AARP published an article called “7 Quick Questions for Paulina Porizkova.” The fun title is a little misleading, though. The interview, although quick, is a real mixed bag. Many of Paulina’s answers reveal how controlling and paranoid her deceased ex-husband, Ric Ocasek, was. Like AARP asked Paulina, who speaks four languages, if her sons, Jonathan and Oliver, spoke her native Czech. She casually mentioned that no, Ric wouldn’t allow them to learn because he was didn’t want Paulina and the boys to have a secret language without him. It’s not a secret language, Ric could have learned it, too. She also talked about how she’s still lonely and struggling on the dating apps. But not all of Paulina’s answers were depressing. Like how she listens to fun music (now) and how she wishes she could get paid to read.
Given that you were famously married to a musician, was music an important part of your life together? What’s on your playlist?
Well, unfortunately my husband hated when I played classical music. It bored him. Naturally, he had very strong opinions about music, and we often disagreed. Now, I have an extensive playlist of the music he thought was bad. ABBA, Bee Gees … music where words are not important, where you can just sing along and dance.You say you have learned to be less judgmental with age. What advice would you give your younger self?
I started modeling at 15, and there was no business more judgmental than the fashion world. So you learn what you see all around you. And in truth, there is nothing I could have told my younger self that I would have listened to. I would have been like, Thanks, old lady, I’ll keep that in my back pocket. But given what I went through when my husband died, I would tell my younger self: Mind your money. Do not hand over the responsibility of yourself to somebody else, no matter how much you love them.You’ve claimed you never liked modeling, and yet modeling gave you an extraordinary life. If you had to do it all over again, what career would you have chosen?
[Laughs.] I always wished I could be paid for reading. My Kindle keeps sending me medals, which you earn when you read a certain number of books. But … [I] think this may be it — writing. Connecting to people through our words: I hear you and you hear me. I was very grateful I could model, but it’s not an accomplishment. It’s just an accident of nature. I think, for the first time, now, I am proud of my work.
I will not stand for ABBA/Bee Gee slander! I don’t care how many Gold Records you have, no one calls them ‘bad’ in my presence. I have no issue thinking Ric was a d*ck, but it’s affecting how I listen to his music and my husband loves The Cars. I hate that he controlled music, because he understood what it meant to people. Maybe he and Paulina didn’t see eye to eye on everything, but if it brought her joy, he could have found a way. My husband isn’t as infatuated with classical music as I am, but he still accompanies me to the symphony so I don’t have to go by myself. I don’t like The Smiths and yet I listen to them frequently because my husband and daughter love them. When things are important to people, you figure a way to allow it into your world.
I loved Paulina’s response about giving advice to her younger self. I always give the same answer, that there’s no reason to reply, I would never have listened to an adult me. And what I absolutely needed to hear was to get my act together financially much sooner. “You learn what you see all around you,” is ambiguous, but pretty solid advice for anyone, really. Paulina’s wishing she had more of a writing career surprised me. Her third book, No Filter: The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful came out last year. It was pretty well received. She probably could make a go of it writing. And there are careers that pay you to read. Granted you have to critique, review, summarize, edit or promote in addition to read, but I don’t think any of them pay as much as acting or modeling, which is what Paulina is currently doing. I get her point, though. She wishes she could retire and live off her fortune and just read all day with classical music and ABBA playing in the background and speaking one of her four languages with whomever she chooses. Same, Paulina, same. And if either of us had listened to adult us, maybe we could be doing just that about now.
Photo credit: Cover Images, Instagram and Backgrid
Stole my comment… same girl, same. Who doesn’t want to get paid to read all day??
💯
I’m an English professor and get paid to read part of the day, but then have to talk about what I read with students and write about it for other professors.
A MASSIVE and entirely personal playlist is one of the absolute joys of divorcing a controlling man. Not even music knowledgeable, just another form of control. Ditto books. You CAN read and listen to whatever you want, hooray! Even had a playlist for breaks in the divorce mediation to remind myself of how great it was going to be to live without supervision…
Ew! I’m so sorry that you dealt with that and happy for you that you got away.
Thanks! Control thing is real, blissfull to live without it.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Paulina. She’s a real beauty who used her career to build a life that allowed her to explore her varied interests. She reminds me of Audrey Hepburn in a lot of ways.
Was she 19 or 20 when they met? He was over 40 and divorced twice with kids, IIRC.
He had all the money, fame, and a controlling personality in their marriage.
His cutting her out of the will, all that ugliness after he passed.
I can understand she is finding her way these days. I wish her well.
What a jerk, in so many ways.
Oh hell no. As someone who has studied linguistics I say that’s one of the reddest flags! Your partner doesn’t want you to teach the kids your native language? It’s such a gift to grow up with more than one language, my father was simply too lazy and had been here too long. He was more comfortable speaking German with us and we NEVER let him forget it. A secret language? WTF? What an unhinged douchebag. She’s such a catch, I hope she finds true love.
Lol, the problem with getting paid to read is that you don’t get to choose what you read. For a while I worked for a local film company and my first job was to read and comment on all the scripts that people submitted. It was like watching dozens of really bad movies every week, not to mention bad grammar and misunderstood homonyms. I still remember “she wrapped her legs around his waste.”
LOL. Last sentence. Maybe the misspelling of the last word was intentional? Now I’ll be nervous about my bad grammar and whatnot.
I get what Paulina is saying. She’s not talking about reading books for review and payment. She’s just saying her ideal job is to be paid to simply read books she wants to read. Like, no follow up is expected. I’m with her there.
Paulina is just someone I’ve always adored. Probably from the Drive video. It really helped me back then. I’m disappointed to read Ocasek was an insecure control freak. I thought he was cooler than that. Live, love, laugh, Paulina! You’ve earned it. Make a connection with Cher. Something tells me Cher has great female secrets to share.