“Russian women are treated in a very Arabic way in our country,” the 27-year-old Calvin Klein model told Mandrake at a party at the Burberry store in Mayfair to celebrate Fashion’s Night Out.

“You are expected to give birth to children, look pretty and shut up. But we are very strong and intelligent people: there are a few of us out there. My whole life is breaking the stereotype of typical Russian women looking for money.”

Natalia, 27, grew up in a poor district of the city then known as Gorky in the Soviet Union and set up her own fruit stall to help her family escape poverty. In 2001, she married Justin Portman, who is an heir to one of Britain’s biggest property fortunes.

“I have passion for what I do,” she told me. “I am confident and determined on shoots, but I am actually really shy in real life. I don’t have confidence when it comes to my looks. I am only confident in front of the camera or when I am talking about my charity. I can get water out of a stone when it comes to things that matter to me.”

Source: Telegraph.