Sophie a Wicklow woman at heart
Forget the Caribbean, supermodel calls Garden of Ireland her ‘home from home’
IF Tourism Ireland ever need a goodwill ambassador from the fashion industry, they need look no further than supermodel Sophie Anderton.
The British beauty has been sending social media into overdrive posting about her love for her ‘home from home’.
And it’s not Barbados or the South of France that are making the globe-trotting beauty ‘homesick’... it’s the Wicklow mountains.
Sophie, 40, posted a photo of herself and boyfriend, Kaz Balinski, saying that she wishes she was back with her partner in the Garden of Ireland.
Count Balinski-Jundzill, who is a jazz musician, owns the stunning Glendalough House, which is set on 1,500 acres of mountainside, woodlands and rolling parklands.
The couple this week confirmed their happiness together to the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Kaz said: ‘We are very happy and I truly, deeply love her. We love spending time in Ireland, especially in the mountains, where we can just be “us”! It is like a second home to us both!!’
Previously, Kaz was married to TV chef Lorraine Pascale. They wed in 1995 and have a daughter together. They split in 2000.
The Pole’s business interests centre around oil and gas, and when not relaxing in Wicklow, he works as managing director for an oil exploration firm.
Sophie first came to prominence in 1996 when she fronted an ad campaign for underwear brand Gossard that included the tagline ‘Who said a woman couldn’t get
Struggles with drug and alcohol abuse
pleasure from something soft?’, which attracted hundreds of complaints for being too raunchy.
Building on her modelling fame she appeared in a string of reality shows from I’m a Celebrity to Love Island and Celebrity Big Brother.
In 2009 she revealed her past struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, and how she charged £15,000 an hour for sex to pay for her addictions. She has since recovered, becoming an ‘exercise addict’.