No Longer The &quot;Voluptuous Virgin&quot;

Why is She famous

Adriana Lima is one of Brazil’s finest exports. Men know her best as one of the elite Victoria’s Secret Angels, an association that has allowed her to participate in many company events such as ritzy runway shows and popular Super Bowl ads for the past decade. The reach of Adriana Lima’s fame has extended beyond the many pop culture branches of the Victoria’s Secret umbrella, allowing her to experiment with other top-line modeling campaigns, runway appearances and acting projects.

Adriana Lima’s substantial industry power and strong physical appeal have earned her an amount of fame that puts her among the very best in her profession. If today’s Queen Bee model Gisele Bundchen were to glance over her shoulder, she would likely see Adriana Lima looking back from her consistent place as one of today’s five top-earning models. In addition to her financial status, Lima’s high beauty pedigree has earned her nods from the respective “Sexiest Women” and “Most Beautiful People” lists of People and FHM, while here at AskMen we have featured her numerous times as one of our Top 99 Most Desirable Women -- including the No. 1 spot in 2005.

Adriana Lima Quote

" It's wrong for a guy to have no personality, no heart. Because I don't care about style or money. I care about heart."

93 Sex Appeal

Adriana Lima is undoubtedly the chastest member of the Victoria's Secret Angels. An angel in more ways than one, she waited until age 17 to experience her first kiss, to which her partner responded by asking her mother for permission to marry the model. His reaction was cute, but it wasn't very far off from what would be required to go further with Adriana Lima. A devout Catholic (she’s been known to bring her Bible to runway events), she has been frank about her belief in saving sex for after marriage and admitted to GQ in April of 2006 that she was, in fact, a virgin. That issue was GQ’s top-seller of the year, and the magazine would christen her as “The World’s Most Voluptuous Virgin.”

While men around the world were no doubt ready to propose marriage to Adriana Lima at the drop of a hat, she spent some time on the celebrity dating scene before finally finding her ideal match. The lure of royalty -- in the form of Prince Wenzeslaus of Liechtenstein -- wasn’t enough to win hear, nor was rock, as one Lenny Kravitz soon learned. Adriana Lima’s winning suitor would come to be Serbian basketball star (and former NBA player) Marko Jaric, who met her in 2007 and married her in 2009. Adriana Lima may have left her virgin label at the altar, but thanks to her stunning physique and sexy gaze, she remains among the most beautiful of beauties.

90 Success

Since winning one of Brazil’s biggest modeling competitions, Adriana Lima has been front and center in the modeling world since her debut with the Victoria’s Secret Angels in 2000. With them, she’s been able to groove with Bob Dylan, show off multimillion dollar bras and also ink her name onto other lucrative contracts with the likes of Maybelline, Givenchy and even Doritos. One of the more versatile Victoria’s Secret Angels in the projects she chooses, Adriana Lima is the total professional package -- and her industry weight as one of the priciest models backs it up.

When she’s not playfully mimicking Angie Dickinson on magazine covers, befriending Ugly Betty or joining Clive Owen on cinematic BMW commercials, Adriana Lima somehow finds time to have a life away from modeling and also make a difference in matters that she believes in. In her downtime, she’s known for being an avid reader and she’s active in supporting the Ways of Light orphanage in her birthplace of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. In addition to that, she also helped Turkish children with leukemia by participating in a local broadcast of Deal or No Deal to help their cause.

Adriana Lima Biography

Adriana Lima’s modeling education started in elementary schools when she would often enter local pageants and come away as the winner. The self-esteem boost that came from winning helped ease the insecurities that resulted from her father’s decision to leave the family when she was only 6 years old. Adriana’s association with beauty pageants continued in high school when she and a friend agreed to enter the same modeling competition. After one of the organizers saw modeling potential in Adriana, she was encouraged to enter the “Supermodel of Brazil” contest that was presented by Ford Models. Adriana did just that, and at 15 years of age, she won the title and moved on to that year’s “Supermodel of the World” competition.

A second place finish in the 1996 “Supermodel of the World” competition assured Adriana Lima that a modeling career was in the cards. She took full advantage of the opportunity by signing a deal with Elite Model Management and heading straight into print, ad and runway work. Adriana’s first runway appearance was for Anna Sui in 1997 within a year, she would already have an ad contract with Anna Molinari and a cover shoot for Marie Claire (Brazil) in the books. In 1999, the young model would continue to develop her runway credentials by wearing the collections of Emanuel Ungaro and Balmain.

adriana lima becomes a victoria’s secret angel and works with clive owen and bmw

Adrian Lima’s most significant new client of 1999 was Victoria’s Secret, who brought her on board that year for their annual fashion show and their summer catalog a year later. The company was so taken with the Brazilian beauty that they named her as one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels -- immediately giving her career a boost in modeling credibility and a big payday to go with it. In their efforts to keep pace with the industry’s hot new faces, other companies and designers like Guess?, Vera Wang and Ralph Lauren quickly scooped her up. Automobile giant BMW took a different approach by including the model in Wong Kar-Wai’s The Follow, which costarred Forest Whitaker and Mickey Rourke, and was part of a short film series headlined by Clive Owen.

In 2002 and 2003, Adriana Lima added to her runway repertoire by participating in shows for Christian Dior, Versace and the late Alexander McQueen. A cosmetics deal with Maybelline followed, as did a cover shoot for the March 2003 edition of Elle, but first and foremost Adriana Lima was still an Angel. As a testament to this, she experienced one of her career highlights in a 2004 Victoria’s Secret Super Bowl commercial with Bob Dylan, a project that had her donning wings, heels and -- of course -- lingerie. The ad would be seen by more than 100 million viewers worldwide. Just a year later, Adriana would put her unique stamp on Italy as the face of Telecom Italia Mobile in a campaign that led her to be nicknamed “The Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy.”

adriana lima wears the fantasy bra and appears on ugly betty

Following a legendary best-selling GQ cover appearance in 2006 that dished on her sexual exploits (or lack thereof), Adriana Lima was named by Forbes in 2007 as one of modeling’s highest-earners. Following another Super Bowl commercial in 2008, she continued her industry dominance through the rest of the year, starting with an Esquire cover pose inspired by Angie Dickinson to celebrate the magazine’s 75th birthday. It was an iconic cover that also included other Victoria’s Secret Angels like Selita Ebanks, Izabel Goulart, Karolina Kurkova, and Alessandra Ambrosio. Another GQ cover shoot -- which attracted a record number of website visits -- came next before Adriana Lima made another iconic appearance for Victoria’s Secret by wearing a $5 million, 1,500 carat bra at the company’s fashion show.

Adriana Lima would also spend part of 2008 in the acting world by guest-starring as herself (and a new friend of America Ferrera’s title character) on the popular television series Ugly Betty. In 2009, Lima would team up with Givenchy for an illustrious fashion show before joining fellow beauties Iris Strubegger and Mariacarla Boscono as the company’s models for its ensuing Fall/Winter collection. Now enjoying a new marriage and motherhood, Adriana Lima and her $9 million salary are taking it slow while she exercises her way back into tip-top post-pregnancy form. She gave her fans a peek at her hot new bod as the cover model for the June 2010 issue of V.