Fast confession - Vlastina Svátková Kounická: My son chose our house by wanting to come out to this world!
Vlastina Svátková is a Slovak actress, who will be always remembered for her role of the wife of Radovan Krejčíř in the movie Gangster Ka. Since then, this beautiful mother of two sons has gone on with her professional as well as personal life. Within not even eighteen months, she has managed to get engaged, get married and give birth to her third son. She is currently moving into a new single-family house. She found some time between breastfeeding and packing boxes to give an interview about her loves, desires, life changes and passion for luxury jewels to Luxury Prague Life.
Vlastinka, you gave birth to your third son Matyáš recently. You already have two sons from your first marriage and your second husband also has a daughter. You suddenly have quite a big family, do you not?
Bigger than I have ever planned. At high school, I was one of those who claimed to never have any kids in order to be able to achieve something big. Now, I have the most kids from among all my schoolmates. It only comes with age when one realizes that to have kids is the biggest achievement in life and something we can consider a life success.
Here you can see that you never know where life will take you and what it will bring to you.
It is the way it is supposed to be.
Did you not want a girl?
I have not thought about it much. I did not plan what gender the kids would be. Nevertheless, deep down, influenced by my husband who claimed he can only make girls, I expected that it would probably be a girl. Well, it was not. I cried for about three minutes, then we decided on the boy’s name and I have known ever since that I was supposed to have a boy even the third time around. My husband is funny. He would like to have yet another kid. He thinks that I still have a little unembraced girl in me and if I do not learn how to love her, I will never have a girl. So I’m in the stage of learning it now. Actually I have been learning it all my life :).
What do the two boys think about having yet another little brother?
I think it is a great advantage that the first two are not far apart and that the third one is quite a bit younger. As a result, they do not feel any jealousy. Instead they take him as a little baby, pet, who they intuitively protect. They are in the age when they are actually proud of having a little baby at home. For example, I saw them sending his pictures to their schoolmates. It is great, I can, for example, go to a bathroom and they take care of him while I’m gone.
And what about your husband’s daughter Rozálka, does she help too?
Yes, she is used to it. She also has a younger sibling at home, so she knows what to do. As a girl, she has been naturally caring ever since she was little.
I follow you on Facebook and this whole thing – I have a new boyfriend, I have a ring now, wedding, and look, big belly, and suddenly there is a little baby – has seemed somehow very quick.
That is typical for me. I am not the type who waits for suitable moments, thinks too much, plans forever, tests, verifies… When I feel it is right, I go for it all the way. When I do not feel it, I wait, but it is a signal it will not be the right thing. When I do not do it hundred percent, it does not usually have a real sense.
How did you meet your partner? I looks to me you are the perfect soulmates.
That is a big topic, and even a little deceptive. It is because when you meet somebody who you feel good with, after all the disappointments and relationships, you have tendency to tell yourself that he is your soulmate. You may even give up on working on yourself, because you think it is super and, most of all, you believe that it is how it will be forever. But that is wrong. It will never be that simple with anybody. It will never be perfect. That is only our naive thinking. You are in love for a while, everybody has that, and it is of course beautiful. That is the phase when we quickly marry and make kids. But then, there is the sobering phase, when we start seeing all imaginable differences and wrongs of the other one. We start seeing what we have not seen before. None of us can avoid this phase. The given relation usually falls apart and people leave to continue their search for their soulmates. Only those who make it through and do not run away can then build a strong and beautiful relationship, when the real love comes out. The feeling of certainty, security and home.
Which stage are you at with your husband?
We already know we are not going to run away. We know we would just repeat the same lesson with somebody else and we know it is completely pointless. Furthermore, we do not want to run away from each other, so we are learning to accept the differences of the other one. I am an introvert, he is an extrovert. I am a melancholic type, he is a sanguine type. We turn our differences into humor. For example, I save money and my husband spends it. At the same time, however, I have no idea how much money I have on my account. He, because of his job, works with numbers, finances and budgets, and is a genius when it comes to these things. We are learning to combine it, making sure it works for our family and thus also educating each other.
How long has the whole thing actually taken? I mean from getting to know each other to moving to your new house.
Jesus, I do not know. I did not count it. I think we met in March of last year. So it has been a year and few months.
That is indeed fast.
It is however true that we have been looking for an apartment or a house for a year and only now we found it. Actually, you could say that Matyáš chose this house not far from Prague since I started having contractions there and the real estate agent got scared that I could have a baby in the house. When we got to the house and my contractions started, I immediately said we take it, after which we left for a maternity hospital. My contractions in the hospital stopped though and they let us go home. A week later, we went to the house for a second time and my contractions started again. On the same day, I ended up giving birth to Matyáš. Even if we would have changed our minds ten times over, our son chose the house and we have to respect it and pay the mortgage (laughter).
You are moving out of Prague…
When I started looking for a place, I had no intention to leave Prague 10, thus making sure the boys can stay in the same school. About six months later, I was willing to accept Prague 5 or 6, and after a year I started looking even out of Prague. Moreover, I had no intention to buy a house, particularly a big one. My husband calculated that we need a bedroom for each kid, an office room for him since he often works at home, and a game room for everybody, so everybody can play. The result was we need nine rooms plus a kitchen. At that time, I laughed at him, told him he is crazy and that I would never move to something that big. And now, I am moving into exactly that size of a house and still do not understand how he peacefully managed to persuade me to do that at the end.
Have you really never thought of such a scenario?
No. Before I met my husband, I was in a phase when I even accepted the idea of being alone and I thought it makes no sense to look for somebody. I thought I may just be a single mom of two boys and would make the best of it. And when they leave the nest, I thought, I would buy me a cat and learn embroidery, for example.
How did your husband get your attention?
He was original. Everybody thinks that writing “you are so beautiful” on Facebook makes us stunned. My husband invited me for a game of badminton. I thought that was an original idea. I bought a new pair of indoor tennis shoes and gave it everything. It even caused me tendon inflammation. He forgot to tell me that he used to play it competitively and that he is just testing me. Later on, he told me I got it wrong, that it was not meant to be a date and that he just wanted to play some badminton and did not have anybody to play with (laughter).
Tell me about your work? After Gangster Ka, you have had one role after another.
I shot a soap opera for the Chinese. Another soap opera is being finished in Slovakia and it looks it will be good. I got yet another offer now, this time for a lead role. I have even laughed how funny the life is. When you could work, you are sitting at home and waiting for an offer that is not coming. When an offer comes, you cannot take it because it is abroad and you have three kids to take care of. However, I am at the stage now when I am not in a hurry to get anywhere. Ten years ago, when my first son was born, I felt I have to immediately return to work, otherwise I would be forgotten. Now I have three kids and I do not care if I become forgotten. I cannot imagine to shoot a demanding project with my little baby, to have him with me at work, to breastfeed him there or to hire a nanny. No. A carrier is just a utopia. Particularly as an actress, it is based on youth and beauty…
Does it mean you are basically on maternity leave?
Certainly not, I have a mortgage to pay (laughter). But I take it easy. I do what I like to do. My friend Zuzana Šulajová and I started a home business, making original jewels under the brand name Adore. We just finished our second collection, which includes additional seven rings made with raw semi-precious stones and diamonds. Each piece is special and original. You can be hundred percent sure that nobody in the world would have the same piece. We also sell beautiful wedding rings. Some men bought them for their wives saying that they are exactly the kind of rings their wives wanted but could not find them anywhere. I was partially inspired by my husband. When he asked me to marry him, he had a ring for me that was not possible to buy anywhere here, so he had it custom made.
How did he know that it is the ring you want? Why did he have it made instead of buying a classic engagement ring?
He consulted everything with me, he listened to me. I showed him where to get an inspiration. He wanted to have it custom made but it was not easy. For example, it was difficult to find a raw morganite – the stone of love. Before we found a jeweler who was willing to make it, I realized this is exactly what is missing here. A different style, jewels with a story, stones with energy…
What about writing, you have already written two books…
I would certainly like that. I even got an offer to write another one but the deadline was the end of this year and I am not be able to do it that fast now. I calculated I would have to write a page every day. Right now, I do not have time to write down even a shopping list, let alone a book (laughter).
Do you miss anything? Would you like, even deep down, something else you do not have yet?
I wish everything stays the way it is now. Full of real love, of the feeling we live a beautiful and intense life, feeling that we are building something on our own and that we hold together as a family. Nothing is more important in life…
