Nastasia Urbano, who graced the cover of Vogue and used to earn a $1 million for working just 20 days a year, is now homeless on the streets of Barcelona.
The former supermodel worked for major fashion campaigns with supermodels such as Linda Evangelista, hung out with Jack Nicholson and Andy Warhol, and was invited to Madonna’s wedding to Sean Penn.
Now, the 57-year-old sleeps in bank foyers in Spain after an ex-husband spent all her money and left her.
When she was 20, Urbano was already modeling for top brands such as Revlon and Yves Saint Laurent, where she worked with David Lynch on an Opium perfume commercial.
In 1981, she graced the cover of Vogue. She was living the life that most people could only dream of.
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“I did all the magazines, I was loved by everybody,” she said in an interview with el Periodico. “I was given a million dollars a year for only 20 days of work, for three or four years.”
“I was having dinner one day with Jack Nicholson, the following day with Andy Warhol or even Roman Polanski. I was in parties with Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, and Simon and Garfunkel,” she said.
“I was about to go to Madonna’s wedding to Sean Penn because David Keith was invited and I was dating him at that time, but that day we got up with a hangover and couldn’t get up,” she recalled. “I had everything, I was living like a queen.”
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However, that all changed when she met her future husband. They soon married and had children together, but he “left me with nothing but the clothes on my back,” she said.
“He paid for everything with my money. Only two days after knowing him, he wanted me to buy a BMW and I, like a fool, I signed a check, I was in love,” she said. “If you do not trust the person you’re in love with, who do you trust? But not him. He did not love me.”
“The only good thing from that relationship has been my children, the rest was horrible,” she said.
Urbano, who also suffers from depression, said she’s been evicted from several homes because she couldn’t pay the rent. Now, she alternates sleeping on friends’ sofas or in bank foyers where the automated doors give customers access to the cash machines.
“I want to live, not just survive,” she said. “I’m tired of surviving and asking for money. The people around me have gone away, everybody goes away and I am not surprised.”
“I want my children to see me well,” she said. “I want to recover as a person and to be OK, so they can be proud of me.”
Upon hearing about her current situation, former colleagues were left in disbelief. They also want to do what they can to help.
“It has left me in shock,” former fellow model Ruth Schuler told el Periodico. “Nobody expected this. We were at princess level, but she, she was at goddess level.”
“I remember her as an introverted person, very beautiful and very generous with others,” Schuler said. “We are gathering more people. The first thing is to talk to her, know how she is and what she wants.”
This GoFundMe account is set up for former Vogue cover… https://t.co/XExThQLlKz
— Carol Miles (@CarolMiles11) February 4, 2019
“She has a lot of things to give to the fashion world,” former model Hernando Herrera told el Periodico. “She could do a lot of things, not only model, but also conferences, fashion speeches and other activities.”
Herrera also said, “I am ready to teach her and talk with photographers and agencies so that she can work again.”
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