Supermodel Irina Shayk
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS.
The 38-year-old supermodel Irina Shayk (Shaykhlislamova), originally from Yemanzhelinsk in the Chelyabinsk region, who settled in New York, does not leave the fashion covers. The long-time ex-girlfriend of Cristiano Ronaldo, the girlfriend of Hollywood “star” Bradley Cooper, who gave birth to his daughter, spent her holidays in Italy and gave an interview to the local newspaper La Repubblica. Shayk vaguely stated that she loves Russia, but now “cannot imagine” returning to her homeland. Her sister and mother live here, it is difficult for them to come to the United States, which is why Irina sees them in Europe (her father, who worked as a miner, died when Shaykhlislamova was 14).
GROWING POTATOES AND TOMATOES
The model spoke about her childhood: she recalled that she worked in the vegetable garden and knew how to grow potatoes and tomatoes. Until a certain age, she had no idea that people bought vegetables in the store. At home there was a black and white television that periodically broke down. “When my father died, I felt like the man of the house,” explains Irina.
Discussions about the Russian past lead to conflicts with her mother. According to Shayk, she cannot stand her daughter talking about past poverty, as Olga Shaykhlislamova, a music teacher, worked two jobs to feed her children and tried to give them a normal life. Irina, however, admits: “We were happy because we were a family.”
CAPRICORN SWEET
At school, Shayk never thought that she would become a model. She studied at a music school for seven years, and then entered the Chelyabinsk College of Economics, where she studied marketing. And at the same time I enrolled in a beauty school at a modeling agency. She began to win contests and attended an event in Moscow, where Irina became noticed. And now she is already in Paris, then in the United States.
She attributes her success to her ability to give one hundred percent and her desire to help her family financially. And the zodiac sign under which she was born is Capricorn: “You hear “no” a lot and you learn to wait for the right time, for the right people. I am stubborn, I can wait years, but I get my way.”
Irina is sometimes called “cold and distant.” Shayk claims that this is not true: she just needs time to trust someone.
At the end of the conversation, journalists asked Shaykhlislamova to name the phrase her mother says to her most often. She replied: “Irina, you always do the opposite of what I tell you.” And when asked which women she respects the most, the model replied: “Those who have three children and are able to work. This requires superpower.”
