YOU cover story: ‘I know my life is privileged’
'It's strange, but I always knew my life was going to be different'
Natalia Vodianova has the modelling world – and a billionaire boyfriend – at her Louboutined feet, but her impoverished childhood in Russia taught her never to take any of this for granted, as she tells Jo Fairley
For supermodel Natalia Vodianova, a suite at Claridge’s is about a gazillion miles from her impoverished Russian childhood, growing up in Nizhny Novgorod.
Today, there’s a generous complimentary fruit bowl decorating the French-polished table. Back then, she sold fruit on the street to help her mother, later setting up her own stall with a friend to earn money for her single-parent household – where she was discovered by a modelling scout.
By the age of 17, Natalia had moved to Paris and was starring in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel and Louis Vuitton. At 19, she was married to Justin Portman (heir to a family that owns large chunks of Central London) and had the first of her three children, Lucas, now 11. Neva, six, and Viktor, five, followed, and, as she concedes – ‘I’ve done a lot already, but I still feel very young!’ With the break-up of her marriage in 2010, Natalia left behind homes in London, Herefordshire, West Sussex and Uruguay, but now lives with her new beau Antoine Arnault, son of billionaire LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, in Paris, where he runs the menswear line Berluti.
Add to Natalia’s CV lingerie designer (for Etam), Eurovision presenter, actress – and, of course, exquisite ‘face’ for Guerlain – and, as she explains to me over a healthy grapefruit juice, hers is quite a rags-to-riches story…
It’s strange, but I always knew my life was going to be different. I just felt everything would be all right. There was no logic to it; I just had a gut feeling.
I know what it’s like not to have food in the fridge or money to buy more. It was a tough but not a bleak life. I remember once finding a rouble on the street – at a time when the average salary was perhaps 25 roubles a month; I grabbed it with a feeling of euphoria, ran back to my mother and was allowed to go shopping for food with it. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to do that for my family. From very early on, I had a strong sense of responsibility.
I completely admire my mother for raising a child with cerebral palsy at home. In Russia most children with my younger sister’s condition are sent to institutions because when you look after such a child at home the government provides so little support. The family also feels disabled: my mother couldn’t work any more, and I couldn’t go to school normally because often I had to babysit my sister, so we struggled. But my mother is such an inspiration to me: she lived her life by following her heart, rather than what she was being told was ‘the right thing to do’.
‘Growing up in Russia gave me the tools to make things happen, to succeed. I try to use these now to help other people’
My childhood gave me resilience — and there’s little that can surprise me in life. I live a very different life now, with incredible privileges, but looking back I realise that growing up in Russia gave me tools that other people don’t necessarily have – such as the will to push that bit further, to make things happen, to succeed. I try to use these now to help other people.
My grandmother was my style icon. I was lucky enough to have loving grandparents – my mother’s parents – who were rock-solid, and I guess spoiled me a little bit, in a nonmaterial way. My grandmother is beautiful and very strong, and she took care of herself.
Everything had to be perfect: she had bright red hair down to her hips that she’d put in a huge chignon, and wore bright red lipstick. She had about three pairs of shoes that she polished and took great care of; she’d save money to buy a pair of gloves and a little scarf, and had a box full of costume jewellery that I wasn’t allowed to look inside till I was 15 or so. It definitely shaped my love of beautiful things, and also an awareness that they need to be taken care of.
Natalia Vodianova arrives at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards
If someone gives me a present, I still get a sense of ‘wow’. That little Russian girl who got so excited about finding a rouble hasn’t been lost along the way.
I remember feeling confused and a little depressed when I first became successful. By the time I was in my 20s, I had a substantial income for the first time, was married and living in a beautiful house with a healthy baby.
Even though I enjoyed it tremendously, I felt there was something else I should be doing with my life. Then in 2004 the Beslan massacre happened in Russia, with 186 children killed. I was deeply moved and wanted to help, which was the spark for my Naked Heart Foundation charity. Hence I found my purpose.
Naked Heart has completed more than 100 projects in Russia. We build accessible play parks – many of them at orphanages, children’s hospitals and rehabilitation centres. Now I’m involved in Every Child Deserves a Family, which aims to ‘join the dots’ – getting non-government organisations working with the private sector and government to improve the situation for children in Russia. We still have a lot more to do.
I’ve always wanted to give back since I was a little girl. Even then, my life was about sharing what I had.
My children are very grounded. Since they were little, I’ve taken them to Russia and introduced them slowly to the work we’re doing with children there. I want them to appreciate the life they lead. And I’m so thrilled with them. Lucas is really compassionate and good with people. He always befriends the shyest or the smallest boy in his class and looks after them. He’s also learning Russian, and picks up more when we go back there. Hopefully not the swear words!
I was incredibly proud to be a torch-bearer for the Paralympics. I was asked if I’d like to be the only representative of Russia for the Olympics or the Paralympics, and I chose the Paralympics. I am so pleased that the Games have helped to change attitudes towards the disabled in the UK, but in Russia we have a long way to go. Never mind disabled-access buses, in Moscow there aren’t even ramps in most places, or they’re behind a locked gate. It’s shocking.
I’m proud of both of my sisters. I have a second sister, who’s 16 and at boarding school in England. She barely spoke English when she arrived three years ago, but she got As and A-stars in the GCSEs that she took recently. She’s getting the education I didn’t get.
Sometimes I think I would love a week without responsibilities. I’d probably spend it lying in bed recovering.
You’re not going to want to hear this, but I really don’t exercise. I do walk everywhere in Paris – to all my appointments – and we live on the fourth floor, so I always take the stairs (much quicker than a lift). About once a week I hop on a free bicycle to get from A to B, but that’s it.
When I was asked to be an ambassador for Guerlain, my friends thought it was so cool.
They all said, ‘Oh, I remember going with my mother to the Maison Guerlain on the Champs-Elysées…’ or ‘My first perfume was Shalimar.’ Working with Guerlain is like working with family, and I’m like a child in a sweet shop with the products: Super Aqua-Serum, the Noir G mascara, and for summer the Terracotta Spray – an amazing glowy pick-me-up for the face if I’m feeling pale.
They all said, ‘Oh, I remember going with my mother to the Maison Guerlain on the Champs-Elysées…’ or ‘My first perfume was Shalimar.’ Working with Guerlain is like working with family, and I’m like a child in a sweet shop with the products: Super Aqua-Serum, the Noir G mascara, and for summer the Terracotta Spray – an amazing glowy pick-me-up for the face if I’m feeling pale.
Doing her bit for the Naked Heart Foundation at the Paris Half Marathon last year
Supernova: with boyfriend Antoine Arnault
I don’t see why I wouldn’t go on modelling almost for ever. Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington have shown that it’s possible, but what I most admire is that they’re not just beautiful, they’re strong and they live purposeful lives.
I’m incredibly happy right now, and a lot of it is down to being in love and sharing my life with Antoine in Paris. He works really hard, and I find it inspiring to be with someone who works as hard as I do. We wake up and have breakfast with the kids; he puts on a Berluti suit and goes to the office and I drop the children at their bilingual school before going to work. But it’s a very normal life, actually.
Our perfect night is to go to bed early with a box set and a tub of dulce de leche ice cream. We love Downton Abbey and Damages. I’m crazy for ice cream and will happily devour a whole tub, but my boyfriend said the other day, ‘We have to stop this ice cream thing, it’s not healthy.’ I replied, ‘We can’t give up ice cream! I have to have some pleasures. We gave up cigarettes, that’s enough.’
I hope that in time I can be friends with my ex. We had a very painful break-up, but he is the father of my children, and a very important person in my life.
I love modelling, but I want to be the most beautiful for my children. If I’m going out to something special, I do parade up and down for them in the apartment, because I love to feel beautiful in their eyes. But my son has a very strong sense of his own taste; he’ll say, ‘Mummy, I think that red lipstick’s a bit strong,’ or ‘I think you should wear the other dress.’
I’d definitely consider having more children. Why not? I think five is a nice number. We’re already quite a family, but now that they’re growing up they could help with little ones…
My life has been quite a journey. But I have genuine friends and love in my life, and a special relationship with my mother, grandparents and sisters. I may have known, on some level, that I’d have this amazing life – but I’ll never take it for granted.
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