Nene von Schlebrugge - mother of Uma Thurman, aristocrat, supermodel and just a happy woman

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There is an opinion that nature rests on the children of talented parents. This family has become an exception to the rule - here not only the title, but also noble beauty is passed from generation to generation.

Uma Thurman was named after a Hindu goddess and inherited refined grace from her female ancestors. Her grandmother Birgit Holmqvist in her youth posed in the nude style for the eminent sculptor Axel Ebbe for the statue "Embrace", depicting a naked diva. "This quivering statue of 1930 still meets ships in the port of a small cape on the southernmost point of the Scandinavian Peninsula. and admiration is worthy of the aristocratic beauty of Uma's mother - supermodel and actress of the 50-60s of the last century - Nena von Schlebrugge.

Venus Botticelli

In 1941, in Mexico, a daughter, Brigitte Caroline, was born into the family of the Swedish beauty Birgit Holmqvist and the German aristocrat Friedrich Karl von Schlebrugge. Relatives just called her Nena. The daughter inherited an extraordinary appearance from her mother, and an aristocratic charm from her father. In the mid-fifties, the famous Vogue photographer went on business to the capital of Sweden, where he accidentally saw Nena. Then the young beauty was only 14 years old. This meeting marked the beginning of the girl's modeling career.

A couple of years later, Nena was invited to London, where she became one of the stars in the world of haute couture. Her success was deafening, and popularity skyrocketed very quickly - the American model agency Ford signed a contract with the Swedish beauty, and soon Nena decided to conquer the United States. On another continent, she was expected to work with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines; the best photography professionals collaborated with her: Norman Parkinson, Richard Eyvedon, Bert Stern and William Klein.

Nena's refined beauty has inspired many contemporary photographers and artists. Rumor has it that the girl became a muse for the great Salvador Dali, who in 1963 introduced the already famous beauty to the psychiatrist Timothy Leary, who became famous for his work in the field of the action of psychedelics on the nervous system. The marriage of Timothy and Nena took place in the cottage of billionaire William Hitchcock, who kindly provided his apartment to a psychiatrist friend.

The wedding ceremony was quite eccentric - it was captured on black and white film by documentary Pennebaker. But even here, Nena appears before the viewer as Venus, descended from Botticelli's paintings - fragile, tender and feminine. This union was short-lived; it lasted only a year. It was assumed that the cause of its disintegration was the use of the "great experimenter" of the psychotropic drug LSD, banned in the States.

Under the sign of Buddha

In 1965, Nena filed for divorce, and two years later remarried. Her chosen one was Robert Thurman, the first American to be tonsured a Buddhist monk personally by the Dalai Lama. It was a marriage, consecrated by someone above, - two harmonious souls merged together, who to this day live in peace and harmony and bring the divine light of kindness to people. Soon the couple had their first child, Handen.

Despite the difficult time of motherhood, Nena continued to climb the career ladder and even managed to star in the film Eddie Sedgwick "Chao, Manhattan". The picture was released only four years after its creation, but the episodes with Nena from the final version, unfortunately, were cut out.

In 1970, the happy couple had a daughter, Uma, whose name means "the bestower of bliss." Then Nena decided to leave her modeling career and give herself to her family. In addition, she was so carried away by her husband's ideas that she also became interested in the active popularization of Buddhism in the States and even became a certified psychologist. In the late 1980s, von Schlebrugge was the director of the New York Open Center, and in the following years she became the head of the Tibet House USA branch.

Today Nena is the executive director of the Menla Mountain Retreat Tibetan Medicine Center and is proud of her talented and successful children with unique names associated with the oldest Buddhist philosophy - Handen, Uma, Dechen, Mipam. And she also remains the same aristocratic beauty and, simply, a happy woman …

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