Vanessa Hessler Fired.

Vanessa Hessler, a blonde, long-legged 23-year-old Italian-American model, said that she had shared a "very beautiful love story" of four years with Mutassim Gadhafi, the 36-year-old son and heir of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

According to the UK Telegraph, Hessler told the Italian magazine Diva e Donna that for four years she had been dating the younger Gaddafi – who was captured and killed in Libya alongside his father this month - and that has caused enough controversy to get her fired from her job as a spokesmodel for for Telefonica Germany.

"I didn't have any contact with him since the uprising broke out, but our relationship was one of passion," she was quoted as saying by the magazine.

She added: "The Gaddafi family is not as they are being depicted, they are normal people."

On Monday, Telefonica Germany fired Hessler for that opinion.

The leggy beauty is very recognizable as the face of the company throughout Europe, but that will now end.

Telefonica's Albert Fetsch said yesterday that 'Vanessa Hessler has failed to distance herself from her comments on the conflict in Libya' and that the model's face would be removed from the company's site within 24 hours.

(Image: WENN)