Renée Simonsen

Renee Toft Simonsen was born in Aarhus, Denmark in 1965. Her mother was a nurse and her father a student. Her parents divorced when she was 13. In 1981 she caught the attention of the fashion editor Birte Strandgaard, which became the start of her modeling career. The following year she was chosen to represent Denmark at the Supermodel of the World contest, which she won in August 1982. Renée quit high school and moved to New York. During the next six years she was one of the most popular models in the world, dabbled in acting, dated John Taylor of Duran Duran and seemed to live a very glamorous life. But by 1988 she had tired of the fashion world and felt she was losing herself. She took a break from fashion, turned down the chance to audition for the role of a Bond girl, broke up with Taylor and went to a kibbutz in Israel for 3 months along with her sister. In 1989, at the age of 24 and at the height of her popularity, she effectively ended her career as a top model and returned to Denmark. In Denmark she first finished high school and then went on to study psychology at university. From 1990 she lived with businessman Kristian Sandvad and they had two children, daughter Ulrikke born in 1993 and son Jens-Kristian born in 1995, but the couple split up in 1995. Not long after she met the man who would be the love of her life, the popular Danish musician Thomas Helmig. The couple moved in together in 1997 and got married in 2000. Their son Hugo, Renee's third child, was born in 1998. She's also the stepmother of Helmig's daughter from a previous marriage, Ida Marie. In 2002 she finished her degree in psychology and the following year she published her first children's book. Since then she has published several more children's books and in 2007 published her first novel. In 2004 she received the BMF Children's Book Award and in 2006 she received Clarin's Most Dynamic Woman Award. At 44 Renée is still amazingly beautiful and still does occasional model work, but only if it doesn't take her away from her family for too long.