Who

Model and TV personality Klum is best known as a Victoria's Secret pin-up and the robotic host of Project Runway. She's also the wife of Seal.

Backstory

Born in a small town near Cologne, Germany, Klum grew up in a family focused on beauty—her father worked at a cosmetics company and her mother was a hairdresser. The 5'9" stunner entered her first modeling competition at 18, beating out over 25,000 other girls to make the final cut. Although the grand prize was a $300,000 modeling contract, Klum says she turned it down so she could finish high school first. But less than a year later, she'd landed on the modeling circuit, working fashion shows in Milan and Paris. She moved to the U.S. in 1993, and soon landed ad campaigns for Finesse and Givenchy. Her twin breakthroughs came when she signed a contract with Victoria's Secret in 1997 and landed the cover for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 1998. The high profile gigs helped her become a household name, and by the end of the decade, she'd earned the covers of Cosmopolitan, GQ, and Glamour.

Of note

Klum's modeling career had slowed down considerably by the time she reached her early 30s. But she enjoyed a career renaissance after she teamed up with her publicist Desiree Gruber and Harvey Weinstein to launch the fashion design reality show Project Runway on Bravo in 2004. The series turned into the network's biggest hit and established Klum as a bankable TV star. (It likewise worked career magic for PR regulars Michael Kors, Tim Gunn, and Nina Garcia.) Klum has since capitalized on her newfound fame with a tacky clothing line, a tacky QVC jewelry collection, and two tacky fragrance lines; thanks to her copious downmarket sidelines, she now earns more than any model save Gisele Bundchen, with a 2007 take that Forbes estimated at $14 million. Her music career, unfortunately, hasn't been quite as successful: She released a single called "Wonderland" in November 2006 to widespread derision.

Drama

Klum sparred with fellow supermodel Elle MacPherson in 2006 over the use of the nickname "The Body": MacPherson threatened to sue Klum when the latter referred to herself as "The Body" in a TV commercial. A tete-a-tete with the Dalai Lama apparently led MacPherson to a change of heart, and she eventually backed down from her charges. In 2007, Van Cleef & Arpels came after Klum, claiming she'd copied one of the company's designs for her jewelry collection.

Personal

Klum was married to hairstylist Ric Pepino from 1997 to 2002. Following their divorce, Klum dated skeevy Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis and Italian mogul/playboy Flavio Briatore before beginning a relationship with singer Seal. The two were married in Mexico in May 2005. Klum has a daughter with Briatore named Leni and two sons with Seal, Henry and Johan. The family divides its time between New York and Los Angeles, where they have a mansion decorated with portraits of the entire family in the buff.

True story

Klum's Victoria's Secret contract explicitly prevented her from altering her body image. After she gave birth to Leni in 2004, company bigwigs demanded that Klum drop her baby weight—all 30 pounds of it—for a photo shoot that took place 34 days later.

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