On the catwalk, I’m 20 years older than most of the girls. I used to feel an old veteran. Now we’re just a reality — beautiful women who are older
operative who swam for the country — ruled with an iron will.
‘We were like soldiers! At the table we had to be silent, sit straight, listen. We grew up a bit in fear! Sometimes I wish my kids behaved like that.’
Back then, it was her elder sister Lenka who was the real beauty everyone ‘was cracking for’.
Eva was the tomboy, skinny, sporty (‘Swimming, basketball, gymnastic, athletics — I was good at everything’ she says), cheeky and obsessed with her gorgeous sister.
So WhEn Lenka was asked to model in a local clothes show, Eva offered to iron the clothes just so she could be included. But the moment she set foot on the runway, she was spotted and, after a six-month visa delay, made her way to Paris where she worked for Guess Jeans, was on the cover of British Vogue and then, in 1994, after her boobs had duly ‘exploded’, the Wonderbra campaign.
She still insists it was a lot more about female empowerment than male titillation, even with all those cars veering off the roads.
‘Usually the woman is objectified — just lying there,’ she says. ‘This was fun, about movement, about a woman pleasing herself. And with really clever slogans. The two campaigns are not so different, really.’
overnight she became a global sex symbol, her photo Blu Tacked to bedroom walls around the world. And, sadly, a magnet for more than her fair share of creeps. In Paris, she was plagued by men old enough to be her father. ‘They were all so much older it was like a joke.’ she says. ‘But I never felt vulnerable, I never felt fear. It was so grotesque that I just laughed at it.’
not all suitors, however, were unwelcome. When Eva was 22 she fell in love with Tico Torres, the, drummer for Bon Jovi whom she met at a celebrity dinner in new York while he was on a world tour.
She claimed to be an aspiring model. he pretended to be a plumber, was 5 ft 4 in wearing Cuban heels to her 5 ft 11 in, and 20 years older.
‘I never chose my men on their physical appearance,’ she says. ‘Always on my heart.’
Sadly, two years later, it was over; her heart broken. Suddenly, she looked thin and gaunt and even her famous bosom seemed rather deflated.
The gossip columnists had a field day, speculating about burnout, exhaustion and eating disorders. The mundane reality, she says today, was simply that she’d come off the Pill. ‘I got a really hard time for being skinny, but I didn’t want to say to newspapers, ‘oh yes, I’m off the Pill . . .’ She met Gregorio Marsiaj, a handsome Italian businessman, the day after the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, when her plane to new York was grounded in Italy. he is three years her junior — a friend later let slip that his bedroom walls were plastered in pictures of Eva — and when they met, he sensibly pretended he had no idea who she was. ‘he is the one, the only one. There is no one like him. he makes me positive,’ she says, all pink and glowy. ‘he is an amazing dad and it just gets better and better.’ Together they have three sons, George, 11, Philipe, seven and Edward, five, but have not married. ‘After the first time, I was never into it,’ says Eva. ‘I felt it might change things for the worse. I don’t want to become part of the house, the furniture . . .’ Two years ago, though, on her 43rd birthday, they both spontaneously proposed at exactly the same time. ‘We were fighting over who would ask. he was saying, ‘I want to!’ and I was ‘no, I want to!’
Today they are engaged (though the only ring she wears is a pretty diamond Greg bought her after George was born — ‘I’m still waiting for the other two!’) but still not married, despite the boys’ enthusiasm.
‘They see all these royal weddings and they think ours will be the same!’ she says.
Eva insists there will be no more babies — ‘maybe a puppy . . .’ — but lights up when she talks about her family and about how being a mum changed everything. Made her nicer. Made her care more.
‘You become more aware of the world around them — about recycling, you know. Before I couldn’t care.’
They also make her worry, constantly. George broke five bones by the time he was five. ‘I don’t know why. he’s tall and slim like me,’ she says.
Then one day she came back from the school drop-off and found Edward, then two, in spasms.
he was taken to hospital where he was given an injection into his spine, CAT scans and an MRI. In the end he was diagnosed with a viral brain infection from a stomach bug and is fine now.
‘I’m a mess. I’m always worried — about things, uncontrollable things,’ says Eva. ‘not being able to protect them.’
It doesn’t stop her looking amazing. Gazing at her face today, there’s just a spattering of wrinkles round the eyes and the faintest of lines on her forehead, even after virtually no sleep.
But she says parenthood has taken its toll.
‘When you’re pregnant, it’s like you’re living your youth again, everything is amazing. Your skin is amazing. Your boobs are super perfect. Your hair! When you stop breastfeeding, everything falls down.’
She was, she says, in the motherhood ‘tunnel’ for ten years and then felt spat out of the other end.
‘Suddenly, oh my God! All these age things hit you overnight. I have lots of changes!’ she says.
‘I feel like I’m going through puberty. I have breakouts. And my neck skin! I never noticed my neck skin before. I’ve never even thought about it. now I’m having to put extra cream on it. And my eyesight is rubbish. It’s getting fuzzier and fuzzier!’
It is not menopause, she insists. ‘I’m not there yet, but I’d tell you if I were!’
I bet she would, too. She is surprisingly down to earth for a supermodel. And accomplished.
EVA’S only regret seems to be her acting career, which never really took off. ‘I always had nice comments on my capabilities and everyone always tells me I act when I model, but I didn’t have the right representation to follow through.’
When she met potential agents in LA it was the same sordid story. ‘It was like, ‘oh, honey! We have Sandra [Bullock], we have nicole [Kidman], we have Julia [Roberts]. Let’s go for dinner and talk about this.’
‘I was like, “Really? I’m not naive enough to go through this”. I wanted it, but not enough to follow those rules. That’s why I’m not an actress.’
not that she’s short of work as a model. During Milan Fashion week in September she stole the show at Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring/ Summer 2019 show in a black fairytale ballgown.
‘When I do the shows, I’m 20 years older than most of the girls,’ she says.
‘But it’s different now. You used to feel the old veteran. now we’re not looked at in a nostalgic way, just a reality — beautiful women who are older.
‘It’s the whole evolution of society. Finally we are using models with real faces. We feel comfortable in our skin.’ And sexy? ‘Yes, I feel sexy! or maybe sexy is not the right word for a 45-yearold. I think more attractive, seductive, sensual.’
She should also be proud — of her life, her family, her astonishingly enduring career, her amazing cast-iron midriff and her still super bosoms.
‘It’s funny,’ she muses. ‘I have done so many different jobs, but for some reason people seem to remember the Wonderbra campaign more clearly than any of my other work.’