summary of danish BILLED BLADET
article from #10 6. March 2003:
RENÈES
DIFFICULT CHILDHOOD - My father used to beat me
Today
she is 37
years old and can look back on a life in the fast lane with the jetset.
But when Renee Toft Simonsen turns back time and takes a look at her
past it is not always a smile that graces the face that made her world
famous in the 1980s.
Once in a while, her face turns racked with pain when the more sinister
memories comes into her mind, even though for many years she has tried
to forget. In the book "Jeg Slipper Dig Ikke... for du velsigner mig"
("I will not let you go... until you bless me") a string of famous
women talk about their feelings. The book will be released from
Ashehougs Publishing. In the book, Renee reveals some of her childhood
memories with a father, who did not always understand the finer details
of upbringing."
And a critic to the book found at:
www.oestrogen.dk says: "... only
the contribution of Renee
Toft Simonsen about the inbalance in the relationship - Thomas, you
dog! - really goes straight in. Renee's comparison between her father
and her husband, her willingness to be a martyr and her anger is all
something which women can relate to."
Anya, thank
you so much
for your
help again.
interview
from german stern 11. September 2003 #38:
What is Renée
Simonsen up to?
The Dane counted in
the 80s to the
most
popular models in the world. Short before the hype around
the
supermodels started she ended her career in 1989.
 |
Renée
Simonsen with her children Ulrikke, 9, Hugo, 4, Ida Marie, 10, and dog
Ulf in the garden of her house in Risskov, Denmark. The 7-year-old Jens
Kristian is not on the picture. The 38-year-old is married to the
musician Thomas Helmig. Simonsen had been discovered in 1982 by a
model-contest from the danish "Ekstra Bladet" magazine and won in the
same year the "Face of the 80s" contest. In th ecourse of her career
she had been on countless titles of well-known high polish magazine
covers, worked before the camera of the most famous photographers and
was face of more than two dozen cosmetics and fashion campaigns (little
photo: advertisement for Biotherm). After her retreat - some selected
jobs she still did - she started a psychology study she ended in 2000.
photographer:
Hans Bolcho |
Dr. Simonsen...
Not
yet, but I am a qualified psychologist.
Do you practice as such?
For
first not. I studied altogether nearly nine years. That was not always
easy as a three-times mother, although I did not have to work besides.
Now I want to be only there for the children.
Have you been by yourself in
therapy?
Yes, briefly after my model-time. I had
to find out, who I was and into which direction I wanted. It was a
large decision to stop on the high point of my career.
When you retired 1989, you were
one the most expensive
models of the world. Was there someone who did not declare you for crazy?
Most
admired me for the fact that I pulled through so consistently. I was
mentally simply no longer present and did not want also longer that the
people constantly have their hands on my hair and my face. In addition
I felt, how my personality changed.
How?
In the
first years I asked: Where to go and how much do they pay? Whether and
on which silly cover I was, did not interest me. Then suddenly I
started to find it important. I still know how excited I was for the
fact that I did not make it on the title of the swimsuit issue of
"Sports Illustrated". At the same time I asked myself: Why do you do
that, you had 450 covers before, relax, which existencial value has it?
After your retreat you had been
four months in a Kibbuz in Israel.
That
was proceeded from my older sister. I was together with John Taylor...
... the bass-player from the band
"Duran Duran".
Our relationship was not exactly
perfect, and I had the mouth full from the modelbusiness. So I went
with her.
And
gave Mr. Taylor thereafter the marching order.
Yes,
he lived at that time much in the music and fashionworld. As one looks
and one carries which clothes was important to him. That was all the
same to me.
He
took also some at drugs.
Yes, that burded our
relationship very much. I tried to be faithful to me and my
convictions, he marched into completely different direction.
Do you tell us a few pretty "Sex,
Drugs and Rock`n`Roll" anecdotes?
I can not serve
with. I took no drugs. I had horrible fear of those stuff. I was 18 and
if I went out I had always a small flashlight with me and shoned into
the peoples eyes to see whether its pupils reacted. If not, I said: He
is on drugs, I go!
Is
it correct that your first contract was endowed with 100 000 dollars?
Yes,
and Eileen Ford doubled it even on 200 000 dollar, because my mother
found it completely terrible to let her 17-year-old daughter go into
this world to New York.
Do you still know what you have
bought as the first of the money?
I
believe a fishing rod - fishing was at that time one of my dearest
hobbies.
No
house, no sports car?
No, I saved for my
education and then I studied from - and I have still something
over.
If your
9-year-old daughter Ulrikke later wanted to become a model - what would
you say?
If the time comes she will go her way.
Then I have nothing to say longer. The small one is now already very
stubborn. She got it from me.
