Paulina Porizkova had house fire after Sports Illustrated cover

Paulina Porizkova lost everything when her house burned down moments after she landed the February 1984 cover of Sports Illustrated.
“I was told that I got the Sports Illustrated cover — ’cause, you know, you didn’t know until the night before. It was [a] big, big secret thing,” the model, 57, recalled to Deadspin Thursday.
“They called, and they said, ‘Guess what? You got the Sports Illustrated cover.’ And I think that night, or the night right after that, my house burned down to the ground, and I lost everything I owned.”
Porizkova, who was 18 at the time, remembered having nothing left but an overcoat, her dog and cat and a passport.
Paulina Porizkova recalled her house burning down right after she landed the cover of Sports Illustrated. paulinaporizkov/Instagram
“I don’t recall even having underwear, actually,” she added.
The Czechoslovakia native recounted having to act like everything was fine when she started doing press after booking the coveted cover.
“I had to go onto Johnny Carson and all these talk shows and be like, ‘Yay! Hi, I’m this Sports Illustrated vixen.’ So, interesting balance there,” she said.
The model shot to fame when she appeared on the February 1984 swimsuit issue. Sports Illustrated
Porizkova — who was the first Central European woman to front Sports Illustrated’s iconic swimsuit issue — has covered the magazine twice in her career, making her second appearance in February 1985.
The “No Filter” author also shared that she did very little to get her body bathing-suit ready for the camera when she was younger.
“I started modeling as a 15-year-old, and so well into my 20s, I smoke, drank, did whatever the hell I wanted,” she admitted. “It was pretty easy. Life was pretty easy at that point. That’s the privilege of youth, that you can kind of do that stuff and get away with it.”
Porizkova is an advocate for body positivity and frequently poses nude. paulinaporizkov/Instagram
But now that she’s in her 50s, Porizkova acknowledged she “can’t get away with it anymore” and works hard at maintaining her fit figure.
“To still be in shape, to be slim and all that, takes a lot of freaking work,” she said.
“This is exercising a lot, not eating very much, taking care of my skin, using a lot of SPF, vitamins,” she continued. “Basically, the older you get, the more it takes to maintain.”
Porizkova admitted she didn’t do much dieting when she was younger. Getty Images
While the former “America’s Next Top Model” judge still works in the industry, she confessed she doesn’t love how much energy it takes to keep up with her appearance.
“I spend more time maintaining my outer self than I’m actually happy with, but at the same time, I kind of have to because it’s still who I am, it’s still my job, it’s still what I identify as,” she explained. “It’s a required amount of work for me to be able to do what I do — kind of like an athlete.”
Previous 1 of 9 Next Advertisement Porizkova said it takes a lot of hard work to stay fit now that she’s 57. paulinaporizkova/Instagram Porizkova said it takes a lot of hard work to stay fit now that she’s 57. Getty Images for Sports Illustra Advertisement Porizkova said it takes a lot of hard work to stay fit now that she’s 57. Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock Porizkova said it takes a lot of hard work to stay fit now that she’s 57. paulinaporizkova/Instagram Porizkova said it takes a lot of hard work to stay fit now that she’s 57. paulinaporizkova/Instagram Advertisement Porizkova said it takes a lot of hard work to stay fit now that she’s 57. paulinaporizkov/Instagram Advertisement
Porizkova is all about embracing her body and frequently poses topless or fully nude on Instagram.
“I have nothing to hide. I’m finally comfortable in my own skin. I don’t need armor when I’m already armed with my experiences and the wisdom they’ve brought,” she wrote on social media in January.
She was on the cover of Sports Illustrated two years in a row. paulinaporizkova/Instagram
The fashion icon told Page Six Style in May 2021 that while beauty standards are changing these days, there is still more work to be done in the modeling world.
“I think we’ve made enormous strides in accepting all different sorts of beauty,” she said. “I think size and color and all of these things that used to be so uniform now have broadened to a pretty spectacular [degree]. But age, ageism, that’s kind of like the last frontier.”