Petra Němcová

Petra Nemcova at Cannes in 2008
Birth name	Petra Němcová
Date of birth	24 June 1979 (1979-06-24) (age 30)
Place of birth	Karviná, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Height	1.79 metres (5 ft 10 in)
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Hazel
Measurements	34B-24-35 (US)90-61-90
Weight	117 pounds (53 kg)
Shoe size	8
Website	http://www.petranemcova.org

Petra Němcová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈpɛtra ˈɲɛmtsovaː]; born 24 June 1979 in Karviná, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is a Czech model, television host, author, and philanthropist. She is founder and chair of the Happy Hearts Fund. In December 2004, she was injured in Thailand by a tsunami resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; her then-fiancé, photographer Simon Atlee, was killed in the tsunami. Her surname pronounce nyehm-tsa-va:.

Biography

Her father was a mason and her mother, a teacher. She has a sister named Olga. She became a model after being spotted at the age of 16 during a national talent search.^{citation needed}

She was featured on the cover of the 2003 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and appeared in the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 editions.¹ In addition to working with world class photographers on her Sports Illustrated shoots, she was the object/subject of Joanne Gair's body painting work.²

She has modeled for Victoria's Secret and been featured in advertising campaigns, including Cartier and Max Factor. On 3 June 2004, she was one of the telecast judges during the 53rd annual Miss Universe competition in Quito, Ecuador.

She speaks Czech, Slovak, Polish, English, French and Italian.

The 2004 tsunami

During the Indian Ocean earthquake of 26 December 2004, Němcová was at the Khao Lak resort in Thailand with her main photographer and fiancé, Simon Atlee when the tsunami struck where they were staying. Initially, Atlee was presumed missing, but his body was found and identified on 3 March 2005, on the shores of Sumatra (near the epicenter of the earthquake that caused the tsunami).^{citation needed}

Atlee drowned, and Němcová suffered a broken pelvis and serious internal injuries, but she managed to hold onto the top of a palm tree, reportedly for eight hours, until she was rescued by Thai civilians and airlifted to an inland hospital nearby.³ Němcová spent three weeks in a Thai hospital, and then flew home to the Czech Republic, where she spent an additional three weeks in the hospital. Němcová's first interview after her near-death experience was with Diane Sawyer on ABC's Primetime Live, on 9 March 2005. She has also spoken of her experiences on the Larry King Live program on CNN.

Happy Hearts Fund

In 2005, Němcová created the Happy Hearts Fund (HHF), a charitable organization and campaign formed after her survival and recovery from the Tsunami of 2004. When Němcová returned to Thailand a few months after the tsunami, she witnessed families without homes, children without parents and entire communities swept away. She was most affected by the children and sought to figure out a way to help them rebuild their lives and bring back hope and opportunity. Unsatisfied with the response of organizations that were unable to specify which children, or even which country, would benefit, Němcová set out to create her own entity and structured it so that all administrative costs would be underwritten, thereby ensuring that 100% of all donations received would be directed to children's programming.⁴

On December 15, 2009, Němcová and HHF Executive Director Phillip Caputo launched the "Bring Happiness Back!" campaign at the United Nations to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami. That same day, Němcová and Caputo also participated in the closing bell ceremonies at NASDAQ where the "Bring Happiness Back!" Campaign was also highlighted.⁵

Moving on

Němcová in 2007

In 2008 she went with Happy Hearts Fund to Peru to help children who were affected by the 2007 Peru earthquake.

She arrived at the Un Conte De Noel Premiere at the Palais des Festivals during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2008 in Cannes, France.

Glamour magazine awarded Němcová a "Survivor Award" in 2005 for the way she picked up her life following her tsunami ordeal; her comeback being complete with her appearance in the 2006 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She also appeared in the 2007 British FHM calendar as Miss May. In 2007, she was the host of TLC's A Model Life.

She wrote Love Always, Petra (ISBN 0446579130) published December 2005, which tells of her early life under Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, her entrance into the field of fashion and modeling, and her breakthrough into Sports Illustrated, which was her springboard to becoming a supermodel. She also tells of her life with Simon Atlee and how they fell in love and became engaged to marry.

Němcová has also moved on romantically, briefly dating British singer James Blunt in 2006.

On 7 July 2007 she was a presenter at the American leg of Live Earth and appeared in the music video "Misfit" by American indie group Elefant.¹ She is currently working with HP computers to produce a multi-million dollar TV and web campaign.⁶

In July 2007, Němcová became a vegan after learning about the planet's rapidly depleting fish stocks. The Czech Republic-born model gave up meat and dairy in February of that year.⁷

Also in July 2007, Němcová partnered with New York City power broker Ron Schnackenberg to form a luxury boutique real estate firm Aglow Properties, which specializes in representing high net worth and high-profile clients in a very discreet manner.

On 12 November 2007 Němcová visited Haiti alongside Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean as part of a charity-sponsored event. The inauguration of a computer lab and an eatery in the slums of Port-au-Prince were funded and sponsored by Jean's Yéle Haïti Foundation and Němcová's Happy Hearts Fund.⁸

Němcová is signed to Chic Management in Sydney, Australia. Recently she travelled to Mykonos island to attend a party in honor of De Grisogono jewels and she also did a fashion shooting for the Greek edition of Hello! magazine. Němcová is signed to Next Models Management.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Petra Němcová

• Official website
• Aglow Properties
• Petra Nemcova at Fashion Model Directory
• Petra Němcová at MySpace
• Happy Hearts Fund
• Bring Happiness Back Campaign!
• Good Morning America
• ONE blog
• UN Dispatch
• Huffington Post December 2009
• Huffington Post January 2010