Paulina Porizkova has spoken openly about overcoming her “terrible mistake” in handing over her autonomy to her late husband, Ric Ocasek, who cut her out of his will and left her with no money to live on after his death.
The supermodel, 58, reflected on how she went from growing up in poverty to making millions as a model to once again struggling to make ends meet in a cover interview with She knows for the digital magazine’s ‘Money Issue’.
Having money doesn’t make you happier. It doesn’t buy you love, community, connection – it doesn’t buy you any of those things. But it does buy you a ticket out of jail,” she told the outlet.
“If you don’t have any money and you have to steal food, or you don’t have a place to live, you know how restrictive that is. So for me, money always represented freedom, but that didn’t necessarily equate to happiness. And I think a lot of people are confused about that.’
Paulina Porizkova, 58, opened up about her “terrible mistake” in handing over her autonomy to her husband, Ric Ocasek, in a cover interview with SheKnows
Ocasek (pictured in 2018) cut Porizkova out of his will, leaving her with no money — including her own earnings — when he died in 2019
Porizkova was born in 1965 near Prostejov, Czechoslovakia, to Anna Porizkova and Jiri Porizka (the male version of Porizkova). Her anti-Soviet dissident parents were forced to flee to Sweden three years later to escape the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion.
She grew up in poverty in communist Czechoslovakia while left in the care of her maternal grandmother.
The authorities have forbidden her parents to reclaim her. It took six years – and a failed rescue attempt by her mother – before she was reunited with her family.
Shortly after she moved to Sweden and acquired Swedish citizenship, her father left the family and they became estranged.
In her book of essays, No Filter, she recalled how she was nine years old when her father left her and her younger brother alone in Sweden for two weeks with the equivalent of $20.
She was forced to steal bread and cheese to keep them from starving. She was only 10 when she got her first job as a newsboy. Five years later, she started modeling in Paris and rose to fame.
“That was a great lesson, one I learned well. I will never give myself over to anyone again,” said Porizkova
The model (pictured with her family) grew up in communist Czechoslovakia under the care of her grandmother before moving to Sweden to reunite with her anti-Soviet dissident parents
Porizkova was 15 when she started modeling in Paris, and four years later graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1984
Porizkova graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1984 when she was just 19 years old – the same year she met Ocasek on the set of the music video for The Cars’ hit “Drive” in 1984.
No one ever taught her how to manage her money or even open a bank account. She hid her money in teddy bears before she got a business manager.
When her rock star beau advised her to move on to be his business manager and accountant three years after they met, she listened.
In 1988, she made $6 million as the face of Esteé Lauder — the biggest cosmetics contract for a model at the time — but Ocasek never considered her the breadwinner in their relationship.
Porizkova was 24 and he was 45 when they married the following year without a prenuptial agreement, and she began to work less.
Looking back, she said it was “stupid” of her to hand over the management of their finances and investments to her husband while she ran the household and raised their sons Jonathan and Oliver, who are now 29 and 24 respectively.
Porizkova was also 19 when she met Ocasek on the set of the music video for The Cars’ hit “Drive” in 1984. They married five years later, when she was 24 and he was 45.
Looking back, she said it was “stupid” of her to hand over the management of their finances and investments to her husband while she ran their household and raised their sons.
Porizkova and Ocasek (pictured on their last family vacation) got divorced when he died aged 75 in their shared Manhattan townhouse in 2019
“Handing over the responsibility of my autonomy to someone else – what a terrible mistake that was,” she said. It’s not that I made a mistake in confidence [my husband]; the mistake was that I gave myself to him like, “Here. You take care of me.”
“That was a great lesson, one I learned well. I’ll never give myself over to anyone again.’
Porizkova and Ocasek got divorced when he died aged 75 in their shared Manhattan townhouse in September 2019.
The day after he died, she learned that he had cut her out of his will several weeks earlier, claiming she had “abandoned” him. He left her with no money to live on, including her own earnings, and she depended on friends to run her errands.
She was forced to sell their mansion for $10 million in September 2020. She lost millions of dollars in the sale due to the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the real estate market.
Porizkova later reached a settlement with her late husband’s estate and was awarded what was due to her under New York state law, which was one-third of Ocasek’s assets.
She has since taken her finances into her own hands and learned enough about it to hire a financial advisor she trusts to manage her investments, but she knows it will never become her field of expertise.
The day after he died, she learned that he had cut her out of his will several weeks earlier, claiming she had “left” him.
Porizkova was forced to sell their mansion for $10 million in September 2020. She lost millions of dollars in the sale due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the real estate market
Porizova, who has since hired a finance manager, added that her sons are not “entitled” trust fund children, saying they “don’t live beyond their means”
‘I don’t feel confident. I spent 57 years knowing nothing about finance, putting it in teddy bears and handing it to corporate managers,” she said. “I didn’t suddenly wake up one day and become financially savvy. I still feel like I’m learning this in little bits.”
The mother is also proud to say that her sons are not “entitled” trust fund children, despite having rock star and supermodel parents.
“They’re definitely money conscious,” she explained. ‘They don’t buy things beyond their means; they do not live beyond their means. And technically they could if they wanted to.’
Porizkova posed for not one but two covers for SheKnows, modeling a glamorous black sequin dress in one shot and a beaded dress in the other.
She shared the first cover on her Instagram page on Monday while promoting the new money issue.
Money is always a difficult conversation. Is it because it is directly related to our self-esteem?’ she wrote in the caption. “I’ve lived on both sides of having and not having, and of course there is no doubt which is preferable.
‘Was I worth more as a person when I had more money? It certainly seems that way, since money buys the privileges of our society. Just like beauty. But the truth is that what made me most worthy as a human being was the times without the privilege.