How Eva Herzigova’s kids helped her bounce back from rumours of anorexia and drug abuse
Just eight years after her stunning Wonderbra Hello Boys ads shot her to fame, the stark transformation forced Eva to deny she was a drug addict
LOOKING frail and gaunt, with hollow cheeks, sunken eyes and cold sores on her blue lips, Eva Herzigova shocked her fans and left them fearing for her health.
Just eight years after her stunning curves in the Wonderbra Hello Boys ads shot her to fame, the stark transformation forced her to deny she was a drug addict.
But now 45-year-old Eva has bounced back, fronting a new undies campaign and, today, in an exclusive interview, she reveals how having sons George, 11, Philipe, seven, and Edward, five, has totally changed her life.
She says: “I am fortunate that I have three boys as they keep me constantly moving and that gets me exercising every day.
“I think it’s actually easier to stay in shape in your 40s as you are more aware of what is harmful to you.
“As a result, you make choices that are more health-driven throughout your daily routine.
“I believe in nourishing your body with the right food and breathing techniques.
“I do enjoy a brisk walk through the park or a swim in the sea in the summer.
“I even had a surf lesson this summer in Biarritz. I couldn’t believe it — I got up and rode a wave.
“It was exhilarating. Also, the teacher was a champion of the world. It was so much fun.”
Eva lives a quiet life in Italy with her fiancé, businessman Gregorio Marsiaj, and their three boys, who she describes as her “greatest achievement”. The couple got engaged last year after 16 years together.
During our interview she even accidentally refers to dashing multi-millionaire Gregorio as her “husband”, although she later clarifies that they are not yet married.
She says: “The most important things in my life are my kids’ well-being, mine and my husband’s health and having a sense of responsibility towards each other and the planet, which is falling apart.
Traffic was said to stop as the huge black and white photos of her taut abdomen and cleavage alongside the provocative greeting were pasted on billboards up and down Britain
On Eva's Hello Boys Wonderbra advert from 1994
“We need to embrace each other and make a difference to our beautiful nature.
“I would love to take a year off and travel around the world with my kids, have them home-tutored and explore the world.
“Or live in the countryside and have dogs and trees everywhere.
“I also want to publish a book, which is something that is in process. I have so many unfulfilled ambitions.
“I want to travel as much as I did when I started modelling. I want to discover places again, but with my boys this time.
“I want to show them the beauty of the world and let them see different cultures, different cuisines, different realities. I want to explore, go on an adventure and be in nature.
“That’s what I wanted to do when I started. I didn’t want to be a model. I wanted to see, learn, taste different parts of the world.”
It was the 1994 Hello Boys ad campaign — voted the most iconic ever, and set to mark its 25th anniversary next year — that changed Eva’s life.
Traffic was said to stop as the huge black and white photos of her taut abdomen and cleavage alongside the provocative greeting were pasted on billboards up and down Britain.
Crashes were blamed on drivers craning their necks to get a better view, while campaigners demanded that the ads be taken down, claiming the racy pictures demeaned women. Eva instantly became a member of an elite supermodel group that included Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista — who famously claimed she wouldn’t get out of bed and work for less than 10,000 dollars a day.
Eva had well and truly arrived. But as she planned her lavish wedding to Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres in 1996 she began to lose weight.
She admits shedding nearly a stone in a month as she planned the bash for their 450 guests, including Donald Trump.
After two years, she and Tico divorced. And by 2002, Eva’s friends started to worry about her.
Her appearance at a charity bash in New York led to rumours of anorexia as her stick-thin arms were covered in downy hair — common in severely underweight women — and her shoes looked too big for her. Others thought she could be on weight-reducing drugs — and it led many to believe she had an addiction.
At the time, Eva was forced to address the issue and said: “I’ve never done drugs, because I see the effects they have on people.
“I don’t like the people they become. Drugs have never been a temptation.”
Today, she is back to her normal, healthy self — and has agreed to peel off again, this time to pose for Italian lingerie brand Yamamay.
The firm’s MyBodyConfidentBeauty campaign features the more empower-ing “Hey Girls” slogan, adapted for the modern age.
The new adverts were shot in black and white, just like the old ones, but with Eva wearing a plunging black bra and semi-sheer briefs in contrast to the frillier lingerie she wore in the original. And while the revolutionary Wonderbra cups were designed to enhance a woman’s breasts and make them look bigger, the new range is as much about comfort and “providing great support” as it is about being sexy, according to Eva.
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EVA was born in Litvinov, in what is now the Czech Republic, in 1973, and is the daughter of a coal mine technician and a secretary.
She began her modelling career in 1989 at the age of 16 when she won a beauty contest in Prague.
Eva later joined a modelling agency and moved to Paris, France.
Her big break came in 1994 when she was chosen as the poster girl for the “Hello Boys” Wonderbra advertising campaign.
It featured a close-up of Eva wearing a black Wonderbra and was considered both ground-breaking and controversial.
She went on to make a fortune, appearing in adverts for Gap, Guess and Victoria’s Secret.
In 1996, Eva married Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres in a fairytale wedding in her home town. Her new husband was 20 years older than her – and a foot shorter.
But just two years later, after a series of arguments, they split.
Eva vowed never to marry again but, in 2001, met Italian businessman Gregorio Marsiaj and said of their first encounter: “I saw him from afar when my plane to New York was grounded in Italy.
“He caught my attention and it was a beautiful moment – my heart was beating really hard and I couldn’t breathe.”
Around that time, her plummeting weight led to speculation that she was addicted to drugs.
But Eva bounced back and gained weight with the births of her children.
And, last year, with her net worth estimated at around £10million, she announced she was engaged to Gregorio.
She is now starring in a new campaign with Yamamay, pictured.
But she admits she had fears about stripping off again.
‘Wonderbra ad was made to seduce men’
She says: “I’m 45, I have three kids. I am not perfect, that’s for sure.
“I do have insecurities, I think everyone does.
“I thought it was clever to be inspired by the slogans from the original Wonderbra ad campaign, with a difference that the Hey Girls message is addressed to women you feel totally comfortable and happy to be with. These girls are your friends while the Wonderbra ad was made to provoke and seduce men.”
And Eva is glad the obsession with classical beauty that she represented in the 1990s has been turned on its head.
She says: “Women are so much more than just their youth and their body shape.
“Our beauty has so many forms and shapes. It’s time that society accepts a very simple fact — everybody is equal, no matter what their age or gender, colour or size.”
And she is pleased that young models will be less at risk than they were when she started modelling, since the #MeToo movement brought about by the Harvey Weinstein harassment scandal.
She says: “I am happy that this is no longer being tolerated and that there are women speaking out about such painful events in their lives. They are throwing light on who these people are and consequently changing the rules.
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“There is still a long way to go to stop this power-driven sense of entitlement to harass people in all parts of the world. But it has been captivating to watch the solidarity of women marching together and standing side by side.
“This has been so inspirational and I think the world of modelling has changed even more in the past two years. There has been an avalanche of changes ever since the #MeToo movement started.
“Tall and skinny are no longer the parameters for what beautiful is, and this is so liberating, even for me.
“I enjoy being looked at because of what I am today and not just with nostalgia of the supermodels era.
“It is exciting to watch the old establishments being swept away.”
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