We are sure you have definitely heard about Natalia Vodianova at least once. Today, February 28, the supermodel, actress, and philanthropist celebrate her 38th birthday. In honor of the joyful event, we will tell you all the most interesting facts from the life of a celebrity.
Now Natalia Vodianova is a successful, beautiful mother of many children, who is raising 5 children. Even despite the fact that Natalya is 38 years old, her baby face and thin figure remain the same as in her youth.
It seems that she made time work for herself: the further, the younger and better she looks. How to explain such a phenomenon?
This is most likely a matter of genetics, good care, inner kindness, and positive thinking. The first two are clear, but what do the last points mean? Why do positive thinking and kindness play such a big role in Natalia’s life? Now let’s try to explain.
The childhood of Natasha Vodianova
Natalia was born into a fairly poor family in Nizhny Novgorod. At a very early age, she had to work hard with her mother in the market in order to somehow feed her younger sisters, Kristina and Oksana. Oksana suffers from a severe form of autism and cerebral palsy. The father left the family a long time ago and, according to Vodianova, she does not remember his presence in their lives at all.
Also, Natalia was brought up by her grandparents, who are participants in World War II. The hard time also affected their character: little Natasha could not just “climb” into the refrigerator. She definitely had to ask permission to eat something.
To all this, the grandparents did not accept their special granddaughter Oksana for a long time. Now the supermodel understands that this is “a consequence of living under the laws of wartime.”
The beginning of Vodianova’s career
At the age of 15, Natalya entered a local college, where she did not have good grades due to being busy at work. It was the years of early youth that became fateful: a pretty girl was noticed by a scout of the Nizhny Novgorod agency and invited her to try herself modeling.
Soon Vodianova was invited to the casting of a well-known modeling agency in Moscow. Casting Natalia was quite successful and went to shoot in Paris.
Parisian everyday life
While in Paris, Natalia lived modestly. She had none of the trappings of the model life we imagine: chauffeur-driven cars, a myriad of designer clothes, and fashionable hangouts.
Perhaps the latter was the case (no one canceled the afterparty), but iron motivation and willpower did not allow Vodianova to skip castings, and there were quite a few of them, more than ten a day.
They paid her $100 a week, which was barely enough to pay for housing and food. I had to live with the same model girls. In short, not everything is so simple. But after meeting Jean-Paul Gaultier, everything changed.
First New York Fashion Week
The designer helped her get out of the role of an ordinary “model” and move to a new stage. Soon Natalia Vodianova took part in New York Fashion Week, which became a landmark for her career.
After that, Natasha was noticed by a large number of magazines and brands, and offers fell incredibly quickly. She was also lucky to become the face of Calvin Klein, L’Oreal Paris and others.
Inner beauty
It is clear that Vodianova is outwardly very attractive and unusual. But besides this, many note her natural charm. She is very natural, spontaneous and looks like a small child who wants to be protected. A significant role is played just by positive thinking, which was discussed above.
Despite the difficult childhood, she did not become embittered at the whole world, although she admitted that she really smiled only at the age of 17.
Natalia accepted her past and continued to live her life. Her inner kindness and strength even helped establish her Naked Heart Foundation. Therefore, we move on to a very important part of the life of the model – charity.
Vodianova and charity
Do you remember the story about the special sister? Unfortunately, such children are treated completely without understanding in the CIS countries, because the political system did not accept such children for a very long time, trying to hide them from society. But thanks to the work, Natalia saw how special children are treated in Europe.
The model confidently decided to help improve the system of inclusion in Russia.
The foundation’s main project is the construction of playgrounds for disabled children. They also deal with the problems of the system of free services for families raising children with special needs. After all, Natalia herself supports the opinion that everything must be done to leave the child in a biological or foster family, thus avoiding traumatic boarding schools. The model tries to be present at all the events of her foundation, and for this, you need to allocate time. How to do everything?
Career and family: how to keep the balance?
Natalia officially ended her modeling career back in 2008, but this does not mean that she can no longer be seen on the catwalk. She often appears at the shows of her friends and, in general, leads a fairly active social life.
Her husband, a French businessman, and son of the president of LVMH, Antoine Arnault, also love various fashion events and always attends them with his beautiful wife.
By the way, the main reason for completing work in modeling is the desire to focus on charity and raising children. Natalia has three children from her first marriage and two from her current one.
Model’s personal life
Vodianova’s first husband is British aristocrat Justin Portman. They met at a private party in Paris and immediately … quarreled. Nobody names the exact reasons for the quarrel, but after a couple of months, the rich heir and the already successful model began to meet. He is said to have apologized first.
However, good manners and upbringing made themselves felt. The couple got married in 2002 in St. Petersburg. Three children were born in the marriage – Lucas, Neva and Victor. Unfortunately, the couple divorced in 2011.
The next chosen one of Natalia was already Antoine Arnault. The French billionaire turned the supermodel’s head and for his sake, she even agreed to move from strictly London to free Paris. In 2014, the couple had a son, Maxim, and in 2016, Roman.
At the same time, for a long time, Antoine and Natalia were in no hurry to formalize the relationship. However, in a recent interview, the model admitted that she did receive a marriage proposal from her man. A year ago, on his birthday, Arno asked the star to become his wife. The wedding will take place in 2020.
What did help Natasha achieve such stunning success and the respect of others? Inner simplicity, natural beauty or willpower? Maybe a breathtaking charm and a childish look? It is difficult to give a definite answer.
But it is clear that her humanity was appreciated by everyone – from the great couturiers to the grateful residents of Nizhny Novgorod.
