Pearl from the dynasty of Scandinavian beauties: Nena von Schlebrugge, mother of Uma Thurman

The name of this Scandinavian beauty may seem unfamiliar to you, but in the features of this elegant lady you will surely recognize her daughter - Uma Thurman. Nena von Schlebrugge was a very famous model in the 60s, and her pretty face appeared more than once in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines.

In 1941, a daughter, Brigitte Karolin, was born in Mexico City in the family of Swedish Birgit Holmquist and German aristocrat Baron Friedrich Karl von Schlebrugge.

The daughter inherited an unusual appearance from her mother, and an aristocratic charm from her father.

Nena's mother, Birgit Holmqvist, in her youth posed nude for the famous sculptor Axel Ebbe for the statue "Embraces", depicting a naked diva. This reverent statue of 1930 still meets ships in the port of a small cape on the southernmost point of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

In 1955, the famous photographer Norman Parkinson, who worked at Vogue, went to Stockholm on official business. That's where he saw 14-year-old Nena. This meeting was the beginning of the young beauty's modeling career. Just two years later, Nena moved to London, where she seriously took up work in the world of high fashion.

In a new field, the girl was waiting for a stunning success — the young Swede was immediately offered a contract with the Ford modeling agency, located in New York.

Nena gladly accepted the offer and went to another continent. There she was waiting for a collaboration with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines, she was photographed by the best photographers of that time - Richard Avedon, William Klein, Bert Stern and the already mentioned Norman Parkinson.

Photographers cultivated her aristocracy, sophistication, charm and trusted her to pose in the most mind-blowing outfits and palace interiors, in which Nena looked organically and naturally, as befits a real aristocrat by birth.

The refined beauty of Nena inspired many photographers and artists of our time. Rumor has it that the girl became a muse for the great Salvador Dali, who in 1963 introduced the already famous beauty to the psychiatrist Timothy Leary, famous for his work in the field of psychedelics on the nervous system.

Just a year later, Timothy and Nena got married at billionaire William Hitchcock's mansion in Millbrook. This rather unusual wedding ceremony was captured on film by documentary filmmaker Donn Pennebaker.

The marriage with Timothy Leary lasted only a year, in 1965, Nena filed for divorce. Two years later, she married an even more extravagant man — Robert Thurman. Nena's husband became the first American to be tonsured as a Buddhist monk personally by the Dalai Lama.

It was a marriage sanctified by someone above — two harmonious souls merged together, who to this day live in peace and harmony and bring the divine light of kindness to people. Soon the couple had their first child, Ganden.

In total, Nena has four children from Robert Thurman, among them is the famous actress Uma Thurman, who is very similar to her mother.

Uma was born in 1970. Her name means "the giver of bliss." Then Nena decided to end her modeling career and give herself to her family. In addition, she was so imbued with her husband's ideas that she also became interested in the active popularization of Buddhism in the States and even became a certified psychologist.

Today, Nena is the executive director of the Menla Mountain Retreat Center for Tibetan Medicine and is proud of her talented and successful children with unique names associated with the ancient Buddhist philosophy — Ganden, Uma, Dechen, Mipam. And she remains the same aristocrat-a beauty and just a happy woman.