Adriana Karembeu: “I was the first footballer’s wife”

His autobiography caused a stir when it was released in early May. In “Libre”, the Slovakian Adriana Karembeu, 52, recounts her difficult childhood with a violent father, an attempted rape by a director, but also her complicated journey to have a child or her relationship with former French footballer Christian Karembeu. The interviews continued, the shocking titles multiplied. On Monday, we met the model and TV presenter at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival and we first wanted to know if her daily life was now a little calmer.

In your autobiography, you reveal a lot of yourself and there have been many articles on this subject. Now that she has been out for several weeks, has the media pressure lessened a little?

No, nothing came back down. I finished promoting my book, then I did the promotion for the Red Cross and now I’m doing the promotion for the festival. Life goes on, it’s just the topics that change. And again… It’s still the race, don’t worry. This is my traditional daily life. And it’s cool. That’s what I do. But I am grateful. It’s good that people ask me questions. It’s a pleasure.

You revealed that you were the victim of an attempted rape by a director. Has anything changed since then?

I talk about it in my book, because now we can talk about it. It was attempted rape, it didn’t go as far as rape, but whatever. At the time, I didn’t realize it, I said to myself, “I’m a pretty woman, this is going to happen to me.” It was normal, can you imagine? It came to my mind while I was writing the book, I was watching something on TV about #MeToo. That means that I completely brushed aside this story and I have no right to do that, it’s not responsible. I have a child, it can happen to any young girl. I left a predator in the wild. So I’m happy to talk about it.

Why didn’t you name it?

I don’t remember the name of this person. I can recognize him, at the limit, but I don’t remember.

At 23, when you arrive in Paris from what was then Czechoslovakia, you think you have landed on another planet. Why?

Because everything was different with us. The system and concept of our country before was so incomprehensible that it is complicated to describe it to someone who has experienced freedom. It was the Iron Curtain, we couldn’t express ourselves. And again, I was young, I didn’t really realize it. But my parents and my grandparents are lost generations.

Euro football is in full swing. In 1998, when France played its World Cup, you were Christian Karembeu’s companion and you were in the stands. How was cohabitation with the other footballers’ wives?

I didn’t understand at all what was happening. Christian said to me: “Come on, there’s a really cool competition, you’re going to enjoy it.” I was in New York at the time. I say: “Oh well, are you sure?” And then I say OK and I find out everything. I’m discovering behind the scenes, I don’t speak French, so it was a bit hot. And then we got media attention, because I was a model and he was a player. But that was not at all wanted. In fact, I was the first footballer’s wife. This phenomenon did not exist at all before. Sometimes other players’ wives looked at me askance. Like, “Why you?” But I didn’t look for anything.

Did they look at you askance throughout the World Cup?

It took a while for them to realize it wasn’t me. Afterwards, we got along so well together, we shared the same precious moments with our darlings before the matches, we experienced the same emotions. It was strong, it was the World Cup, our husbands were like gladiators in an arena and, each time, we supported them, we wanted so much for it to end well. In the end, we became a little family.

Your daughter is almost 6 years old, does she ask you questions about your career?

When we ask her the question: “What does mom do?” She answers: “My mom is Adriana Karembeu.” In reality, she doesn’t know, she doesn’t really understand and I tell her that she shouldn’t say that. When I ask her, she answers: “Mom, she works in TV.” But what does she do? “My mom is a Barbie.” This is so cute! (Laughs.)