Back in the ’80s, when Paulina Porizkova was one of the world’s highest-paid supermodels, it wasn’t unusual for her to be photographed in skimpy bikinis or down-to-there bustiers. Since announcing her split last year from Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, her husband of nearly three decades, she has been posing in altogether less.
“This is the age-old story: Somebody divorces their husband, and the next thing they do is go nude,” says the cover girl, writer and actress during our wide-ranging interview. “To me, it was reclaiming my body. This is mine, and I can do whatever the hell I want with it now. It might not be as toned, smooth and perfect as it was 20 years ago, but I’m going to show it if I feel like it, so there!”
Stripping down has been cathartic for Porizkova. In the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, the mother of two participated in a female empowerment pictorial wearing nothing but body paint spelling the word “Truth.” Then she bared all for the September cover of Grazia magazine. And she appears starkers — save for a slender thong — in this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which dropped Wednesday. Not only does the provocative shoot mark her 10th outing for the magazine, but at 54, she’s the oldest “core girl” ever cast for the main spread.
She landed the SI job in late December and had just three weeks to get swimsuit-ready. “I was like, ‘I should go to the gym, and I should work out really hard and get a personal trainer and get my cellulite lasered off,’” the Czech-born beauty recalls wryly. “And I did nothing. I went and got a spray tan. I was like, ‘Well, they wanted an older woman, so …’ I thought self-acceptance was the most important way to go.”
Once she was on a Kenyan beach for the job, Porizkova didn’t exactly reach for the shaper one-pieces. “I was like, ‘Let’s have me as naked as possible.’ The less clothing I have on, the better I feel about myself, oddly enough. I grew up in Sweden, and I’m a nudist at heart.”
While the willowy, sapphire-blue-eyed blonde still looks like a supe, she delights in upending clichés about her profession. Instead of acting guarded and too sexy for her shirt, as might be expected from a Vogue star who was married to a rock star, Porizkova is warm, chatty and hilariously self-deprecating.
Porizkova insists she has zero interest in fashion and hates shopping, except for makeup. Despite multiple interventions by concerned friends, she often dresses like a drifter in, say, clogs, athletic attire, a shapeless coat and a trapper hat — and has photo evidence to prove it.
“I think my newest outfit is three years old,” Porizkova says, almost triumphantly. The get-up she’s rocking on the day of the interview — faded black jeans and sneakers with a long-sleeve tee — appears to predate that.
As for fine jewelry, what’s precious to her is sentimental value. “I have two strands of pearls, one black and one white — both from my [soon-to-be ex-] husband, and macaroni necklaces the kids made when they were 5.”
Down-to-earth Porizkova keeps it real, writing candid personal essays about her struggles with anxiety and depression and posting makeup-free Instagrams taken in unforgiving daylight. “I find truth to be one of the loveliest things there is. I don’t like to keep secrets. They feel moldy and horrible, like the corners of the room. And once in a while, I just want to have a spring cleaning.”
When the jetsetter isn’t traveling or smoldering in front of a camera, she’s writing. “I’m working on a TV series, essays, a memoir and a novel,” says Porizkova, who co-authored a children’s book, “The Adventures of Ralphie the Roach,” in 1992 and published her debut novel, “A Model Summer,” in 2007.
One subject she’s reticent to discuss is her pending divorce. All she will say is, “I was really, really heartbroken about it, because I’ve been with this guy for 35 years, and I thought it was for life. And then our marriage went into a real decline. ‘You can’t be married by yourself’ is what I like to say. It takes two.”
The Manhattan townhouse she still shares with Ocasek is on the market. The two are so amicable that she accompanied him last year to The Cars’ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction and danced in the audience with their sons, Oliver, 20, and Jonathan, 25, to “Just What I Needed.”
She has tried online dating, with baffling results. “I downloaded [the exclusive dating app] Raya after we split up,” says Porizkova. “I posted my picture for maybe four weeks and got no response. I didn’t have a single taker.” But these days, she’s happily seeing someone.
Despite her genetic advantages, she feels just as marginalized as other women her age.
“The first time I realized I had turned invisible was about four years ago, and we were in Vegas. I was dressed to kill in stiletto heels and a black dress plunging down to my stomach. I had done my makeup and my hair and was feeling really hot. Literally the only comment I got was, ‘Excuse me, could you move, so I can get to my chair?’”
She has an admittedly uneasy relationship with her wrinkles. “It always comes down to this: I think I look pretty good for 54. But that’s it. The world places so much value on youth, and youthful looks are just … better,” she says ruefully. “I guess I look better than 64.
“I lost a job [recently] because I don’t have fillers or Botox,” continues the age-inclusivity advocate, who gets skin-tightening Ultherapy and lasers, which yield softer results.
And while Porizkova is not a fan of the puffy, immovable look associated with overuse of injectables, she’s conflicted about plastic surgery. On the one hand, she believes in aging gracefully, but on the other, she’s tempted to tweak her neck and eyes.
“I’m definitely thinking that I’m going to cave at some point, and I’m gonna go to the dark side,” she admits. “I wish I could be brave enough and wave the old lady flag, and be like, ‘Hey everybody, we can look great unaltered!’ But I think I’m too vain.”
After all, the former face of Estée Lauder has been in the spotlight for decades. “I started modeling at 15, but before that, I was a famous political refugee, so I’ve literally been visible my whole life,” says Porizkova, referring to the highly publicized international custody case that started when her parents fled then-Communist Czechoslovakia for Sweden in 1968, leaving 3-year-old Paulina behind with her grandmother. The family finally reunited after seven years, and a failed exfiltration attempt by her mother. “I don’t want to fade into obscurity. I like hearing my own voice.”
Luckily, her desire to remain relevant dovetails with the fashion world’s recent flirtation with mature models, from 50-year-old Christy Turlington Burns to 65-year-old Christie Brinkley. “I think we’re gimmicks — we’re tokens for now,” observes Porizkova, who walked in Czech designer Jiri Kalfar’s runway show in February. “But that’s how everything starts. The door is opening slightly, but it’s by no means open. People are hungry for new, and it’s funny that we older models are now new.”
Of course, she’s more than happy to bask in the spotlight. “I’m a desperate, vain 50-[something]-year-old woman who needs a little extra attention, basically,” she jokes. “I like being in the public eye.”
Fashion Editor: Serena French; Stylist: Johannah Masters; Market: Bree Bonagofsky; Fashion Assistant: Nicole Zane; Hair: Zaiya Latt at Bryan Bantry Agency; Makeup: Sandrine VanSlee at Art Department using Charlotte Tilbury; Manicure: Julie Kandalec at Bryan Bantry Agency using Chanel Le Vernis
All jewelry available at London Jewelers, 2046 Northern Blvd., Manhasset, LI.