Weezer bassist Scott Shriner’s wife, who was shot by police in LA on Wednesday after brandishing a gun at them, was once one of the 25-strong harem of women employed by the Sultan of Brunei’s brother.
Jillian Lauren has been charged with attempted murder after the incident which unfolded when a hit-and-run car crash happened outside her home. One of the suspects ran onto her property and Jillian responded by chasing after him with a gun.
Police shot her in the shoulder after she pointed the gun at officers and refused to drop it.
The wild incident is far from the only eye-opening event in the life of the 51-year-old author.
When she was 18, Lauren left her apartment in New York to fly to Borneo, where she took up an invite to join the harem of Brunei’s notorious playboy Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei.
In her memoir ‘Some Girls: My Life in a Harem’, which was published in 2010, five years after she married Scott Shriner, Lauren details the two years she was part of the harem in the 1990s.
Lauren, now 51, wrote about being an NYU theatre school dropout who received an offer by a ‘casting director’ who told her a rich Singaporean businessman would pay pretty American girls $20,000 to spice up his parties for two weeks.
When she landed in Borneo, Lauren quickly realised that she was part of a harem as she attended a party for the prince with dozens of other girls, some as young as 16. The then 18-year-old said she was showered with jewellery, designer clothes and bags stuffed with cash during her 18 months as part of Prince Jefri’s harem.
Lauren estimates that she earned about $300,000 while staying with the prince between 1992 and 1995, a common salary as female guests would be paid about $20,000 a week and received valuable gifts.
Lauren said arrangements like this were common, but usually young female guests were contracted to stay three weeks, which would sometimes be extended for a year or two.
Members of Prince Jefri’s harem would live in luxurious properties on the grounds of the Sultan of Brunei’s royal estate, with Lauren writing about staying in an opulent palace with football field-sized Italian marble floors, plush gold-spun carpets and gilded everything.
She lived at the enormous Istana Nurul Iman Palace, which spans over 200,000 square metres. The Sultan of Brunei’s property, which cost $1.4billion to build, boasts 1,788 rooms and is considered to be the largest presidential palace in the world.
‘It was immense, it looked like a resort in Fort Lauderdale if it had been imagined by Aladdin,’ she said about the palace.
‘There were gold domes, swimming pools, and tennis courts and I saw all of this and my head raced with plans. I thought, is it that far out of the realm of possibility that I maybe could make a prince fall in love with me.’
In her memoir ‘Some Girls: My Life in a Harem’, which was published in 2010, five years after she married Weezer bassist Scott Shriner (pictured together above), Lauren details the two years she was part of the harem in the 1990s
Lauren estimates that she earned about $300,000 while staying with the prince between 1992 and 1995, a common salary as female guests would be paid about $20,000 a week and received valuable gifts
When she was 18, Jillian Lauren left her apartment in New York to fly to Borneo, where would become a member of the 25-strong harem of Brunei’s Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei
She lived at the enormous Istana Nurul Iman Palace, which spans over 200,000 square metres. The Sultan of Brunei’s property, which cost $1.4billion to build, boasts 1,788 rooms and is considered to be the largest presidential palace in the world
The palace has five swimming pools on the vast grounds, as well as parking spots for 110 cars and hosts 257 bathrooms. Thirty-eight different types of marble were used for the palace and 22-carat gold was used for the central dome.
‘I was sure that if I could just scale this fortress I would reach a height with a sunny blue sky and fresh air. I would stand there and experience myself as redeemable rather than ruined. I had no idea what kind of animal I was facing,’ Lauren wrote in her memoir.
She became the prince’s second girlfriend and travelled abroad as part of his entourage and said she eventually started falling for the prince, who rented her out to his brother Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei.
She wrote about giving the Sultan, who flew her with a helicopter to the hotel where he stayed, a blow job.
‘I fantasised that I might get to Brunei and find a wild adventure and a pile of money and an employer who is nothing less than Prince Charming,’ she said during a talk about the book after being asked what she was thinking joining the Harem aged 18.
‘I suspected, more realistically, that I had signed on to be some sort of an international quasi-prostitute.’
Lauren wrote: I fell victim to Stockholm Syndrome. I knew I was a hooker, but somehow I felt like Cinderella.’
She said that having sex with the prince was quick, impersonal, and unprotected.
She wrote about their first sexual encounter, after which Jefri ‘slapped her ass’, bolted out of bed and told her ‘That was very nice for me. I am late for a meeting.’
She became the prince’s second girlfriend and in this role met the Sultan in person and travelled abroad with Jefri as part of his entourage, even writing about falling for the prince, who rented her out to his brother, the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah (pictured above)
The palace has five swimming pools on the vast grounds, as well as parking spots for 110 cars and hosts 257 bathrooms. Thirty-eight different types of marble were used for the palace and 22-carat gold was used for the central dome
Prince Prince Jefri Bolkiah immortalized his bedroom antics with life-sized sculptures he had commissioned for his Long Island estate Sunninghill
Lauren’s memoir (she is pictured above, centre, holding her book) catapulted her onto the New York Times bestseller list and sparked huge media attention for its unfiltered glimpse at Brunei’s vast wealth and exploitation
‘Robin [the pseudonym Jefri wanted to be called by his lovers] was always famished behind the eyes,’ she added.
‘It was the kind of hunger you could never really feed, the kind that keeps you up until five A.M. every night, the kind that drives you to fuck girl after girl, to buy Maserati after Maserati.’
‘I know something about performing. I know that when it seems like the avalanche is about to roll over you, you face into it and keep both arms swimming as hard as you can. You smile and you sell it,’ she wrote in ‘Some Girls’.
She later used her performance skills as a burlesque dancer in the Velvet Hammer group, revealing on Instagram that this was how she met her now-husband Shriner.
After 18 months in the harem, Lauren returned to New York with her earnings as well as a Tiffany choker, bracelet and earring set.
Her memoir catapulted her onto the New York Times bestseller list and sparked huge media attention for its unfiltered glimpse at Brunei’s vast wealth and exploitation.
Lauren’s life took another turn this week when she was arrested for attempted murder after she allegedly pointed her gun at a hit-and-run suspect invading her neighborhood and was subsequently shot by police outside her LA home.
The man had previously been involved in a three-car crash on the 134 Freeway around 3pm but fled the scene alongside two other male suspects.
While hiding from officers who set up a perimeter in the area, the man stripped down to his boxer shorts before jumping in a resident’s swimming pool and watering some plants in a bizarre attempt to blend into the neighborhood.
Author Lauren then exited her home with a gun pointed at the suspect who had invaded her property, though it is unclear whether she actually fired the weapon.
Police ordered her several times to drop the gun, but she refused, and allegedly pointed it at them.
It was then that an officer fired at her, hitting her in the shoulder.
Jillian Lauren was shot by police officers in Los Angeles Tuesday after authorities say she pointed a gun at a hit-and-run suspect, and refused to obey orders from officers on the scene
Lauren (pictured with husband Scott in 2018) was subsequently booked in connection with attempted murder
After being shot, Lauren ran back inside her house before re-emerging a short time later with her babysitter by her side. They were both seen with their hands raised, as officers ordered them down the driveway, where they were arrested without incident.
At that point, Lauren allegedly told officers she was simply trying to defend her home from the suspect running through the neighborhood, according to CBS News. The man was also taken into custody.
She was absentee booked on suspicion of attempted murder while being taken to a nearby medical facility by paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Medical professionals examined her for what was described as ‘a non-life-threatening gunshot wound’ following the violent series of events.
It is unclear whether Shriner was involved in the shocking incident ahead of his appearance at Coachella.
Meanwhile, the driver of the car that crashed in the hit-and-run was detained by California Highway Patrol officers, cited and released.
Police said that they took a 9-millimeter handgun from Lauren’s home upon examining the abode in the wake of the saga that played out in Southern California.
A woman involved in the three-vehicle crash the man and two other male suspects fled from also suffered moderate injuries and was taken to the hospital, police said.
The male suspect who fled into her neighbourhood before stripping down to his boxer shorts was seen being taken into custody Wednesday evening
Lauren ran back inside her house before re-emerging a short time later with her babysitter by her side. They were both seen with their hands raised, as officers ordered them down the driveway, where they were arrested without incident
Jillian Lauren was seen on the shooting range in a social media pic
Lauren often shares loved-up snaps with Shriner on her Instagram account
Officers added that Lauren had nothing to do with the initial hit-and-run. Lauren and her babysitter have since been released from police custody, as LAPD’s Force Investigation Division probes the police-involved shooting, according to KTLA.
Meanwhile, the remaining two suspects who fled the multi-car crash remain at large.
Dailymail.com has reached out to the LAPD for additional comment.
Lauren and 90s rock star Shriner married in 2005 and they have two adopted children together.
Beyond her marriage to Scott, Lauren previously worked as a crime reporter, and was involved in investigating the serial killer Samuel Little, one of the most prolific murderers in US history.
In ‘Behold the Monster’, investigative journalist Lauren writes of Little’s confessions to her, including the chilling admission that ‘it felt like being in love’ after being asked why he had murdered 93 women.
After getting away with murder for far too long, Little had at last been convicted and given four life sentences without possibility of parole, later raised to six. From her first visit in 2018, Lauren would visit him every weekend.
Over two years, as she gently flattered him, plied him with sweets and fizzy drinks and put him at his ease, he would describe 86 of the murders he had committed, often doing drawings of the women he had killed.
He started by giving her a vivid description of his first strangling of a woman in Miami in 1969. She wrote: ‘He imagined himself as some kind of angel of mercy, divinely commissioned to euthanise.’
His trademark, across many US states, had been breaking the necks of his victims (mainly prostitutes) during the sexual intercourse which they had voluntarily embarked on in his car.
‘They died in sexual pleasure, not hate, you understand,’ he explained to Lauren. ‘I’m not like these, what do you call it? Homicidal sexual maniacs.’
‘If there was one thing he had mastered,’ Lauren writes, ‘it was becoming the black man no one saw, finding the black woman no one would miss.’
Lauren has also previously worked as a crime reporter, and was involved in investigating the serial killer Samuel Little, one of the most prolific murderers in US history. In ‘Behold the Monster’, investigative journalist Lauren writes of Little’s confessions to her (Lauren is pictured above with Little)
The bond of friendship Little felt he’d built up with Lauren was so strong, he named her his next of kin. He died in 2020 and she keeps his ashes in her garage
Lauren is pictured above with several copies of her book about Little titled ‘Behold the Monster’
The America of the 1970s, 80s and 90s was one where (as Leila Mae McClain, one of the few women who managed to escape from his murderous clutches, said years later in court): ‘They don’t care nothing about a black prostitute in Pascagoula, Mississippi. No, Ma’am.’
When Leila, half-naked, bruised and utterly distraught, arrived at the nearest hospital hardly able to speak after the near-strangulation, no one asked her how it had happened and she didn’t think it worth telling them.
‘And how did it feel to kill women?’ Lauren asked Little. ‘Oooeee, it felt like Heaven,’ he replied. ‘It felt like being in bed with Marilyn Monroe. It felt like being in love.’
The bond of friendship Little felt he’d built up with Lauren was so strong, he named her his next of kin. He died in 2020 and she keeps his ashes in her garage.
Her book about Little was also turned into a true crime documentary series for Starz called Confronting a Serial Killer.
Lauren and 90s rock star Scott married in 2005 and they have two adopted children together.
In her second memoir, ‘Everything You Ever Wanted’ published in 2015, Lauren detailed her experience adopting a boy called Tariku from Ethiopia in 2009, and struggling with motherhood and trauma.
Her and Shriner adopted another son, Jovanni Starshine, in 2016.
Lauren and 90s rock star Scott married in 2005 and they have two adopted children together
Lauren and Shriner are pictured above with their two sons in a picture Lauren shared on her Instagram account
Lauren and her rocker husband are pictured together above, with guitars seen in the background
In her second memoir, ‘Everything You Ever Wanted’ published in 2015, Lauren detailed her experience adopting a boy called Tariku from Ethiopia in 2009, and struggling with motherhood and trauma. Her and Shriner adopted another son, Jovanni Starshine, in 2016
Lauren and Shriner also adopted two dogs, she is pictured above with one of them
‘For a long time, I really felt like I needed to be pregnant. Having been adopted, I never was around someone who looked like me. I felt like I needed a pregnancy to feel this primal connection to the earth,’ she said in an interview with The Rumpus.
‘But what I found was that I received that feeling of connection and belonging through Tariku, and also through the other families in the adoption community who we’ve met on this journey.’
In a blog post in 2016, Lauren wrote about her second son: ‘We call him Jovi. Jovi Starshine. Tariku picked his middle name and you have to meet him to know how wonderfully apropos it is.
‘This kid sparkles with joy and sweetness and resilience and mischief and creativity and curiosity and music and dancing and delight.
‘”Look what we did,” I said to Scott on the ride home, somewhat astounded to be watching our children happily munching animal crackers, listening to their favorite songs, getting crumbs all over their good suits.
‘We made a family. “Look what we did,” he agreed. My heart is a balloon. Meet Jovi. He is perfect. We are perfect together.’
Lauren appeared at numerous spoken word and storytelling events across the US as well as at a TEDx Talk about adoption and identity at Chapman University in 2014.
The 51-year-old shared a few weeks ago that she has cancer and was undergoing treatment.
‘Yes, I have a little bit of the C word y’all. I know a lot of us do,’ she said in a post on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself smiling and giving a thumbs up while lying in a bed at Glendale Adventist Hospital.
Lauren appeared at numerous spoken word and storytelling events across the US as well as at a TEDx Talk about adoption and identity at Chapman University in 2014. Lauren is pictured above speaking with the South Carolina Police Accreditation Coalition about a crime case
The 51-year-old shared a few weeks ago that she has cancer and was undergoing treatment
US band Weezer with guitarist Brian Bell, frontman Rivers Cuomo, and bassist Scott Shriner performs on stage during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio near Palm Spring, California, USA, 20 April 2019
‘I’m here to thank the incredible oncology team here, who pulled me through a complicated operation without a hitch. I am always so grateful for every second of the compassionate, and excellent medical care I receive in my life,’ she added.
Meanwhile, her husband’s band Weezer are currently scheduled to perform at Coachella on Saturday, joining Yo Gabba Gabba! and Ed Sheeran on the first weekend of the desert festival.
Weezer – formed in 1992 – features singer-guitarist Rivers Cuomo, drummer Patrick Wilson, rhythm guitarist Brian Bell, and bass/keyboard player Shriner.
Their 2017 album Pacific Daydream scored a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, which air February 10 on CBS.
Weezer’s last new album came in 2022, when they released a series of four records in line with each season.
