How Natalia Vodianova grew up in grinding poverty to become a top model and marry into the world’s richest family – as it’s revealed she’s expecting her SIXTH baby with her billionaire heir husband at 44

Natalia Vodianova has walked in more than 200 runway shows, graced countless Vogue covers and fronted campaigns from Calvin Klein to Stella McCartney.

The model, 44, got her break at 17 and went on to become the third highest-earning model in the world in 2012, earning an estimated $8.6M.

She went on to marry Christian Dior CEO Antoine Arnault, 48, with whom she is expecting her sixth child, and hails from one of the wealthiest families in the world. 

But her glamorous lifestyle is a far cry from her beginnings.

‘I became successful kind of beyond my needs, it didn’t feel right,’ she previously revealed. ‘It felt like the world is wrong and why did I have this past, why did I have this childhood and all the experiences? I questioned a lot.’

Natalia was born into poverty in Nizhny Novgorod, a Russian city then called Gorky, with her father having left before she was two years old. 

Stability from a paternal figure was not forthcoming; her stepdad walked out on her mother Larisa when their daughter, Natalia’s half-sister Oksana, was born with cerebral palsy and later diagnosed with severe autism.

‘We lacked everything in my childhood — including compassion from other people because of my sister. People hated being our neighbours,’ she previously told Options. 

‘There was no support around us for special needs and my mother refused to put Oksana in an institution, so we were unable to give her what she needed. 

‘We can laugh about it now, but it was really difficult at the time.’ 

As Larisa struggled to support her children – she also has a third daughter, Kristina – she set up an illegal fruit stall. 

The young Natalia (then just 11) started to skip school and worked 12-hour days in below-freezing temperatures with her mother.

And when she wasn’t doing that, she would help care for Oksana at home.

Larisa worked hard, but she was no businesswoman, and there was no money. Some days, all Natalia would eat was a sachet of soup.

‘I was hungry a lot of the time — you get used to it,’ she told the Daily Mail.

There were also no holidays, no toys, barely any clothes and no privacy. 

She and Oksana shared a bed for ten years — ‘I love her to bits. She is like a part of me. It’s really strong and I miss her because I don’t see enough of her now.’

She often had to wear last year’s shoes when her feet had grown several sizes. ‘It was agonising pain — I can’t tell you how painful.’

Skinny, ragged and tainted by her stigma of a disabled sister, bullying was inevitable.

‘I still have a scar because someone threw something metal at me — I was bleeding,’ she said.

‘But the mental abuse was worse. They were spitting at me and saying I was dirty like my sister and that they don’t want to touch me because they’re going to get poisoned.’

When she hit puberty and her breasts started growing, she thought she was dying. No one had explained anything about her developing body.

‘I was petrified. When my breasts started growing, one grew first and I was convinced it was cancer. I was hoping it would go away. The fear I felt! I didn’t want to worry my family with more things until eventually I was desperate and asked my gran,’ she explained.’

Her mother didn’t think to tell her about periods either and, seeing how she was struggling, Natalia didn’t want to trouble her. 

‘It was really hard on her emotionally — she lost a lot of her hair, she lost her teeth. 

Sometimes I wonder how she didn’t commit suicide,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t bear to worry her about anything else.’

Natalia just put her head down — ‘I was never the complaining sort’ — took over the fruit stall and spent her days, and often nights, manning it in temperatures as low as -40.

‘I felt helpless. It wasn’t a choice, I had to be strong. Where I come from you just dream to get through another day,’ she explained. ‘All you want is to not think about money or food or clothes. Getting through the Russian winter — it was super cold.

‘It was worse than you could probably imagine,’ she said, adding: ‘But it was good training!’

Her life changed dramatically at the age of 17 when a model scout encouraged her to go to Moscow, where she signed to an agency. 

Soon she was on a plane to Paris, from where she became one of the best-known models in the world, with campaigns for brands including Calvin Klein and Diane von Furstenberg.

At 19, she married the British aristocrat Justin Portman and had three children – Lucas, now 24, daughter Neva, 20, and Viktor, 18 – before the couple split in 2010.

A fortnight after giving birth to first son Lucas, she was back on the catwalk. ‘I did 40 shows that season!’ she said.

She has worked relentlessly ever since, modelling, setting up her Naked Heart Foundation, running Love Balls and Fund Fairs to raise millions.

Shortly after her divorce, Natalia was spotted on holiday with Antoine Arnault, CEO of Berluti and chairman of Loro Piana – and also the son of Bernard Arnault, chief executive of LVMH, the company that owns Guerlain. 

The Frenchman is the second child and the eldest son of billionaire Bernard Arnault, who controls the LVMH empire.

The company owns approximately 75 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tiffany & Co, Sephora and Moet & Chandon.

As of December 2025, Bernard Arnault has an estimated net worth of $190 billion, per Forbes.

The couple went on to have two sons together, Maxim, 11, and Roman, nine – and the family live in Paris.

In a 2017 interview with W magazine, the model gushed over her wealthy beau, stating: ‘Since almost our first date, it has been a superb roller coaster ride.’

Antoine returned the favour, saying: ‘I remember seeing her and my jaw sort of dropped internally. I mean, of course she’s beautiful, but she has something undefinable. There’s an aura about her.’ 

In 2019, Natalia gave a glimpse into their romance, revealing that she does the majority of the household chores. 

Despite her busy career as a model and ambassador to various charities, the majority of the errands fall on her.

Speaking in The Telegraph, she revealed that Antoine does not do the cooking, adding: ‘Even scrambled eggs is an issue for my man’.

Explaining that the one errand he did help with was putting the children to bed, she added: ‘It’s still a female-dominated space, still women are making the decisions of what to feed their baby, what to buy’. 

The pair got engaged later that year, with Natalia sharing a picture with friends on New Year’s Eve of her brandishing a sizeable sparkler on her ring finger while enjoying a warm embrace with Antoine.

‘This year has been beautiful and very memorable,’ Natalia captioned the image.

‘2020 here we come. I can’t wait to celebrate [the new] year with our loved ones’, the delighted star added.

The following year, the couple married in an intimate ceremony in Paris.

The Russian model shared a picture of herself and her new husband on Instagram, beaming as they walked out of the registry office to a crowd of cheering guests.

The couple had initially planned to marry on 27 June at the Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers Abbey, but cancelled the big day amidst the Covid-19 crisis.

Appearing on Suzie Menke’s podcast Creative Conversations in June, she revealed the couple had planned to host their wedding guests at a gala dinner at Ruinart’s house.

She also explained that her wedding dress was not yet ready for the event, because she had not been able to try it on amid the Covid-19 restrictions.

She revealed she had been inspired by shots from the wedding of Grace Kelly, but wanted a ‘more rock and roll version’ of the dress.

Natalia has also admitted that it was because her divorce from Justin put her off the idea of tying the knot again.

She said: ‘Honestly, after the last divorce I wasn’t rushing to get married. But time has shown that this relationship is very strong.’

And the supermodel confirmed she would again sign a pre-nuptial agreement before she wed the fashion mogul.

She said: ‘When you build a relationship for life you have to have discussed all possible scenarios.

‘If you love each other you will want to love each other even if you separate, and the best way to keep the relationship amicable is to have a solid agreement in place.

‘You stay together for the right reasons as well because the financial side, which can be the very painful part of a relationship, is out of the way and it’s just love.’

Today, she, Antoine and her children, live in splendour in a home with a view of the Eiffel Tower, but when it comes to money, specifically spending on fashion, Natalia is thrifty. 

‘We don’t buy too much,’ she said. ‘Only essential shopping in the

U.S. We buy for the year — maybe a couple of jeans, a couple of shirts, something warm and that’s it. We’re very low-key.’

On Tuesday, it was announced that Natalia is expecting her sixth child. 

The beauty revealed her baby bump as she posed in a minidress on the cover of Vogue France.

Vogue France head of editorial content Claire Thomson-Jonville said it was a no-brainer that Natalia should be plastered on the front of Vogue France with her burgeoning baby bump.

‘Between two runway shows, at the start of the year, Natalia Vodianova confided in me that she was pregnant,’ said Vogue France head of editorial content Claire Thomson-Jonville.

‘Her sixth child, at 44. I knew immediately that she had to be our summer cover star.’