Helena Christensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 25 1968 to a Danish father and Peruvian mother. She grew up in Denmark, where her childhood interests included music and photography.
- She began modelling at the age of nine. When she was 16 she accidentally entered and won the Miss Copenhagen competition, thinking it was a charity fashion show. She went on to win the Miss Denmark competition in 1987.
- This meant that she was contractually obliged, as Miss Denmark, to represent her country at the Miss Universe competition in Panama in 1988.
- In March 1990, she made her first of six appearances on the
cover of British Vogue (see them here) and went on to
become a part of the supermodel phenomenon of the Nineties with
Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.
- Christensen moved to Paris in 1991 to focus on her modelling career.
- She appeared topless in the Herb Ritts-shot video clip for
Chris Isaak's Wicked Game, which was then featured on
MTV's Sexiest Videos of All Time.
- She became half of one of the world's highest profile couples when she dated INXS's Michael Hutchence from 1992 to 1995.
- Gianni Versace described her as having "the most beautiful body in the world" after she starred in his 1994 campaign.
- She was a part of Nylon magazine's launch team as the
original creative director in 1999.
- She began dating actor Norman Reedus in 1993. The couple were married in 1998 and had a son, Mingus Luchien Reedus, in October 1999. They divorced in 2003.
- She is an accomplished photographer whose work has been
exhibited in Amsterdam and New York and appeared in Spanish
Vogue. "My main interest is photography - the clothes, the
shop and the modelling aside. When you work behind the lens you
don't have to consider any limits," she told The Times.
- She owns Butik - a New York boutique that sells clothes, antiques, furniture and collected bric-a-brac - with life-long friend Leif Sigersen. The pair collaborated on a clothing line in 2007.
- She created a haircare collection in 2007 with Erin O'Connor for Toni & Guy called Model.Me.
- In October 2009, she told The Sunday Times, "My work
is 40 per cent modelling, 40 per cent photography and 20 per cent
all kinds of strange, interesting, weird stuff."
