Should anyone ever compile a list of the most enviable legs in the world, model Luciana Gimenez’s stunning pair would surely top it.
She’s mesmerized runway watchers, mesmerized men and recently her social media followers were ecstatic at Christmas as she stood on tiptoe and adorned her tree in a daring gold swimsuit and matching heels.
So it’s no wonder that when Luciana and I started our conversation a few weeks ago, we spend what seems like a disproportionate amount of time talking about those legs. Other topics are covered – her relationship with Mick Jagger (the father of her son Lucas), motherhood, aging – but we keep returning to the subject of her legs, every 1.2 meters (3ft 11¼in) of them, because she frankly everything that happened to her revolves around being intrinsic.
She tells me that her legs were once insured for hundreds of thousands of pounds (so were her breasts when she ran a Wonderbra campaign, but premiums for legs were always higher).
Bad luck: Luciana had a terrible accident on the ski slopes and broke one of those eternal legs in six places
We first got on the topic of her legs when she was talking about body awareness. Hers was non-existent as a young girl
She drives to the airport to go skiing while we say goodbye (“it’s a wonderful exercise and good for the glutes,” she says cheerfully) and we agree to finish our interview later.
Disaster strikes the next day. She has a terrible accident on the ski slope and breaks one of those endless legs in six places. Our conversation begins with her on a hospital bed, on pain meds, showing me her legs on a Zoom call, and crying in shock.
“My beautiful legs are fucked, Jenny,” she says. “I can’t believe we’ve talked so much about her – and now look.”
It’s hard to see to be honest. Her left leg is again about half the size of the right one, swollen, bruised black and blue, and has a series of scars still stitched all over it, some small, some larger.
She underwent urgent surgery because of the severity of the fractures.
It’s even harder to hear how the injuries were acquired.
Luciana, a competent and experienced skier, had been skiing in Aspen, Colorado, with her children Lucas, 22, and Lorenzo, 12, (from her marriage to her ex-husband, TV host Marcelo de Carvalho) when she was simply lost control
Road to recovery: Gimenez was pictured in a wheelchair following emergency surgery following her horror skiing accident in Aspen
“Earlier in the day my boots felt loose so I went back to my hotel and changed but the new ones seemed a little tight.
“It didn’t feel quite right, but it wasn’t anything that worried me,” she says. “I was on a blue track, wasn’t going very fast, but I passed my kids when I would normally be the one in the back.
‘Lucas shouted, “Slow down, Mum!” and then I realized I was losing control.
‘I went down. The boot should have come out of the ski but it didn’t so my leg had stopped but my body was still moving. I felt the first pause, then the next, and the next.’
Her body rocked back and forth, bones in her leg cracking with every movement.
“I knew it straight away. I broke my leg in six places in all and it was the most horrible thing I’ve ever been through. The pain was like nothing I’ve ever felt before, like hot rods.
“People say you don’t feel anything, adrenaline takes over. It didn’t. I felt everything I wanted to scream and scream, but my heart was racing and I was aware my kids were there, so my brain said, “Keep calm.”
“Lucas took control. Do you know that there are times in your life when you are so proud of your children?
“My boys were upset but they didn’t panic even though we all knew it was serious.”
She was carried off the mountain, taken to the hospital and immediately operated on for fear of losing her left leg.
She apologizes a little for the frantic conversation she had with the orthopedist before she went under the anesthetic.
“Because one of the fractures was along the tibia, the surgeon had to insert a rod to stabilize it,” she says. “I know I should have been thankful I didn’t die or lose my leg and I am. But I said to the surgeon, “Please make the scars as small as possible because my legs . . . important, my life. I know that sounds vain, but it’s the truth.’
She recalls our earlier conversation about cosmetic surgery and how she was too cowardly to ever go under a knife. there are tears
“And now I have, and I’ll probably have to have cosmetic surgery for the scars because as wonderful as the surgeons were, their priority was to get me a working leg and walking again.”
Luciana is now recovering in New York – “a good friend sent me a private plane” – but it will be six weeks before she can put weight on her foot and the recovery period thereafter will likely be three to six months.
“There will be muscle atrophy and, let’s face it, my legs will never be the same again. But I’ve given myself enough time to feel sorry for myself. Now I just have to keep going because I don’t want to just walk. I want to dance.’
No doubt she will do it again because this is a lady who is as daring as she is glamorous.
That she’s been defined by the men in her life (by her legs) might be unfortunate, but on the bright side, her exes have rallied to help.
“Oh yeah, Mick reached out right away and asked if there was anything he could do to help if I needed anything,” she says. “So was his girlfriend Mel (ballerina Melanie Hamrick, mother of Jagger’s youngest child Deveraux).”
Luciana’s ex-husband came to take care of their younger son Lorenzo. Her current boyfriend, economist Renato Breia, who she has been with for 18 months, flew in from Brazil and is now working as a nurse while learning to push her wheelchair.
It’s a learning experience for both of you.
‘I hate it! I’m such an independent person. I hate relying on others like that, but Renato was amazing. I know I’m lucky to have people like that around me.”
And considering that just a few weeks ago, Luciana admitted to me that she worries about how long she can maintain her model figure — even with her daily workouts at the gym, dedication to exercise and diet, and good genes.
“Nobody likes to get older. I definitely don’t,” she had told me. “But I think it’s unfair when men get older, everyone thinks they’re great!
Terrible accident: Luciana shared a video that appeared to capture the moment she was rescued from the slopes
“You are still considered charismatic and charming. women of the same age? You’ve got it over with.”
Did she talk about Mick – 80 this year! — when she alluded to men getting older?
“Well there’s Mick, yes, but let’s also talk about George Clooney and Bradley Cooper,” she said. “There are so many men in the (entertainment) industry. They are like a club, while it is difficult for women to get roles when they are older or to return to work after having children.
“I mean, I would never have said I was a big feminist, but there IS a double standard.
“Not that you can blame the men. We girls are to blame for that. Why can’t we be more like them – happy with our gray hair, lines and small tummies?
“We should celebrate more. women are great. We are moms, we work, we multitask. Because men, let’s face it, men can only do one thing at a time.’
We first got on the topic of her legs when she was talking about body awareness. Hers was non-existent as a young girl.
“I was bullied so much. I was the tallest in the class and always at the end of the line, they lined us up by height but my legs grew in front of my body. I had a four foot leg, which is great now, but back then the bullies called me Flamingo or Olive Oyl, from Popeye.
“I would go home and cry to my mother. I remember wearing sweatpants under my jeans to hide my legs being so skinny.
“I think part of that will always stay with you. So now I say to my sons, “Don’t comment on how someone looks unless you have something positive to say.”
By the time the bullies realized she was beautiful and not a freak, she’d been signed to a modeling agency and subjected to a different kind of scrutiny.
I asked if her height (she can exceed 7 feet wearing heels and one of those feathered carnival headdresses) intimidates men. “Oh yeah, they don’t approach me – or the ones who do are the crazy ones!
“When I’m at a party men don’t come up to me, I think because I’m so visible it will be noticeable if they get rejected.”
Obviously, not all men are afraid. When she interviewed Donald Trump on her TV show (she’s met him several times, both before and after he was president, “and he’s very charismatic and cheeky”), he was smitten with her.
Then he invited her to dinner. “I was married at the time and politely declined.”
Jagger wasn’t afraid of her either, and she’s notorious for not rejecting him (yes, they met at a party and he’s said to have been as impressed with the fact that she can speak four languages as he was with her legs).
Interestingly, every man she dated – up to and including Renato – was shorter than her.
“He’s 6ft 3in so he’s the only one taller than me and I have to say I love it. It’s nice to look up.’
Does she think she will remarry and settle down with Renato who proved to be such a caring partner after the accident? There is a certain sadness in her answer.
“I thought about it. I think as you get older it would be nice to be with someone, married or in a long term relationship. It’s not like you can let yourself go, but you might be more confident and relaxed aging with someone.
Mick is “a great father,” she says, generous with time and money, and feels part of the “extended family.”
She is not in touch with any of the other Jagger wives, but all eight Jagger children appear to have intertwined lives.
“They really love each other and they’re all very cute and it works,” she says.
“Other people read about our lives and think it sounds like a soap opera. I understand that and it’s based on truth, but it’s not the whole truth.
Obviously, the last episode of the soap opera was dramatic — and maybe life-changing — but by the end of our conversation, she manages to laugh that one of her previous ambitions was to do Strictly Come Dancing.
She looks down at her bruised legs. “That means we’ll have a lot to do.”