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Renee Toft Simonsen was born in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1965. Her mother worked as a nurse, and her father was a student. Her parents divorced when she was 13. In 1981, fashion editor Birte Strandgaard noticed her, launching her modeling career. The following year, she represented Denmark at the Supermodel of the World contest and won in August 1982. Renée left high school and moved to New York. Over the next six years, she became one of the world's top models, tried acting, dated John Taylor of Duran Duran, and lived a glamorous life. However, by 1988, she grew tired of the fashion scene and felt she was losing herself. She paused her career, declined an audition opportunity for a Bond girl role, ended her relationship with Taylor, and spent three months at a kibbutz in Israel with her sister. In 1989, at 24 and at the peak of her fame, she ended her top modeling career and returned to Denmark. There, she completed high school and later studied psychology at university. From 1990, she lived with businessman Kristian Sandvad, with whom she had two children: daughter Ulrikke (born 1993) and son Jens-Kristian (born 1995). The couple separated in 1995. Soon after, she met Danish musician Thomas Helmig, who became her lifelong partner. They moved in together in 1997 and married in 2000. Their son, Hugo, was born in 1998. She is also stepmother to Helmig's daughter from a previous marriage, Ida Marie. In 2002, she earned her psychology degree and published her first children's book the following year. Since then, she has released several more children's books and her first novel in 2007. She received the BMF Children's Book Award in 2004 and Clarin's Most Dynamic Woman Award in 2006. At 44, Renée remains strikingly beautiful and occasionally models, but only if it doesn't keep her away from her family for long.
