Natalya Vodyanova
The life of Natalia Vodianova, like no one else's, is similar to the plot of a classic fairy tale. In a short time (so short that in the Western press the blue-eyed model from Russia was nicknamed Supernova), she managed to go from “one of” to the title of the main fashion sensation of the post-Soviet space. Natalya was able to convert her truly fabulous success into the opportunity to help others who were much less fortunate in life than she was.
The youth of the future supermodel in her native Nizhny Novgorod was unenviable. At the age of 11, Natalya dropped out of school, helping her mother Larisa with the sale of vegetables and fruits in order to feed her two younger sisters - Oksana, who has been disabled since childhood, and Christina. In those years, Natalya suffered a lot from her peers, who mocked her family’s poverty and, what was especially disgusting, the illness of her middle sister. Pain to the point of frenzy and total injustice - these are the two phrases that describe those events better than others.
When Natalya was 16, she was enrolled in a local modeling agency, and less than six months later, Vodianova already went to the fashion capital - Paris. The Russian girl spoke neither English nor French, so at the castings she expressed herself using a mixture of Russian, gestures and facial expressions. Speaking of castings: Natasha attended from 12 to 15 of them a day. It was difficult, but, of course, there was no turning back, and Vodianova, who was raised in deprivation, understood this very clearly.
“When I became a successful model, who, fortunately, does not need to be very educated, I realized that millions of people remained behind me,” BoF quotes her as saying.
The modeling agency paid a stipend to a promising blonde with blue eyes– “as much as” 100 dollars a week. This money was barely enough to pay for a metro pass and cover other daily expenses, but Vodianova somehow managed to save, and sent the saved amount to her mother in Nizhny Novgorod.
The ticket to Paris turned out to be lucky for the future podium star. The model quickly found work, and the icy shade of her eyes and face, which was compared to the face of Romy Schneider, a movie star of the middle of the last century, became her main distinguishing mark from thousands of other beauties from all over the globe.
“I didn't think I would succeed. All I wanted was to earn enough to ensure the safety of my mother and sister,” Natalya continues in the same interview.
The most influential designers in the industry - Tom Ford and Calvin Klein - drew attention to the fabulous beauty of a young girl from Russia, and instantly made her their new muse. After this, filming, shows and contracts rained down like from a cornucopia: everyone wanted to see Natalia as their face. That time was even nicknamed the era of the “three Vs” - after the first letters of the surnames of the three most popular Russian models of that time - Anna Vyalitsyna, Evgenia Volodina and Natalia Vodianova.
True, her career almost ended at its dawn: at the age of 19, Natalya had already married Justin Portman and soon after that she became a mother for the first time. Thank God, the career not only did not end, but also reached a new level: motherhood made the beauty of the Russian woman even more textured. “Having children back then was pure madness. But I was in love, and that seemed more important than anything else in the world. If I found out that my daughter became pregnant at 18, I would definitely kill her!” jokes Vodianova.
“In our culture and where I grew up, it’s absolutely normal to have children at that age. If you didn’t become a mother before you were 25, then there’s something wrong with you.”
And although Natalia still appears on the catwalk as a model, this happens from time to time - all the supermodel's attention is focused on her own five children and important charity work. In 2004, Vodianova founded the Naked Heart Foundation, whose mission is “to create an inclusive society open to people with special needs.” The results of the fund’s work are impressive: with the help of sponsors, Natalya managed to attract more than 60 million euros for the implementation of various projects, and first of all, inclusive playgrounds. Today, 186 such sites have already been built in Russia and the CIS, where previously only unsightly wastelands stood in their place.
“Playing is something I missed as a child. Those moments when I succeeded remained in my memory as the best memories. The game has the power to be therapy, especially when we're talking about about children with autism. They are able to learn a lot through the most ordinary game,” says Vodianova.
Another successful project of the model is the Elbi application, the purpose of which is to popularize philanthropy. With Elbi, regular users can support small charities by accumulating special “coins”. They can spend it at Elbi Love Shop, whose partners include Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney, H&M and other fashion giants.
“It’s hard to attract millennials to philanthropy. This application takes advantage of social networks, the opportunity to tell a story and the opportunity to collaborate with a favorite brand for good. All the money that goes into Elbi is sent directly to charities, and the key element here is the feedback that these funds give to show how exactly they manage the donated money,” says Natalya Vodianova’s digital media advisor Timon Afinsky.
Both of these projects would not have been possible without the belief that the fashion industry, which Vodianova understands so well, can become both a locomotive and a platform for positive social change. Moreover, the largest market players, such as LVMH, Kering and others, are increasing their social responsibility.
Every child deserves the right to unconditional love, hope and happiness. Im so honored to be a mother, wishing a special day to each and everyone one of you PS: including the biggest child of all in the picture #WorldChildrensDay Every child deserves a family, unconditional love, happiness and hope. I wish all the best to all mothers and those who dream of motherhood! #WorldChildren'sDay PS. In the photo is my entire squad - including the oldest)))) Posted by Natalia Vodianova (@natasupernova) Nov 20, 2017 at 8:24 PST
Many girls aspire to the modeling business. This area attracts great opportunities. Consider the story of Natalia Vodianova, who is called the “Russian Cinderella.” A girl from Nizhny Novgorod, who wore her friends’ clothes and sold fruit at the market, achieved considerable success in the field of modeling, became the wife of an English lord and became one of the three most sought-after top models in the world.
Most successful models went through a difficult childhood, problems with parents, and lack of money. This is how Kate Moss, Gisele Budchen, Elle Macpherson and Natalia Vodianova lived.
According to psychologists, it is easier for such people to make their way in life, since they have been accustomed to overcoming difficulties since childhood. But in the modeling business, hard work is not enough, you also need luck.
Photo: Georges Seguin /commons.wikimedia.org/CC BY-SA 3.0
Cinderella story
Natasha did not know her father; until she was six years old, she lived with her mother and stepfather in her grandmother’s house. In the four-room apartment she had her own room and many toys. When she was 7 years old, she had a sister, Ksyusha, in whom doctors discovered an incurable disease - cerebral palsy.
Natalya's stepfather could not stand the screams of a sick child and left the family, and her grandmother offered to change the apartment. Natalya, her mother and sick sister found themselves in a one-room Khrushchev house. To feed the family, the girls’ mother worked three shifts, and Natasha took care of her sick sister.
When Natasha grew up, she began selling fruit at the market to help her mother. Often I had to miss school for this.
At the age of 16, Vodianova came to a casting at the Nizhny Novgorod Fashion Academy. There, by order of a French modeling agency, they looked for girls with interesting appearance. The classic requirements of the fashion industry are long hair, wide-set eyes, plump lips and a neat nose. The most famous models came to watch. But out of thirty girls, only Natalya attracted the attention of photographers. The next day after the casting, they called her and invited her to Moscow.
On December 1, 1999, Vodianova flew to Paris. The girl was placed in a hostel for visiting models and signed a contract for $100 a month. Then this money was enough for a couple of dinners in a Parisian cafe.
Natalya got up at 7 am and ran to castings. I was looking for where there would be free buffets to eat. Vodianova traveled by metro, dressed in second-hand stores and sent money to Russia every month.
In the summer of 2000, Natalia Vodianova appeared on the cover of the German magazine Elle. This moment became a turning point in her career. The girl received serious offers. Vodianova was now expected as a top model at major shows in New York, Milan and Paris.
The world-famous Russian top model, actress, face of the L'Oreal Paris brand and muse of hundreds of designers - her path to the top was thorny and difficult. The simplest Russian girl from the outback managed to achieve world fame and become a prestigious modelChildhood of Natalia Vodianova
Natalia Vodianova was born in the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) on February 28, 1982. As a child, Natasha’s family lived more than modestly. Mom raised three daughters alone - Natasha and her two younger sisters, Oksana and Kristina, one of whom was disabled from childhood (cerebral palsy). Natalya hardly knew her father. My parents divorced early.The girls had to wear things from someone else's shoulder and, in order to somehow make ends meet, Natalya Vodianova, as the eldest of the sisters, went to work. From the age of 11, she helped her mother sell fruit at the market. Since she had to work a lot, the girl did not get A's in her school diary and studied very poorly, leaving no time for education.
Every day at the market, the future model carried dozens of boxes weighing more than 30 kilograms. Exhaustive work did not help to achieve at least some position in society. Things were going badly, and at the age of 15, Natalya decided to start an independent life with her friend; the couple moved to a rented apartment.
After school, Natalya Vodianova entered Nizhny Novgorod teacher training college and never even dreamed of becoming a model. At the age of 16, her friend brought the girl to a modeling agency, and there she was invited to a casting by the French agency Viva in Moscow. Natasha passed the test with dignity and almost immediately went to Paris for the Madison agency competition.
At first, the girl took the unexpected luck lightly. However, a little later I realized that it was worth betting on appearance. “I realized that there was something in me. After all, men pay attention to me. Then my intuition began to tell me that something unusual in my life would be connected with my appearance,” says Natalia Vodianova.
The beginning of Natalia Vodianova's career
At the 1999 Paris competition, the jury included Jean-Paul Gaultier. He, in particular, saw the zest in Natalya, and the girl was awarded second place, after which the fashion designer offered her a job. 
The beginning of her career was not easy, since the girl had to withstand great competition. The model lived in conditions of austerity; all the money she earned went only to pay for the apartment and food.
Almost immediately I received my first invitation to appear in a photo shoot for the German magazine Elle. And after participating in New York Fashion Week, Natalia was bombarded with tempting offers from all sides. She took part in Gucci shows, Ives Saint-Laurent, Calvin Klein, in addition, she was photographed for famous publications Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
In 2003, Natalia Vodianova became the “face and body” of Calvin Klein, which signed a contract with the Russian model. By the way, similar contracts made Brooke Shields and Kate Moss famous. The aspiring model became the highest paid face of the CK label in the entire history of the brand.
In the same year, Vodianova opened and closed shows for Ives Saint-Laurent collections. This fashion house is considered the most prestigious in the fashion world. A real triumph for the model was the shooting for the Pirelli calendar for 2004. Such an honor fell only to the most famous and beautiful women peace.
By the way, in 2002, Vodianova became the most sought-after model at New York Fashion Week. There she performed for nineteen designers at once. According to the Sunday Times, Natalia Vodianova entered the third hundred richest people in Great Britain (in 2003, for example, the model earned more than 3.6 million pounds sterling).
However, the Russian woman shone not only abroad. The girl smiled at her compatriots from TV screens and from the pages of glossy magazines, offering products from L'Oreal Paris, whose face she was also for a long time.
In 2008, Natalia Vodianova announced that she was leaving the modeling business. The girl decided to devote herself to raising children and charity. The Valentino Haute Couture collection show was the last in the fashion model’s career.
However, Vodianova is still featured on the covers of the world's leading fashion magazines as a guest star. For a high fee, the supermodel is ready to go on the catwalk or star in a fashion photo shoot.
And 2008 showed that Vodianova was not going to leave the modeling business completely. The girl became the face of the French lingerie company Etam. She simply prioritized her family and her favorite business - helping sick children.
In the spring of 2009, Natalia Vodianova, together with Andrei Malakhov, hosted the semi-final of the Eurovision song contest, held in Moscow. The model devotes the rest of her time to family and charity.
In 2009, Natalia Vodianova became the face of Guerlain and advertises the cosmetics line of the fashion house.
In 2010, the film “Clash of the Titans” was released with Sam Worthington in leading role, and the director of the film, Louis Leterrier, used the face of fashion model Natalia Vodianova as the basis for the Gorgon’s face. And in 2012, she starred in the leading role in the film “Lovers” together with Jonathan Rhys Meyers. She played the role married woman Ariana, who leaves her husband for her passionate lover. The romance between the tender Natalia Vodianova and the fatal Jonathan Rhys Meyers, full of passion and tears, develops against the backdrop of the outbreak of World War II.
Film with Natalia Vodianova “Lovers”
In October 2011, Natalia Vodianova and Gisele Bundchen took part in the show new collection Givenchy as part of Paris pret-a-porter week. And in 2012, she appeared on the catwalk in outfits from Stella McCartney at Paris Fashion Week.
Natalia Vodianova was chosen as the ambassador of Sochi 2014, and in this status in the summer of 2012 she took part in the Paralympic torch relay in London. And in 2010, our Natasha opened the Ceremony of Transferring the Flag from Vancouver to Sochi. Just 4 years later, she participated in the opening Olympic Games in Sochi.
In 2013, she became a co-host with Dmitry Nagiyev on the TV show “The Voice. Children" on Channel One.
Charitable activities of Natalia Vodianova
In 2005, Natalia Vodianova and her husband established the Naked Hearts charitable non-profit foundation (by the way, the logo for it was designed and drawn by Justin). I raised two sisters, one of whom is disabled. And I know what it is like to have a sick child in our state, and the suffering this entails. But I will try to do everything possible to help not only disabled children, but also homeless and talented kids,” the model and philanthropist said then.The model raised money for him at a special evening in New York, sponsored by L'Oreal Paris. At the event, Mick Jagger's guitar with his autograph was auctioned, as well as "Dinner with a Supermodel", the author of which was Natalia's friend and fashion model Helena Christensen In addition, tickets for clothing collections were sold at the evening. In total, they managed to raise about 400 thousand dollars, and Natasha herself invested another 70 thousand of her own money.
The organization builds children's play complexes throughout Russia. In her hometown, by the way, the girl built a playground for children almost immediately after the foundation appeared.
In February 2008, the foundation organized a charity ball “Love Ball”, and two years later it was held in London. A year later, as part of Haute Couture Week, the ball was held in Paris. Especially for him, Natalia Vodianova asked 40 designers to create dresses that were sold at auction.
Vodianova Natalia and children
Since 2011, the foundation has organized the “Every Child Deserves a Family” program, which is aimed at supporting families with children with developmental disabilities. Part of the money is transferred to families, and part goes to the construction of centers that provide social, psychological and legal support to such families. Thanks to the fund and the program, the Family Support Center was built in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as the Lekoteka in the Tula region.
In the spring of 2011, the model participated in a charity run in Paris, which was held to raise funds for charity. Spectators of the marathon donated over 20 thousand dollars to this Naked Heart Foundation. A year later, she repeated the race, raising several thousand euros for her foundation. And every year it has become a traditional race to raise funds in support of its foundation. In 2014, Natasha made an exception and did not take part in the marathon due to her fourth pregnancy.
On June 30, 2012, Natalia Vodianova’s Naked Heart Foundation, together with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, organized a charity auction, Bazaar Heart Concert, at which sixteen unique Harper’s Bazaar covers, which were created by world designers in the fall, were sold. This event raised 539 thousand euros. The special guest of the evening was Bryan Adams, singer, photographer and founder of The Bryan Adams Foundation.
In the fall of 2012, a collection of shoes from Natalia Vodianova went on sale in Centro stores, part of the money from the sale of which went to the Naked Heart Foundation. Sketches for the shoes were developed over several months. Natalya personally supervised the creative process.
Natalia Vodianova in the “Evening Urgant” program
In the spring of 2015, Natalia Vodianova created a capsule collection for the Zarina chain of stores, which went on sale in April of this year. Interestingly, drawings of “special” children were used as prints for clothes. This is how the model presented her new charity project “Fashion with Meaning”
Personal life of Natalia Vodianova
The story of Nizhny Novgorod Cinderella would be incomplete if a handsome prince had not appeared in her life. In Paris, at one of the closed parties, Natalia Vodianova met art collector and freelance artist Justin Portman. As Natalya herself clarifies, she came to the evening quite by accident, although she had not planned to go there at all. 
33-year-old English aristocrat and second son of Viscount Edward Portman, Justin Portman, did not even suspect that he would meet his future wife at a reception hosted by the Russian nouveau riche.
Natalya recalls: “Justin was flirting with my friend at the other end of the table, and when he came up to me, I answered him quite rudely. In fact, I was drunk, but so was he, so we just yelled at each other for two hours. The crowd laughed. Friends joked about Justin, allegedly, he had finally found a wife.”
The next day after the party, the young man called Natalya, apologized for his behavior and invited her on a date. Soon Natalya and Justin realized that they were in love with each other, and since then the couple has almost never separated.
At the beginning of 2001, Natasha went to a photo shoot in Africa. Justin went with his Russian girlfriend. Natalya returned to Europe already pregnant. By the way, the model had a very difficult time with it, and decided to give birth without pain relief. As I told you future mom, she wanted to feel and experience all the pain with her baby.
Justin was next to Natalia at the time of the birth of his first child and did not let go of her hand. Lucas was born in London, and six weeks after giving birth, Natalia Vodianova returned to the podium.
Motherhood had no effect on the supermodel's appearance. After giving birth, she again began to look like a teenage girl. The young mother continues to work hard, but now not only her lover, but also her little son travels with her.
Natalia Vodianova and Justin got married after Lucas was born. The couple admits that they officially registered their relationship only so that their son would become the legal heir of the Portmans. The marriage was recorded on September 1, 2002 in St. Petersburg. The celebration was held on a grand scale. They walked for three days, a banquet was organized for the guests of honor in Peterhof, and the Throne Hall of the Grand Palace was rented for the newlyweds and their guests and even the fountains were turned on. Ballet dancers entertained guests Mariinsky Theater. The bride was dressed in a pearl-gray dress, which Tom Ford himself, designer and at that time creative director of the House of Gucci, sewed for her.
The couple's daughter Neva was born on March 24, 2006, and her name was chosen in honor of the river, only the emphasis is on the first syllable. Another year later, in September, their youngest son Victor appeared, who was already named after his grandfather.
Clothing collection from Natalia Vodianova for ZARINA
At the end of 2010, rumors appeared that family relationships were no longer ideal; information about the supermodel’s infidelity leaked into the media. And already in mid-2011, Natalia Vodianova announced that she and her husband were living separately. The same year the couple filed for divorce.
The press wrote that the top model was dating Channel One director Andrei Boltenko, who was the director of the Moscow Eurovision 2009. Natasha was one of the presenters of that ceremony.
In the summer of 2011, Natalia Vodianova began dating Antoine Arnault, although by that time they had known each other for 4 years. And on May 2, 2014, she gave birth to his son Maxim. But the couple is in no hurry to formalize their relationship yet.
On June 4, 2016, Natalia Vodianova became a mother for the fifth time. A baby was born who received beautiful name Novel. This is the second common child of Vodianova and Antoine Arnault.
Natalia Vodianova now
Despite her status as a mother of many children, in 2016 Natalia Vodianova continued to conduct modeling and charitable activities, but tried to spend every free minute with her family. Even evil tongues could not help but note that the birth of her fifth child did not in any way affect Natalya’s appearance - she is still charming and beautiful. 
The story of an ordinary Russian girl from the outback, Natalia Vodianova, at one time became an example of the fact that in our time fairy tales become reality. Natalya is not called anything other than “Russian Cinderella”, although she has long become a real English princess. And although a lot has already been written about this fabulous transformation, it is worthy of us repeating it to you.
So, it all started, as in that old-old fairy tale... From birth Natasha was not very lucky. She was born into a not entirely prosperous family: Natalya’s own father left her mother and did not take part in her daughter’s fate. Natasha’s mother, trying to “arrange,” as they say in Russia, her personal life, regularly chose the “wrong” men, who periodically beat both her and her daughter, and then disappeared without a trace. But Natasha had two sisters, and her mother barely managed to feed her large family, where, moreover, one of the daughters was disabled. Therefore, Natasha’s mother did not pay special attention to the upbringing and education of children, and Natasha herself had to sell fruit at the market to help her mother. It is not surprising that such a difficult “childhood” life pushed Natalya to the decision to “go out on her own” and at the age of 15 she began to live separately.
It was Natasha’s friend who advised her to enroll in a local modeling school, where the future supermodel began to go more for fun than for serious career reasons. By the way, they still considered her “not skinny enough.” And one day, when she was selling fruit near a public transport stop, they noticed her. No, not a fairy fairy, but a recruiting agent for aspiring models. He invited Natalya to sign a contract with the Viva Model Management agency and go to work in Paris. The seventeen-year-old girl agreed, almost without hesitation.
Paris, Paris. He did not greet the girl very joyfully. Hundreds of views, small earnings, uncomfortable rented accommodation next to the same seekers of happiness. But Natasha says that this did not stop her from enjoying life in the most romantic city in the world. She met a doctor, a rich Frenchman, who took pity on the girl and settled her in his home - living in a rich family, she learned about French society, read books, went to castings and persistently learned French. AND Lucky case smiled - her photo graced the cover of the German "Elle", after which Natasha was invited to participate in High Fashion Week in New York. There she made a splash - all the fashion magazines started talking about the Russian model “with a baby face and a serious look”, and the contract with Calvin Klein finally confirmed Natalia Vodianova’s star status. From that moment on, fashion magazines and designers began lining up to get a new supermodel, and the Russian Cinderella's fees reached sky-high heights.
But the fabulous action did not end there, and a handsome prince appeared on the stage. Justin Trevor Berkeley Portman, Lord Portman's younger brother, an English aristocrat and artist, met Natalya at a high society reception. It's funny, but their first meeting ended in a heated quarrel, after which Justin, trying to make amends, invited Natalia on a date. This day marked the beginning of a whirlwind romance, and its fruit was the birth of their son Lucas in 2001. A few months after the birth of her son, Natalya returned to fashion catwalks, and a little later she was able to shine at her own wedding, magnificently celebrated in the throne room of the Peterhof Palace. A few more years passed, and Natalya made her husband happy with a daughter and another son.
Today Natalya is one of the most popular models in the world and the undoubted number 1 among Russian models. Having achieved fabulous heights, she remained the way we want to see the rich and famous - kind, gentle, feminine, not sparing money for charity, in love with her country. She “wants, she can and does” - probably this is true happiness.
For
Lita Budkute All rights reserved
TASS/FA Bobo/PIXSELL/PA Images
Natalya was born in Nizhny Novgorod, in the simplest family. The parents divorced early, and my mother was left with three girls, one of whom turned out to be disabled with a severe form of autism. The eldest, Natasha, took responsibility for her sisters while still at school and now, not unreasonably, says in an interview that she raised two sisters.
Already at the age of 11, the girl went to work part-time at the market to help her mother. In one of her media profiles, the supermodel wrote: “traded fruit illegally.” That's exactly how it was. Natasha, who was still very little, simply could not get an official job.
She matured early. After graduating from the ninth grade, she entered the local pedagogical school, in her free time she tried to earn money herself, and, in order not to burden her mother, she went to live with her young man. She was 15.
A year later, Natasha decided to go to the only modeling agency in the city. The amazingly gentle girl with long legs and touching eyes was immediately accepted.
Assessing the potential of the new girl, the teachers advised Natasha to seriously take up studying in English. But at school she skipped classes. The supermodel admits that she had no time to even dream. Hard work and the absence of a breadwinner did not even allow us to think that language might be useful.
However, soon the teachers sent one of the best students to a casting by the French agency Viva in Moscow. She was not going to any capital. The prospect of leaving her hometown came as a shock to Natalya, but her wise mother and grandmother intervened and persuaded the beauty to try.
Paris
Even after successfully passing all the castings and flying to Paris, she still regarded what was happening as a random stroke of luck that would end and the girl would end up in Nizhny again. She began to realize that she had unique abilities and could rely on her appearance only at the event, for which she went to the city of dreams.
It was an annual modeling competition held by the Madison agency. Jean-Paul Gaultier himself sat on the jury's presidium, who drew attention to the charming Slavic woman. It was he who insisted on awarding her second place, and after the award he suggested working together.
Despite the luck, living in the capital of France was not easy. Crazy competition with the most beautiful girls in the world, monthly flocking to the capital of world fashion, small fees, which were barely enough only for an apartment and food, longing for family... In the first months, Natalya devoted a lot of time to studying the language and the intricacies of the profession.
Her first professional photography was a session for the German Elle. The angelic beauty of the model from Russia could not be ignored. Soon Natasha began to receive invitations to fashion shows from the most famous fashion houses, but she truly believed in her star only when she found herself at Fashion Week in New York.
Inclusive
It was at that memorable show that the girl was invited to collaborate by representatives of several fashion houses. Over the next three years, Natalya made a dizzying career, working with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, DvF, Chanel and Gucci.
Her beautiful face and amazingly graceful figure graced the covers of glossy magazines in many European countries. In 2003, she became the “face and body” of Calvin Klein, and the very next year, despite being incredibly busy, she realized that now her money and status were enough to found a charitable foundation.
The fact is that Natalya knows firsthand the problems of families raising special children. She often had to stay with her little sister. But the unusual girl was driven away from benches and playgrounds. The supermodel recalls how she was forced to walk with Oksana through abandoned construction sites and in remote areas.
Natalia Vodianova's charitable foundation is called Naked Hearts. Natasha’s mission was to create an inclusive society in Russia. She helps not only disabled children, but also the homeless and simply talented kids.
Cinderella
The foundation's logo was drawn by English aristocrat Justin Portman, a freelance artist and art collector, who gave the supermodel a real romantic fairy tale.
Vodianova recalls their first meeting, not without irony. At a private party after one of the shows, she drank too much and saw a young man hitting on her friend - at the other end of the table. She didn’t like him right away, so when the equally pretty angry Portman tried to talk to Natasha, she responded sharply.
The model says that that evening they swore rudely and loudly, and she even tried to put out a cigarette on him. Friends gathered around the couple laughed and shouted assurances that now Justin had finally found a wife. None of those present then suspected that the comic predictions would turn out to be prophetic.
The next day, Portman called the star, asked for forgiveness and invited him on a date. This is how it began real story love.
The model and the aristocrat were married for ten years. They had three charming children, but in 2010 the media got the news that one of the most romantic couples of our time was getting divorced.
Justin wasn't ready to talk to reporters. According to him, life with Natalya was a real fairy tale; he is glad that they did not advertise their relationship and does not intend to do so in the future. He said that he did not believe that Natalya had found someone else.
Vodianova also remained silent, but gossips suggested that their romance did not stand the test of finances. During her marriage to an aristocrat, Natalya entered the list of the wealthiest people in London, but Portman remained an artist and never made any career.
Arno
They officially divorced in mid-2011. That same year, Vodianova began going out with her new lover, French businessman Antoine Arnault, whom she met four years ago while signing another contract. Arnault owns a group of companies that includes several famous fashion houses.
Those close to Vodianova say that she is a deeply decent person and could hardly have had an affair before divorcing her official husband. In addition, the model showed her lover only when too many fables about her personal life appeared in the media.