A former Premier League star’s Olympian wife once sparked national outrage in her home country after the skier posed naked for a photoshoot
Former Premier League star Christian Karembeu’s wife once sparked national outrage in her home country after a naked photoshoot.
Karembu, who celebrated his 55th birthday last Wednesday (December 3), enjoyed a glittering career that saw him earn 53 caps for France and play at Real Madrid for three years. Although his time in England was short-lived, spending just one season with Middlesbrough.
The defensive midfielder’s love of sport goes beyond football, when he married Lebanese Olympic skier Jackie Chamoun in May 2017. The couple announced the birth of their daughter in following September.
However, the Olympian, 34, divided opinion in her home country ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics after several racy snaps were shared online including one that featured her topless while wearing skis. Chamoun had also posed for a naked calendar shoot three years prior to her second games.
Despite chuckling that she was not used to posing nude in a video taken during the shoot, it was no laughing matter for Jackie on their unexpected release with the Lebanese government getting involved.
Members of the government claimed that the clips damaged the “reputation” of their country, with Jackie then apologising with a Facebook statement which said that the photos that had been released were not the final product.
Jackie, an alpine skier, began training at an early age and started participating in both slalom and giant slalom events at the age of just 14.
At the age of just 18, she took part in the slalom event at the 2010 Winter Olympics that took place in Vancouver, going on to finish in 54th.
Ahead of the 2014 games, she wrote: “The video and photos that you are now seeing are part of the making of the preparation. It wasn’t supposed to go public.
“I want to apologise to all of you, I know that Lebanon is a conservative country and this is not the image that reflects our culture,” she added.
“Now that I’m at the Olympic Games … All I can ask to each of you who saw this, is to stop spreading it, it will really help me focusing on what is really important now: my trainings and race.”
She went on to finish 47th in the slalom with support for her plight coming in the form of a protest dubbed ‘Strip for Jackie’.