Clipping: Split

"Russian model Natalia Vodianova splits from aristocrat billionaire husband of nine year Justin Portman

By BEN TODD and SARA NATHAN

Last updated at 12:20 PM on 24th June 2011

She is one of the world’s most successful supermodels while he is an English aristocrat, heir to a billion pound fortune. 

However, the fairy tale romance between Justin Portman – whose family own 110 acres of prime central London property – and Russian rags-to-riches beauty Natalia Vodianova is over. 

The couple  – who have three children together Lucas, nine; Neva, five and Viktor, three – have separated after more than nine years of marriage.

Despite previously denying they were separating, Miss Vodianova – herself worth £15million - confirmed the split in a new interview. 

The 29-year-old  told ES magazine: ‘It’s really sad. It has been a while. We didn’t want to talk about it. We still don’t. Our children are very much aware of it. It’s OK.

‘We’re still in a very sensitive position right now, and trying to do things as amicably as possible, so I wouldn’t want  to talk about it at all. 

‘I don’t think I ever will want to because it’s strictly between my husband and me.’

Portman, 41, is the half-brother of Viscount Portman, who is Britain’s 53rd richest man with a fortune estimated at £1.2billion. 

Portman and Miss Vodianova had houses all over the world, including a lavish home in London, a 3,000 acre Herefordshire estate, a 14th century mill house in West Sussex, a home in New York and a retreat in Uruguay. 

When quizzed in the new interview if she was now in love with a new man, Miss Vodianova admitted: ‘Yes, definitely.’ 

However, she declined to name her latest beau. 

In recent months, she has been linked with troubled actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, her co-star in recently filmed movie Belle du Seigneur. 

There was also speculation she had become close to former war photographer Scott Douglas, who split with artist Tracey Emin last autumn after seven years together.

And Russian websites also claimed she had become close to a TV Russian TV director Andrey Boltenko. Claims that were rubbished at the time. 

Most recently she was linked to financier Alexander Peshko. 

Cracks first started appearing in Portman and Miss Vodianova’s relationship at the end of 2009. 

The beauty and the couple’s children spent that festive season on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Portman, meanwhile, started spending more and more time at their  new home in Punta del Este, Uruguay overseeing the development of a new retreat.

Sources at the time told how was devastated to be apart from his love ones at such an important time of the year.  A source revealed: ‘He was very upset. He was alone over Christmas and he missed Natalia and his family terribly.’

Rumours soon increased that the marriage was under strain, forcing Miss Vodianova to insist the couple  were very much still together. 

It is all a far cry from Miss Vodianova’s poverty-stricken upbringing in the inner city of Gorky, now called Nizhny Novogorod, in Russia. 

As a teenager, she helped her mother sell fruit on the streets of the town to earn money. and later set up a fruit stand with a friend to help the children out of poverty.

At the age of 15, she enrolled in a modelling academy and two years later signed with Viva Models in Paris.

She has since gone on to be one of the world’s most successful supermodels. 

Unsurprisingly, she is known as the Russian Cinderella in her homeland as a result and last year she was estimated to have earned more than £2.5million, making her one of the world’s highest paid models.

She also has an exclusive three-year contract with French lingerie firm Etam  - where her range is called Natalia pour Etam. 

The beauty – who set up the Naked Heart Foundation, a charity to help deprived children in Russia - is also friends with Prince Andrew.

Meanwhile, Portman – full name Justin Trevor Berkeley – is from one of Britiain wealthiest families. 

His half-brother the 10th Viscount Portman is worth £1.2billion and was listed as Britain’s 53th richest man in a recent survey.  

He owns 110 acres of prime property north of Oxford Street, Britain’s busiest shopping area. 

As well as being a property heir, Mr Portman is a professional artist. 

The couple married in November 2001 in the UK.  The following September they had a three-day wedding in St Petersburg where Miss Vodianova wore a dress designed by Tom Ford."

Source: Daily Mail UK

** Best wishes to Natalia in such a difficult time.