Post by silentwords621 on Jul 22, 2007 20:06:39 GMT -5
I found this at another DD site---I don't have the link to the original article. Someone typed it up, and I formatted it a little and tried to fix the typos, but Spellcheck and my human eye couldn't catch them all:
INTERVIEW-HELLO! © 1990
RENEE SIMONSEN SPEAKS OPENLY ABOUT HER PAINFUL BREAK-UP WITH DURAN DURAN´S JOHN TAYLOR.
Renée SIMONSEN, one of the world's most celebrated models, has returned to her country home in Aarhus, Denmark, and has turned her back on a life of fame and glamour. She gave up her international modeling career a year ago, at the height of her popularity. The world was at her feet, but modeling wasn't enough for this extremely wise 25-year-old. She craved only to go back to her roots, re-evaluate what she wanted and put some substance into her life. She interrupted her four-year relationship with Duran Duran guitarist John Taylor to spend four months on a kibbutz in Israel, during which she came to a brave conclusion: she and John wanted different things out life - they were moving in different directions. And soon after her return from Israel, the relationship fell apart. Renée went back to Denmark, where she has just bought a house close to her family and where she's gone back to school to pick up where she left off eight years ago, when she went away to model in New York. Renee spoke to HELLO! from her home about the life she left behind, and revealed the real person behind the glamorous image.
What sort of background do you come from?
"We were never very rich. In the beginning my father was always studying hard and my mother was working as a :, so we lived in a small apartment. We were three kids. I have a big sister and a little sister. Now, my father's a professor and my mother is working in a psychiatric hospital."
How did you start out as a model?
" lt happened by accident, because a girlfriend of mine at school really wanted to enter this contest, and she asked me if I wanted to go with her for a bit of support. We went down there, and a talent scout for Eileen Ford who was there asked me if I wanted to be in the contest which was called Face of the 80's "I won the contest here in Denmark, and then the one in New York and all of a sudden they offered me this contract, which at the time was so much money I thought 1 was dreaming.. I didn't want to leave school, but they doubled the contract, so then I said 'Well, this is going to be my chance in life . I figure I would go to the US for a couple of years, make a lot of money And come back. I was 17, and then after 2 years , I didn't want to leave - I had just started to make a name for myself. Before I knew six years had gone by."
Why did you give it up? Wasn't modeling enough to fulfill your expectations in life?
"Certainly it wasn't enough, there's not that much to it. I'm not saying it's-an easy job, because it's not, but it doesn't have much value. In the beginning I thought it was fun but in the end, I was so tired of people touching me, having their hands in my hair and my face. When people pay you $10,000 a day, they own you. I was tired of having people owning me, because I don't want to be owned by anybody. They look upon you as a dress-up doll that they can do whatever they can with. They own you for a day and they can put you hats on you and make you look like a Barbie doll if it pleases them. In the end they stop seeing me as a person. I started to loose my real personality . All of a sudden all there was this model, and that wasn't me. It wasn't what I wanted to be, or what I wanted to do with my life.
How did you meet John?
"He wanted to meet me. A friend of his had my phone number and gave it to him. I agreed to meet him because a girlfriend of mine was crazy about him. So, to do her a favor, I said okay. I had another boyfriend at the time, whom I'd been with for years and I had no intention of being with anyone else. John was very persistent and yes, he was very handsome.
How long were the two of you together?
A little bit more than 4 years. At times we were very happy. It was a very stormy relationship, I think. I didn't want to compromise on anything, so when we met we used to fight a lot in the beginning. But, yes, it was happy sometimes. I have both good and bad memories.
How did it come to an end?
"He was just as much a part of breaking up as I was. I was only 19 when I met him, when we were together I always thought it would be forever. I never doubted that we weren't going to be together. For me, it was definitely true love. "When it did come to an end, it was the biggest disappointment of my life. But it had to come to an end, because we were going in different directions. He wants to be pop star, and he wants to be recognized; and I don't think that's such a big deal. I think that there are many more important things in life than to have the recognition of other people who mean nothing to you anyway. And that's what he wants and he wanted me to be a part of that. And to be a part of that whole scene you need to be the modeling type. He always wanted me to be something that maybe I wasn't, and he always complained I wasn't interested enough in his business, and I just wasn't. I think he's wonderful and I loved him very much, but what he did wasn't my cup of tea. "I wanted something different. I wanted to find myself to study, and to have some kind of substance in my life. I don't think modeling or music can do that. I think both modeling and pop music are great for a time being, but it's for young people. And when you turn 30, 'Honey, get out"!. Some people last a lot longer and with great success - well if that's what they want, fine. It just wasn't for me."
Did the decision to leave John and leave your job come together?
No, it came gradually. To leave my job was a decision that came over a period of time. I decided to work in Paris as it was a little more relaxed than New York. John and I bought a house in Paris as the group was doing a record there, but things still weren't great. Then I quit my job and I went to a kibbutz in Israel for the time that John was away on tour. We wrote to each other all the time that we were apart - I got letters from him every day,"
Didn't you ever want to join him on tour?
"Well there wasn't anything for me to do. They had a job to do and yes, it's nice to go traveling, but I mean traveling around as his girlfriend?- Come on, there's got to be more to life than that.'
What did you get out of your time in Israel?
"l needed a break to think about things- to evaluate my life and my relationship and decide what I wanted to do with myself -that's just what I got from those four months on the kibbutz. "And then when I got back I knew I didn't want to go back to modeling -but I didn't know where we were going to live or what I was actually going to do. I knew I wanted to start in to school but at the time I didn't know where. "Then things were not so good between John and myself and shortly after I got back, we split up. I don't know who had changed, but we had grown apart, I had reassessed my life, had more strength and was more certain about what I wanted out of life. -and it was obvious that we wanted different things. John's career was going very badly, he was very hard up and the tour wasn't going well, so he was very intent on making everything better and he didn't have any time for me. He wanted work and build his career."
Was there any jealousy because you had had a successful career?
I've never thought of that but I don't think so. John is not a jealous person. It was simply that he knew what he wanted to do and was determined do it."
Was it a sad time?
Of course it was sad- we had been together for a long time and I loved him very much. It was horrible when we broke up and I never thought I’d survive, but of course you do. You survive and every time you survive you get stronger. I don't really know how he felt because after that, I moved home and I decided I wanted to live here in Denmark and start going to school."
Was it a hard decision to change your life so radically?
Yes it was a very hard decision. At the time it felt very final - I decided to go home, get myself an education, I stopped smoking, started doing a lot of exercise and began sorting out my life. I've since sold my apartment in New York but the house in Paris is John's."
Did you ever regret your decision to quit modeling?
Sometimes I thought that maybe I was doing the wrong thing but every time I tried to change my thinking about it I felt unhappy inside - and I knew that if I felt calm and happy inside that was the right thing even if twenty people disagree with me. I could still go back if I wanted to at the moment although in a couple of years I suppose that I will be too old- they quickly forget you in that business. "I'm talking to a company at the moment about a contract for beauty products. But if I ever did anything now it would have to be on my terms. I don't mind traveling but I want a base - which I have now, I would want a lot of money for very little work - a big contract. Twenty days work a year and a lot of money in the bank...then maybe I would do it. However I don't have my finger on the pulse anymore, so I don't know."
How important is love in your life?
"I’m the kind of person who needs a lot of love and affection. In the end with John, he wasn't prepared to make the effort and -so I said you're not prepared to make the effort then don't want to'. I want everything or nothing I don't ever want to be number two."
Is it very difficult to maintain a relationship if both partners are famous?
I think it's possible - it's a matter of will. If you don't want it enough then it will slip.
Would you have married John had it not been for these problems?
I don't think about that. When John and I met each other, I was totally against it. When he talked about it, I always said I would never want to get married. He actually started to get the same opinion about it as me - I convinced him it was bad. I was always very independent - I wanted be me, I wanted my money and I wanted to do things my way. I didn't want to get married and if I had kids they were to be my kids. Nowadays, I have be thinking that one day I would like to get married. But I want kids – whether-I get married or not I want kids. "John and I knew each other for a long time and having children was something we -talked about. But to have kids with somebody -you, got to be pretty sure that it is going to last. I would rather not be alone with kids. I want to have a father for them."
So you're a woman who knows her own mind?
"Yes, if I make up my mind about something then I do not hesitate. I'm Taurus, so I take a- long time to make up my mind - but when I do, I stick to that decision. l have a very strong set of morals of what is right and wrong and l believe that if you say you are going to do something, you should do it. I'm not frivolous, with money -for example, I make good investments. I've always known that there's was going to be an end to the modeling and the main thing, I decided when l went to New York was to make a lot of money and then be secure. Now I have investments and 1 can live off the interest for the rest of my life. And that was my goal with modeling.- to become economically independent. Although I stopped at a time in my career I when I was about to make very big money, which was stupid, but I just couldn't go on. You can go on and on and never have enough, but one day I just said to myself: "Renee, you have enough".
So you decided to go back home?
I needed to go home and find my roots and rebuild myself because I was tired of everybody and everything, and now that I've lived here for a year I really do feel a hundred times better."
Was going back to school tough?
"I'm starting all over again and it's been quite tough. The hardest thing is that I haven't been to school for eight years and all of a sudden I have to listen and concentrate and coming from the modeling world it's very difficult because it's a different level of thinking."
And the future?
"I am settled for the time being but not for always. I don't know what the future will bring but I'm very open to it now. I wasn't a year ago -I had set ideas about things. I think I could move outside of Denmark again, but for the moment I don't really know."
Do you have a new love in your life?
"Yes, I have found a boyfriend. I've known him for about six months and I think we will be together for a long time. At the beginning it was very iffy, as he was the first after John, so I wanted a lot of security. I wanted a guarantee for everything which of course cannot be had."
How did John react?
"John doesn’t show his feelings much."
Did you never think you and John would get back together?
"Of course I did and we talked about it, but he wants something different and I can't change myself'-and the same thing goes for him. I tried to change him into something I wanted and it didn't work. With his work he needs someone who is happy just going along with him, but I wasn't prepare to give up my identity and my own life.
How do you feel now that John has perhaps found another relationship too?
"l don't really know how I feel about that but I hope he's found what he wants and I hope he becomes happy. I hope. he gets what he wants -recognition for the album and everything."-
Are you still friends with John?
I wouldn't say we're friends now but we separated as friends."
Have your experiences taught you anything?
I've learnt that money gives you freedom but the biggest freedom of all is happiness - when you like yourself and the way you are. And it's most important for me that people are honest. I don't care what you say or do as long as you're honest about it.
"Do you miss being famous?
"There are some things I miss about the glamour of New York but not an awful lot. It was a period in my life and it is over and I will never come back in the same way. For example I'll never be on the cover of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Bazaar the same month again. It was wonderful, but it's in the past.
Interview: Neneta Varela
(C)RtssdG
INTERVIEW-HELLO! © 1990
RENEE SIMONSEN SPEAKS OPENLY ABOUT HER PAINFUL BREAK-UP WITH DURAN DURAN´S JOHN TAYLOR.
Renée SIMONSEN, one of the world's most celebrated models, has returned to her country home in Aarhus, Denmark, and has turned her back on a life of fame and glamour. She gave up her international modeling career a year ago, at the height of her popularity. The world was at her feet, but modeling wasn't enough for this extremely wise 25-year-old. She craved only to go back to her roots, re-evaluate what she wanted and put some substance into her life. She interrupted her four-year relationship with Duran Duran guitarist John Taylor to spend four months on a kibbutz in Israel, during which she came to a brave conclusion: she and John wanted different things out life - they were moving in different directions. And soon after her return from Israel, the relationship fell apart. Renée went back to Denmark, where she has just bought a house close to her family and where she's gone back to school to pick up where she left off eight years ago, when she went away to model in New York. Renee spoke to HELLO! from her home about the life she left behind, and revealed the real person behind the glamorous image.
What sort of background do you come from?
"We were never very rich. In the beginning my father was always studying hard and my mother was working as a :, so we lived in a small apartment. We were three kids. I have a big sister and a little sister. Now, my father's a professor and my mother is working in a psychiatric hospital."
How did you start out as a model?
" lt happened by accident, because a girlfriend of mine at school really wanted to enter this contest, and she asked me if I wanted to go with her for a bit of support. We went down there, and a talent scout for Eileen Ford who was there asked me if I wanted to be in the contest which was called Face of the 80's "I won the contest here in Denmark, and then the one in New York and all of a sudden they offered me this contract, which at the time was so much money I thought 1 was dreaming.. I didn't want to leave school, but they doubled the contract, so then I said 'Well, this is going to be my chance in life . I figure I would go to the US for a couple of years, make a lot of money And come back. I was 17, and then after 2 years , I didn't want to leave - I had just started to make a name for myself. Before I knew six years had gone by."
Why did you give it up? Wasn't modeling enough to fulfill your expectations in life?
"Certainly it wasn't enough, there's not that much to it. I'm not saying it's-an easy job, because it's not, but it doesn't have much value. In the beginning I thought it was fun but in the end, I was so tired of people touching me, having their hands in my hair and my face. When people pay you $10,000 a day, they own you. I was tired of having people owning me, because I don't want to be owned by anybody. They look upon you as a dress-up doll that they can do whatever they can with. They own you for a day and they can put you hats on you and make you look like a Barbie doll if it pleases them. In the end they stop seeing me as a person. I started to loose my real personality . All of a sudden all there was this model, and that wasn't me. It wasn't what I wanted to be, or what I wanted to do with my life.
How did you meet John?
"He wanted to meet me. A friend of his had my phone number and gave it to him. I agreed to meet him because a girlfriend of mine was crazy about him. So, to do her a favor, I said okay. I had another boyfriend at the time, whom I'd been with for years and I had no intention of being with anyone else. John was very persistent and yes, he was very handsome.
How long were the two of you together?
A little bit more than 4 years. At times we were very happy. It was a very stormy relationship, I think. I didn't want to compromise on anything, so when we met we used to fight a lot in the beginning. But, yes, it was happy sometimes. I have both good and bad memories.
How did it come to an end?
"He was just as much a part of breaking up as I was. I was only 19 when I met him, when we were together I always thought it would be forever. I never doubted that we weren't going to be together. For me, it was definitely true love. "When it did come to an end, it was the biggest disappointment of my life. But it had to come to an end, because we were going in different directions. He wants to be pop star, and he wants to be recognized; and I don't think that's such a big deal. I think that there are many more important things in life than to have the recognition of other people who mean nothing to you anyway. And that's what he wants and he wanted me to be a part of that. And to be a part of that whole scene you need to be the modeling type. He always wanted me to be something that maybe I wasn't, and he always complained I wasn't interested enough in his business, and I just wasn't. I think he's wonderful and I loved him very much, but what he did wasn't my cup of tea. "I wanted something different. I wanted to find myself to study, and to have some kind of substance in my life. I don't think modeling or music can do that. I think both modeling and pop music are great for a time being, but it's for young people. And when you turn 30, 'Honey, get out"!. Some people last a lot longer and with great success - well if that's what they want, fine. It just wasn't for me."
Did the decision to leave John and leave your job come together?
No, it came gradually. To leave my job was a decision that came over a period of time. I decided to work in Paris as it was a little more relaxed than New York. John and I bought a house in Paris as the group was doing a record there, but things still weren't great. Then I quit my job and I went to a kibbutz in Israel for the time that John was away on tour. We wrote to each other all the time that we were apart - I got letters from him every day,"
Didn't you ever want to join him on tour?
"Well there wasn't anything for me to do. They had a job to do and yes, it's nice to go traveling, but I mean traveling around as his girlfriend?- Come on, there's got to be more to life than that.'
What did you get out of your time in Israel?
"l needed a break to think about things- to evaluate my life and my relationship and decide what I wanted to do with myself -that's just what I got from those four months on the kibbutz. "And then when I got back I knew I didn't want to go back to modeling -but I didn't know where we were going to live or what I was actually going to do. I knew I wanted to start in to school but at the time I didn't know where. "Then things were not so good between John and myself and shortly after I got back, we split up. I don't know who had changed, but we had grown apart, I had reassessed my life, had more strength and was more certain about what I wanted out of life. -and it was obvious that we wanted different things. John's career was going very badly, he was very hard up and the tour wasn't going well, so he was very intent on making everything better and he didn't have any time for me. He wanted work and build his career."
Was there any jealousy because you had had a successful career?
I've never thought of that but I don't think so. John is not a jealous person. It was simply that he knew what he wanted to do and was determined do it."
Was it a sad time?
Of course it was sad- we had been together for a long time and I loved him very much. It was horrible when we broke up and I never thought I’d survive, but of course you do. You survive and every time you survive you get stronger. I don't really know how he felt because after that, I moved home and I decided I wanted to live here in Denmark and start going to school."
Was it a hard decision to change your life so radically?
Yes it was a very hard decision. At the time it felt very final - I decided to go home, get myself an education, I stopped smoking, started doing a lot of exercise and began sorting out my life. I've since sold my apartment in New York but the house in Paris is John's."
Did you ever regret your decision to quit modeling?
Sometimes I thought that maybe I was doing the wrong thing but every time I tried to change my thinking about it I felt unhappy inside - and I knew that if I felt calm and happy inside that was the right thing even if twenty people disagree with me. I could still go back if I wanted to at the moment although in a couple of years I suppose that I will be too old- they quickly forget you in that business. "I'm talking to a company at the moment about a contract for beauty products. But if I ever did anything now it would have to be on my terms. I don't mind traveling but I want a base - which I have now, I would want a lot of money for very little work - a big contract. Twenty days work a year and a lot of money in the bank...then maybe I would do it. However I don't have my finger on the pulse anymore, so I don't know."
How important is love in your life?
"I’m the kind of person who needs a lot of love and affection. In the end with John, he wasn't prepared to make the effort and -so I said you're not prepared to make the effort then don't want to'. I want everything or nothing I don't ever want to be number two."
Is it very difficult to maintain a relationship if both partners are famous?
I think it's possible - it's a matter of will. If you don't want it enough then it will slip.
Would you have married John had it not been for these problems?
I don't think about that. When John and I met each other, I was totally against it. When he talked about it, I always said I would never want to get married. He actually started to get the same opinion about it as me - I convinced him it was bad. I was always very independent - I wanted be me, I wanted my money and I wanted to do things my way. I didn't want to get married and if I had kids they were to be my kids. Nowadays, I have be thinking that one day I would like to get married. But I want kids – whether-I get married or not I want kids. "John and I knew each other for a long time and having children was something we -talked about. But to have kids with somebody -you, got to be pretty sure that it is going to last. I would rather not be alone with kids. I want to have a father for them."
So you're a woman who knows her own mind?
"Yes, if I make up my mind about something then I do not hesitate. I'm Taurus, so I take a- long time to make up my mind - but when I do, I stick to that decision. l have a very strong set of morals of what is right and wrong and l believe that if you say you are going to do something, you should do it. I'm not frivolous, with money -for example, I make good investments. I've always known that there's was going to be an end to the modeling and the main thing, I decided when l went to New York was to make a lot of money and then be secure. Now I have investments and 1 can live off the interest for the rest of my life. And that was my goal with modeling.- to become economically independent. Although I stopped at a time in my career I when I was about to make very big money, which was stupid, but I just couldn't go on. You can go on and on and never have enough, but one day I just said to myself: "Renee, you have enough".
So you decided to go back home?
I needed to go home and find my roots and rebuild myself because I was tired of everybody and everything, and now that I've lived here for a year I really do feel a hundred times better."
Was going back to school tough?
"I'm starting all over again and it's been quite tough. The hardest thing is that I haven't been to school for eight years and all of a sudden I have to listen and concentrate and coming from the modeling world it's very difficult because it's a different level of thinking."
And the future?
"I am settled for the time being but not for always. I don't know what the future will bring but I'm very open to it now. I wasn't a year ago -I had set ideas about things. I think I could move outside of Denmark again, but for the moment I don't really know."
Do you have a new love in your life?
"Yes, I have found a boyfriend. I've known him for about six months and I think we will be together for a long time. At the beginning it was very iffy, as he was the first after John, so I wanted a lot of security. I wanted a guarantee for everything which of course cannot be had."
How did John react?
"John doesn’t show his feelings much."
Did you never think you and John would get back together?
"Of course I did and we talked about it, but he wants something different and I can't change myself'-and the same thing goes for him. I tried to change him into something I wanted and it didn't work. With his work he needs someone who is happy just going along with him, but I wasn't prepare to give up my identity and my own life.
How do you feel now that John has perhaps found another relationship too?
"l don't really know how I feel about that but I hope he's found what he wants and I hope he becomes happy. I hope. he gets what he wants -recognition for the album and everything."-
Are you still friends with John?
I wouldn't say we're friends now but we separated as friends."
Have your experiences taught you anything?
I've learnt that money gives you freedom but the biggest freedom of all is happiness - when you like yourself and the way you are. And it's most important for me that people are honest. I don't care what you say or do as long as you're honest about it.
"Do you miss being famous?
"There are some things I miss about the glamour of New York but not an awful lot. It was a period in my life and it is over and I will never come back in the same way. For example I'll never be on the cover of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Bazaar the same month again. It was wonderful, but it's in the past.
Interview: Neneta Varela
(C)RtssdG