuttling between Paris and London, seeing both Miss Lenoir and a Page 3 girl). He has now been branded 'cold and heartless' for going on a TV talk show only hours after the mother of his son was taken to hospital this week.

'It was a very insensitive thing to do,' said a close friend in Paris. 'Noemie needed Claude more than at any other time in her life. Instead, he went on TV. At the very least he should have been with his son.' (Five-year-old Kelyan, in fact, is being looked after by Miss Lenoir's mother.)

This might have been forgivable if it had not been for the accusations of cheating, prompting Miss Lenoir to tell one friend, according to a newspaper report a few years ago: 'He has disgraced himself, his family and Chelsea football club.'

But she forgave him and even now was hoping for a reconciliation.

That hope was ended, it seems, last Sunday.

Coming on the heels of her affair with Carl Hirschmann, it seems all to have been too much for this fragile character. Noemie Lenoir deserved better than either of them.

• Additional reporting: Peter Allen in Paris and Allan Hall.

• Since publication of this article, lawyers for Carl Hirschmann have contacted us to point out that their client was cleared of all charges. Furthermore both Mr Hirschmann and Ms Lenoir have said that, despite speculation to the contrary and suggestions made at the time, their brief relationship did not contribute to the distress which led to her suicide attempt. The two have not been in touch since 2010.