Biography of Natalia Vodianova. The story of Natalia Vodyanova, or how Cinderella turned into a good fairy
Childhood
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 the Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical College and did not even dream of a modeling career. 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.
Modeling 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 the shows of Gucci, 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 in the world.
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 modeling business. The girl decided to devote herself to raising children and charity. The show of the Haute Couture Valentino collection 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.
Charity
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, the evening sold tickets to shows of clothing collections.In total, they managed to raise about 400 thousand dollars, and Natasha herself invested another 70 thousand of her personal money.
The organization builds children's play complexes throughout Russia. IN 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, a “Family Support Center” was built in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as “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 they appeared younger son Victor, 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 the beautiful name Roman. This is the second common child Vodianova and Antoine Arnault.
Natalia Vodianova now
Despite her status as a mother of many children, in 2016 Natalia Vodianova continued to model and charitable activities, however, I tried to spend every free minute with my 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. 
Natalia Vodianova is the muse of a huge number of popular designers around the world, wonderful actress and the most important thing, popular top model. Born in the city of Nizhny Novgorod on February 28, 1982. Full 35 years. Height is 176 cm and weight is about 50 kg.
Little Natasha's childhood
Family popular girl never famous enormous wealth On the contrary, they lived very modestly. Unfortunately, when Natasha was still very young, her parents divorced and the mother alone had to raise three daughters, one of whom had health problems - cerebral palsy. Natalya was the eldest among the sisters.
In the literal sense, the girls wore things after strangers who helped their family during these difficult years. Due to the fact that there was never enough money, already at the age of 11 the girl went to work - she helped her mother sell fruits and vegetables at the market.
Naturally, because of this, the child had absolutely no time left for studying, so the grades in her diary were always not the best; very often little Natasha was forced to come to classes with unprepared homework.
At the market, a girl could carry a huge number of boxes a day, the weight of which sometimes reached 30 kg. Unfortunately, the girl was unable to achieve at least some respect in society in this way. And already at the age of 15, young Natalya, together with her boyfriend, decided to start an independent adult life, moving to live in a rented apartment.
After Natasha graduated from school with difficulty, she managed to enter a pedagogical college, and the girl never even thought about a modeling career. Thanks to her friend, who once brought her to a casting for the French modeling agency Viva, and the girl passed it successfully, the girl was almost immediately sent to the Madison agency competition, which was held in Paris.
The beginning of a girl's career as a model
At the competition in Paris, which took place in 1999, the girl was awarded second place. The jury at that time included Jean-Paul Gaultier, who noticed the young lady in order to subsequently offer her a decent job, which the girl simply could not refuse.
Of course, it was very difficult for the girl at the beginning of her modeling career, as there was always serious competition. The model very much limited herself in everything, since renting an apartment was quite expensive big money. But, fortunately, young Natalya received good offer starred for the German magazine Elle almost immediately, and after the girl took part in high fashion week in New York, she was showered with a huge number of other offers.
In addition to being a model, the girl also took part in filming films. For example, in 2010, her face was chosen as the face of the Gorgon in the film Clash of the Titans. And two years later, the girl herself starred in a film called “Lovers” in the title role.
Personal life
In the personal life of the popular model, fortunately, everything is now great. Once, in Paris, at one of the closed parties, she met a very interesting young art collector and artist Justin Portman. As the girl herself admits, initially she did not even plan to go to this party.
Plus, Justin himself also did not pay attention to the girl, but flirted with her friend. In fact, when Justin decided to approach her, Natalya, due to the fact that she was under alcohol intoxication responded to him with rudeness, from which the young man decided to respond in kind. As Vodianova recalls: “We just stood there for about two hours and shouted at each other. Then my husband’s friends said that it seems that he has found himself a wife.”
The couple had their first child in 2001, who was named Lucas. The young couple got married after the birth of their son in St. Petersburg. The couple’s second child was a girl, Neva, who was born in 2006. And a year later the couple also had another son, Victor. In mid-2011, the girl announced to everyone that she and her husband were getting a divorce.
Already in the summer of the same year, the girl began a new relationship with Antoine Arnault, and two years later the couple had a child, Maxim. In 2016, the woman again became the mother of a boy, whom they decided to name Roman. While the couple is in no hurry to legitimize their relationship officially.
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Natalia Vodianova is one of the most famous top models of our time. In 2000, her face appeared on the covers of many magazines - French ELLE, Australian Marie Claire, Japanese High Fashion. By 2001, she was a sought-after model. She has a strong character that makes her different from the usual standard models.
The most important and instructive thing in Natalia’s biography is her path to success, where she started and where she came to.
Natalia Vodianova is a girl from Nizhny Novgorod, born in 1982. Her background did not give her much chance for success. Natalya grew up in a family experiencing extreme need. Two younger sisters grew up with Natalya, and she had to go to work very early.
She helped her mother sell fruit at the market. An eleven-year-old girl had to carry heavy boxes and baskets of fruit, take care of her sick sister and do much more around the house to help her mother earn money. It was the 90s. And what those years were like in Russia was experienced by everyone who was born in the 80s, not to mention those who were born earlier.
A family with a single mother and an alcoholic father was not surprising. They barely made ends meet. This is what they say about those who did not have a penny. What was to be done? Natasha started working and growing up early. One of Natasha’s sisters was disabled from birth - cerebral palsy. All the girls were from different fathers. The mother kept trying to improve her personal life, coming to terms with her loneliness and raising her children without any relationships.
At school, Natasha studied very mediocrely, and in this state of affairs, nothing could foreshadow a brilliant future. Nobody wanted to be friends with a girl from a dysfunctional family. Nobody tried to help Natasha, at least kind words. After all, people are scared away by human misfortune. People simply passed by a little girl who was carrying heavy boxes... But think about it - do we stop now when we see something like this?...
Everything began to change at the age of 15, when Natalya began working in a modeling agency. One of her friends advised Natasha to go to a modeling school, because from there models were invited to participate in advertising campaigns. And this Additional income. Natasha went, and from that moment bright colors appeared in her life, since these activities gave her pleasure, helped her turn away from the gloomy reality at least for a few hours, and feel as if she was living a completely different life.
Just this was enough for her, and she didn’t even think about a serious modeling career. And what could one even think about if here, like a train, her gloomy and dysfunctional state of the family trailed behind her. The director of the modeling academy did not offer lucrative contracts, for the most interesting events she was rarely invited... Natasha remained a supporting model.
At that time there were many such modeling agencies in our country. For the most part they resembled a school good manners.
But the incredible happened. In the modeling agency where Natalia Vodianova worked, the Parisian agency Viva organized a casting. Moscow photographer Alexey Vasiliev noticed Natasha, and they became interested in her. An offer was received to work in Europe. But to do this, you need to learn the language in two months.
It wasn't easy at first. Suddenly she didn’t suit the Viva agency, and she didn’t like the other one. But Natasha has a persistent and persistent character. The president of the Russian agency “Grace Models” once again took Natasha to the same agency “Viva”. And suddenly she was not only invited to work there, but they almost fired those managers who refused Natasha the first time.
However, the first year was difficult - there were no prestigious contracts, she earned only $100 a week. She had to travel from one end of the city to the other, but she persistently appeared at every casting, even going to a casting where a different type was required. She was used to working so hard that she no longer had any strength left. And her life in Paris was a fairy tale compared to Nizhny Novgorod.
At the end of 2000, she starred in two photo shoots. One was published in The Face magazine, where the photographer was Felix Lammers, known for his advertising shoots for Wella, Nivea, Bourjois, and collaboration with Elle and Vogue magazines. This shoot was a success for Natasha, and offers followed. The second photo shoot was published in the Italian Marie Claire in March 2001, and was taken by Jacques Olivard. He collaborated with German and English Vogue.
A series of photographs was published under the title “Lolita 2001”. The image of a tender and seductive girl has become business card Natalia Vodianova. After these two sessions, the wave of proposals continued to grow. Natasha began to participate in fashion weeks in Milan, Paris, London, where she demonstrated collections of Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, Vivien Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, John Richmond, Blumarine and many other fashion houses.
Natasha became a star. It was around this time that she met Lord Justin Portman. Soon she found out that she was having a child. What to do? In the modeling business, this situation is not easy. On the one hand, your figure may deteriorate, at least for a while, but on the other hand, you need to leave the podium for about six months. At a time when your star has just begun to shine, leaving the fashion world for six months means stopping your career. Then Natasha was only 19 years old, and she made the decision to have a child.
From the point of view of the modeling business, this is madness, but from an everyday point of view? Single mother - this word is painfully familiar to her. She didn't know how her relationship with Justin would develop. But Natasha has a strong character. In the situation she found herself in, what would each of you do? But Natasha knew that life is not just camera flashes. The birth of a child might put her career at risk, but her baby’s life was more valuable.
Natasha gave birth to her little Lucas, and after a while there was an official marriage to Portman. The beautiful Russian girl was wearing Wedding Dress from the Gucci house, which was made for her by the creative director of the House - Tom Ford. No one expected Natasha to leave the podium during the birth of her son. And when she came back a few weeks after the birth, it was again a surprise. But Natasha has a strong character. After that, she reached extraordinary heights in the fashion world.
The number of offers grew, the number of photographs on the covers of glossy magazines grew. And not only that, she starred in Roman Coppola’s film Agent Dragonfly, modeled for the Pirelli calendar three times, and became the face of Calvin Klein in 2003. Fabien Baron, creative director of Calvin Klein, one of the most influential people in the fashion world, saw in Natasha that this girl was not just a portrait that would be forgotten in a season, he understood that there was something in her that would make the fashion world see her heroine for many years.
Subsequently, Natasha was photographed by famous photographers of the fashion world, who were able to make their model a star of the first magnitude. Natasha appeared not only on magazine covers, but also in artistic photographs. And this was another recognition of her perfection. Natasha in these photographs was seen as a person with deep character. But this is what it is - an amazing girl who has gone through many difficulties in her life. And this left an imprint on her soul and attitude towards life.
Natalia Vodianova is a world-famous model, the face of several legendary fashion houses. IN Lately Natalya is better known as a philanthropist. The girl actively supports children with physical and mental disabilities and fights for their rights.
The biography of Natalia Vodianova, Cinderella from Nizhny Novgorod, really looks like a fairy tale. This is the story of a rapid rise to sky-high heights from the very bottom.
Natalia Vodianova was born into a more than modest family. The girl does not remember Mikhail Vodyanov’s father. Natasha’s mother, Larisa Viktorovna Gromova, raised her three daughters herself. One of the girls has been disabled since childhood - Vodianova’s sister Oksana was born with a severe form of autism and cerebral palsy.
This caused not only numerous material, but also psychological problems: at that time such diagnoses were not made public; Families had to figure out how to raise and communicate with special children through practical experience. But such a life also greatly influenced the future philanthropist. It was communication with her sister that taught Natalya to value life and encouraged her to help those in need.
Natalya was not a saint; years later she admitted to the press that as a child, not knowing anything about Oksana’s diagnosis, she was naively envious of her sister, who received all the care and attention. Natalya herself was forced to grow up quickly in order to help her family and fully experience what responsibility is while looking after her sick sister.
Mother had a very hard time, and Natalya helped her sell fruit at the market, carrying 30-kilogram boxes of goods. Natalya didn’t even dream of new clothes back then: she had to wear out her old ones. At the age of 15, the schoolgirl entered the Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical College, and at 16, Vodianova was enrolled in the Evgenia modeling agency. When Natalia remembers her childhood, she admits that it was not easy. As the model admitted in an interview, she began to really smile only at the age of 17.
At one of the screenings, the girl was noticed by a scout from the Viva Model Management agency and invited to a casting by a French agency in Moscow. The appearance of the Slavic beauty captivated the French, and then events developed according to the scenario of a real fairy tale. After several months, the girl went to Paris, where Natalia Vodianova’s modeling biography began.
World catwalks
In 1999, at one of the competitions in Paris, Vodianova was noticed by Jean-Paul Gaultier himself. Immediately after the competition, the famous couturier offered the aspiring model of Russian nationality a job. The start of my career was not easy. The competition was incredible, and all the money earned went towards food and rent.
The Russian Cinderella also had her own Fairy Godmother. A wealthy Frenchman, a doctor by profession, helped the Russian beauty. He sheltered her and decided many everyday problems. And also helped Natalya concentrate on studying in English and work. He still remains a friend and later even became the godfather of Vodianova’s child.
After the participation of the Russian model in New York Fashion Week, Natalia Vodianova began to receive offers. And soon she took part in the shows of Gucci, Ives Saint-Laurent, Calvin Klein. The model starred for famous publications Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
In 2001, Natalya tried her hand at cinema for the first time. She played in the film Agent Dragonfly. Later, the model’s filmography was replenished with four more films, but Natalia did not have any truly memorable roles. The podium brought her much more popularity than films.
In 2002, Vodianova became the most sought-after model at New York Fashion Week. There she performed for nineteen designers at once. At the same time, Natalya becomes the “face and body” of Calvin Klein, which signed a contract with the Russian model. In the same year, the girl opened and closed shows of Ives Saint-Laurent collections, which are considered the most prestigious in the fashion world.
But the real triumph for the girl from the outback was the shooting for the 2004 Pirelli calendar. Such an honor only falls to the most beautiful women peace. Natalia Vodianova, according to the Sunday Times, is among the third hundred richest people in Britain. So, in 2003, the model earned more than 3.6 million pounds.
In 2007 it became known that Vodianova became official the legendary French house Chanel. She attended collection shows in Paris, but it is noteworthy that the fashion house itself did not comment on its choice. Natalya became the face of the autumn cosmetics collection.
At the beginning of 2008, already in the status mother of many children, Natalia Vodianova announced her retirement from the modeling business. She decided to devote herself to family, children and charity. Natalia's appearance at the Valentino Haute Couture collection was the last in official career fashion models.
However, Natalia returns to the catwalk from time to time and participates in some fashion shows as a guest star for very large fees.
In 2009, Natalia received a place as co-host of the semi-finals of the international music competition Eurovision, taking place in Moscow. He became the second presenter.
Natalia Vodianova in the show "The Voice. Children" Her love for children affected all of Natalia’s activities. In 2013 she became new TV presenter popular children's show “The Voice. Children” and admitted to the press that she came to the program only because she loves children very much. The model acted as a co-host.
Natalya is an active participant in various major sporting events. So, in 2014, she took part in the presentation of Sochi 2014, held in Vancouver, and later became a participant in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi. Natalia Vodianova also became the host of the draw ceremony for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying tournament.
Charity
Popularity and big income allowed Natalia to think about the well-being of not only her own family, but also the world around her. Vodianova became an active philanthropist. Soon, charity became an integral and rather large part of the model’s life.
Poor and problematic childhood, illness sister Oksana is forever etched in Vodianova’s memory. When fame and wealth brought her to the very top of Olympus, Natalya did not harden. In 2004 successful model with worldwide fame, she founded her own Naked Heart Foundation for the construction of children's playgrounds in Russia and abroad.
Natalia Vodianova at a press conference of the Naked Heart Foundation The Foundation is engaged not only in construction, it also carries out information and educational functions. Natalya remembers the information vacuum her family had to live in, and does not want other families, who are already having a hard time because of their child’s illness, to also be forced to go through this.
The press linked this foundation with Natalia’s sick sister, but Vodianova said that she was inspired to work with playgrounds not by sympathy, but by her own past. My sister, due to autism, did not feel isolation as much as little Natasha, who always walked with Oksana and felt very distant from other children. According to Vodianova, in childhood no one wants to stand out, this is the prerogative of teenagers and adults, and in childhood everyone wants to be together and the same, which is why Natalya started building places where all children can play together.
The logo for the foundation was designed and drawn by Natalia Vodianova’s first husband, Justin Portman. Behind short period the foundation has built more than a hundred playgrounds and parks in 68 cities of Russia.
In 2011, Natalia opened another charity program, “Every Child Deserves a Family,” which deals with the problems of children with special needs, and whose main activities are aimed at changing the current system in Russia, in which everything more families abandon children with special needs.
Scandal
In 2015, a scandal broke out. Sister famous model insulted and Because of her diagnosis, the girl has a specific appearance and behavior, which, according to the cafe management, frightened other visitors. An unpleasant conflict broke out. Oksana's mother even called the police to punish the offenders. A case was even opened against representatives of the cafe for insulting honor and dignity. Various stars and world media became interested in the conflict and came out in support of Vodianova and her sister.
According to representatives of the cafe, everything looked completely different. According to the press, the girl became thirsty and went behind the bar, and when they tried not to let her in Staff only and directed to a place intended for visitors, she began to bang her head against the walls. After this, Oksana was asked to call an ambulance and asked to leave the cafe. The girl allegedly continued to hit her head and then sat on the floor. Her escorts did not explain the situation in any way, and the waiters did not know how to react.
According to the cafe employees, no one insulted Oksana, they offered to call an ambulance, since the girl behaved strangely, and no one was sure that she was not injured, and no one tried to force her out either.
The scandal caused a public outcry. Celebrities and journalists began to speak openly about the problems and difficulties of people with disabilities. Vodianova, as an activist and philanthropist, admitted that the unpleasant situation with her sister also had its advantages.
The country was literally divided into two camps on this issue, and each had its own arguments and reasons. On the one hand, many people supported Vodianova; they believe that people with special needs should receive the same services and the same treatment as the rest of the population. But there were also those who asked a reasonable question about the danger. After all, the girl’s behavior, which led to the scandal, was dangerous, at least for herself, and no one in the cafe knew whether the child would become mental disorders suddenly dangerous for other visitors.
This resonance unsettled all parties to the conflict. When asked by journalists, Oksana and Natalya’s mother asked to leave her and the child alone. Employees of the cafe and neighboring entertainment and food outlets began to avoid the press, and the scandalous establishment itself was closed. After big story The cafe underwent numerous inspections, which revealed a huge number of violations. The management stated that they had no more violations than neighboring cafes, they simply fell under the threat and became hostages of the situation.
Natalya herself called on the press not to demonize the cafe’s management. She met with her sister's offenders and tried to calmly talk about the situation. The parties understood each other. As the model told the press, these were not bad or cruel people, they acted this way simply out of surprise and unfamiliarity, because everyone Russian society not adapted to communicate with disabled and special people.
Personal life
As befits a true Cinderella, a prince appeared in Natalia Vodianova’s personal life. In Paris, at one of the closed parties, Natalya met art collector and freelance artist Justin Portman. The 33-year-old English aristocrat and the Russian model did not immediately like each other. Their acquaintance was marked loud quarrel. But already on the second day, Portman called Vodianova, apologized and offered to meet. Since then, the couple has not been separated.
At the beginning of 2001, the model went to a photo shoot in Africa. The English aristocrat also traveled with his Russian beloved. Natalia returned to Europe pregnant. Justin Portman was next to Natasha at the time of the birth of his son.
Their first child, Lucas, was born in London, and six weeks after his birth, Vodianova returned to the podium. Motherhood did not affect the supermodel's appearance in any way. The young mother continued to work hard, but now Justin and Lucas were with her everywhere.
Natalia Vodianova and Justin Portman got married after the birth of their son. The marriage was recorded on September 1, 2002 in St. Petersburg. The celebration was a great success. They partied widely, in Russian style, for three days, and a banquet was organized for the guests of honor in Peterhof. The Throne Hall of the Grand Palace was rented for the newlyweds and their guests and they even turned on the fountains. Guests were entertained by ballet dancers from the Mariinsky Theater. Soon the couple had a daughter, Neva, and in 2007, a son, Victor.
But every fairy tale has an end. The personal life of Natalia Vodianova and Justin Portman ended in divorce. Journalists believe that the reason for the divorce was that Natalya met new love. The French billionaire, son of the owner of the LVMH concern, Antoine Arnault and Natalia Vodianova met back in 2007, but the romantic relationship between them developed only in 2011. Natalya first appeared with Arno while still married to Portman.
In August 2013, Natalia Vodianova’s personal life followed a new scenario: she accepted Antoine’s offer to move from London to noisy Paris. On May 2, 2014, Natalia Vodianova and Antoine Arnault had a son, Maxim. And in June 2016, a son, Roman, was born into the family, becoming Vodianova’s fifth child.
Natalia Vodianova now
Vodianova constantly adheres to a diet and even put her children on it. With a height of 176 centimeters, she weighs from 45 to 50 kg, but Natalya does not at all require her own children to meet model standards. The mother selected diets for them that were gentle and aimed at improving the health of the body.
In an interview for British publications, Natalya explained her parenting methods by saying that she should monitor her weight and eating habits important with young age, because the habit of what, how and when to eat will remain with children for life. Vodianova does not require children to follow complex diets and does not starve them, she simply asks them to adhere to a diet from which various harmful foods are excluded and the amount of sweets is reduced.
Now Natalya continues to work. She began to take part in the activities of the foundation, returned to the catwalk just three months after the birth of her youngest child and showed off a magnificent figure. About his decision to finish early maternity leave Natalia wrote on her Instagram.
In 2017, Natalia Vodianova discovered a new direction of activism; she became the face of the environmental collection of the H&M brand. The girl posed in a light flowing dress made of pleated fabric. But it wasn't special at all appearance clothes, and its material. The dress, like the rest of the collection, is made from the new Bionic material, or, simply put, from recycled waste found in the oceans and coastal areas.
Natalya Mikhailovna Vodianova. Born on February 28, 1982 in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod). Russian supermodel, actress and philanthropist.
Father - Mikhail Vodyanov.
Mother - Larisa Viktorovna Kusakina.
She has two younger sisters- Oksana (disabled since childhood, born with a severe form of autism and cerebral palsy) and Christina (born in 1997).
My real surname is Vodianova (with emphasis on the penultimate syllable), but for work I changed it to Vodianova.
Natalya hardly remembers her father. The mother raised her daughters alone. Since childhood, Natalya had to help her sell fruit at the market, and sometimes she carried heavy boxes of goods.
At the age of 15, she entered the Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical College, but did not study there for long.
At the age of 16, she was enrolled in the modeling agency of Evgenia Chkalova “Evgenia” (Nizhny Novgorod), where she was recommended to learn English.
She worked on the catwalk for Gucci, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, Chloe, Valentino, Givenchy, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Miu Miu, Hermès, Kenzo, Viktor & Rolf, Dolce&Gabbana, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and many other fashion houses.
She has appeared on numerous covers of the most famous fashion magazines, including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, ELLE.
She was the face of the cosmetic brand L’Oreal Paris, and also took part in advertising campaigns brands such as Louis Vuitton, David Yurman, Marc Jacobs, Miss Sixty, Pepe Jeans, Diane von Fürstenberg, Chanel, Gucci, Guerlain.
Shot for the Pirelli calendar.
The dominance of Russian fashion models on world catwalks since the early 2000s has been called the era of the three Vs (after the initial letters of the surnames of the most successful and sought after - Natalia Vodianova, Anna Vyalitsyna and Evgenia Volodina).
In 2003, she became the official face and body of Calvin Klein.
According to the Sunday Times, Natalia Vodianova is one of the third hundred richest people in Britain (she earned £3.6 million in 2003).
In 2007, after the birth of her son Victor, she decided to partially leave her modeling career and devote herself to her family and charitable foundation.
However, Natalya, like some of the world's ex-supermodels, still agrees to appear on the catwalk or take part in a photo shoot for high fees.
In 2009, she was approved as a co-host of the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Moscow, paired with Andrei Malakhov.
In 2013, together with Dmitry Nagiyev, she became the host of the TV show “The Voice. Children".
She took part in the presentation of Sochi 2014 in Vancouver, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi in February 2014, and was the host of the draw ceremony for the qualifying tournament of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
In 2017, Natalia Vodianova became the face of the environmental collection of the H&M brand.
Vodianova is actively involved in charity work. In 2004, she founded her own foundation, The Naked Heart Foundation, to build children's playgrounds in Russia and abroad. In total, the foundation built more than 100 playgrounds and parks in 68 cities of Russia, as well as the first unique playground for children with mental disabilities.
Since 2011, the foundation has been involved in the “Every Child Deserves a Family” program, aimed at breaking the existing tradition in Russia of abandoning children with special needs. As part of this program, a “Family Support Center” was built in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as a “Lekoteka” in the Tula region.
Natalia Vodianova talks about herself
Natalia Vodianova's height: 176 centimeters.
Personal life of Natalia Vodianova:
Ex-husband- British aristocrat, Justin Trevor Berkeley Portman, the younger half-brother of billionaire Viscount Christopher Portman.
As members of the family of peers, but without a title themselves, Vodianova (during her marriage) and her husband have the prefix "Honourable" to their name.
There were many rumors in the press about Vodianova’s infidelities. That she had an affair with actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, that the top model dated former war photographer Scott Douglas. The tabloids also reported that she could be with financier Alexander Peshko.
In 2010, media reports appeared about the upcoming divorce of Vodianova and Portman, and in June 2011, Vodianova announced that the spouses were no longer living together.
