She is one of the world’s most successful supermodels while he is an English aristocrat, heir to a billion pound fortune.However, the fairy tale romance between Justin Portman – whose family own 110 acres of prime central London property – and Russian rags-to-riches beauty Natalia Vodianova is over.
The couple – who have three children together Lucas, nine; Neva, five and Viktor, three – have separated after more than nine years of marriage.
Despite previously denying they were separating, Miss Vodianova – herself worth £15million - confirmed the split in a new interview.
The 29-year-old told ES magazine: ‘It’s really sad. It has been a while. We didn’t want to talk about it. We still don’t. Our children are very much aware of it. It’s OK.
‘We’re still in a very sensitive position right now, and trying to do things as amicably as possible, so I wouldn’t want to talk about it at all.
Portman and Miss Vodianova had houses all over the world, including a lavish home in London, a 3,000 acre Herefordshire estate, a 14th century mill house in West Sussex, a home in New York and a retreat in Uruguay.
In recent months, she has been linked with troubled actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, her co-star in recently filmed movie Belle du Seigneur.
There was also speculation she had become close to former war photographer Scott Douglas, who split with artist Tracey Emin last autumn after seven years together.
And Russian websites also claimed she had become close to a TV Russian TV director Andrey Boltenko. Claims that were rubbished at the time.
Portman, meanwhile, started spending more and more time at their new home in Punta del Este, Uruguay overseeing the development of a new retreat.
Sources at the time told how was devastated to be apart from his love ones at such an important time of the year. A source revealed: ‘He was very upset. He was alone over Christmas and he missed Natalia and his family terribly.’
Rumours soon increased that the marriage was under strain, forcing Miss Vodianova to insist the couple were very much still together.
It is all a far cry from Miss Vodianova’s poverty-stricken upbringing in the inner city of Gorky, now called Nizhny Novogorod, in Russia.
As a teenager, she helped her mother sell fruit on the streets of the town to earn money. and later set up a fruit stand with a friend to help the children out of poverty.
Unsurprisingly, she is known as the Russian Cinderella in her homeland as a result and last year she was estimated to have earned more than £2.5million, making her one of the world’s highest paid models.
The beauty – who set up the Naked Heart Foundation, a charity to help deprived children in Russia - is also friends with Prince Andrew.
The couple married in November 2001 in the UK. The following September they had a three-day wedding in St Petersburg where Miss Vodianova wore a dress designed by Tom Ford.
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