An incredibly tall and toothy little girl. This is how one could summarize the childhood of model Karolína Kurková. Her classmates teased her for her height and prominent teeth. A few years later, she was able to turn it into her strengths and thus became a unique face of world modelling. At the age of seventeen, she moved across the big pond, where it all started. Shows, covers, photoshoots... at the turn of the millennium she was at the peak! But then came thyroid disease, which greatly affected her career.
It started with teasing because of her height
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Karolína Kurková ve škole.Source: Profimedia.cz
Karolína Kurková was born on February 28, 1984 in Děčín. It shouldn't surprise anyone that she'd been skinny since an early age. That probably wouldn't be weird in childhood. She inherited infinitely long legs and a height of 180 cm from her father Jiří, who played basketball. Her large teeth, on the other hand, she got from her mom. So she had to wait a while to reach the status of a growing, skinny and beautiful girl. And suffer the taunts of her classmates.
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Photoshoot with a friend
You could say that the beginning of her modelling career came by as a complete coincidence. When she was fifteen, like most teenagers, she fooled around with her friend, taking pictures of each other. The friend sent the photos to a Prague modelling agency and the first contract was born!
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Mladá Karolína Kurková.Source: David Kundrát / CNC / Profimedia.cz
On the cover of Vogue at seventeen
A year later, the life of the young, then sixteen-year-old Kurková, completely changed. She left her native Děčín and moved to New York. In 2001, she fulfilled the dream of all models; the young Czech was chosen by the editor-in-chief of the American Vogue, Anna Wintour, for the cover.
"I'm not American, I haven't starred in any film or dated a rock star. I have no idea how and why I got this chance, but I'm extremely grateful for it,"
Kurková admitted in one interview. Her face on the world's best-selling fashion magazine shot her into a completely different realm. She started walking the runway for shows such as Valentino, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior and many others.
Victoria's Secret Angel
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Karolína Kurková na přehlídce Victoria Secret. Source: Profimedia.cz
At the age of twenty, Kurková had more experience than most people her age. But she was still missing one step towards the proverbial modelling peak - a lingerie show for Victoria’s Secret. And she achieved that in 2005.
Then came illness and thirteen extra kilos
Kurková was on top. She graced the most prestigious fashion magazines, appeared in shows for the most luxurious brands and had basically everything. But then hypothyroidism (decreased thyroid function) showed up. She gained thirteen kilos over the course of the disease over three years, which fans noticed at the 2008 Rio de Janeiro fashion show for Vicotria’s Secret. The media even wrote about her as a model with a big ass and cellulite.
"I played sports, ate healthily, I never smoked, which I still follow. But I didn't realize I was working too hard. I walked shows, filmed, slept very little. The body could not withstand the stress and responded. It signalled to me that I needed to rest,"
said Kurková in an interview with Idnes.
Love gave her a new direction
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Karolína Kurková s přítelemSource: Profimedia.cz
During the most difficult period of her career, she was able to find the light at the end of the tunnel. And that was film producer Archie Drury. Kurková herself admitted that she met her husband when she was feeling at her weakest mentally.
In 2009, the couple welcomed their first son, Tobin. Six years later, in 2015, she gave birth to her second son, Noah. In December last year, the model announced on her Instagram that they were expecting a third baby! Could it finally be a little girl?
She even appeared on the TV screen
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Karolína Kurková Source: Profimedia.cz
During her modelling career, Karolína Kurková managed to make several films. She first appeared in 2007 in "My Sexiest Year". Two years later, she starred alongside Channing Tatum in the action film “G. I. Joe”.
Approaching forty, Kurková looks better than ever before and we wish her much success.
