Ex-Premier League star and Wonderbra mannequin with ‘longest legs’ break up after ‘lover’ claims
A two-time Champions League winner was once married to blonde bombshell Adriana Sklenarikova – who held a Guinness world record as the model with the longest legs on the planet
A former Premier League star once split with a jaw-dropping model – who officially had the longest leg of any model in the world – after claims she had a secret “lover”.
Christian Karembeu, who celebrated his 55th birthday this week, was a World Cup and European Championship winner with France and two-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid.
But he might have thought none of his achievements on the pitch matched the day he hit the jackpot when he started a relationship with supermodel Adriana Sklenarikova.
The Slovakian blonde bombshell was a Guinness record holder thanks to her long legs.
However, it was as one of the models for the Wonderbra – the push-up underwire bra that gained worldwide prominence in the 1990s – that earned the stunner her fame and fortune.
She first met Karembeu on a flight from Paris to Milan in 1998. It was love at first sight for the pair and they tied the knot in December of that year.
The Victoria’s Secret model even followed the “complete midfielder” to Teeside.
The France international made the shock decision to trade the Bernabeu for the Riverside Stadium in the summer of 2000, joining Bryan Robson’s side in a £2.1m deal.
Adriana was snapped in the stands, and even modelled the Boro away kit for the 2001/02 season, shortly before her husband left the club for Greek giants Olympiacos.
However, in 2011, their marriage abruptly ended. In an interview Adriana wanted “to clarify things” as she complained about constant media exposure and headlines.
She said: “We have always been a very media-savvy, very exposed couple.
“And, for the past few weeks, I have been annoyed to see photos of me with other men appearing in the press, presented as supposed lovers.
“Christian, I will always want to look after him, just as I will always have feelings for him.”
She later added: “The truth is that I never cheated on my husband, but Christian and I have been separated for several months. I was the one who left.
“Christian is my blood, he’s my family. I will always want to look after him, just as I will always have feelings for him. I was truly born in 1996, the year I met him on the Milan-Paris flight.”
Karembeu refused questions from the media about the divorce, stating that he would not comment in public about his private life.
He would find love again a couple of years later Jackie Chamoun, a Lebanese skier, and they would go on to have a daughter in September 2017.
Meanwhile, Adriana, now 54, married Armenian businessman Aram Ohanian in 2014.
They had a daughter together. However, the couple would split in 2022.
Post playing career, Karembeu became a scout for Portsmouth in 2006, before a three-year spell as a non-executive director of Birmingham International Holdings, the investment firm of Chinese businessman Paul Suen who took over Birmingham City.
He also spent time as a scout for Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, before taking up an administrative role at his old Olympiacos.
