Supermodels Who Met Tragic Fates

The following article includes references to suicide.

The dark underbelly of stardom has always been fodder, or culturally significant material, for film, literature, and tabloids alike. And the archetype of tragic beauty, as exemplified by figures from Marilyn Monroe to model Krissy Taylor, sister of supermodel Niki Taylor, is as enduring as it ever was. Despite their tragedy, though, these women's stories serve a crucial purpose. They succeed in bringing issues like mental illness, eating disorders, cyberbullying, and abusive relationships into the public consciousness. And in doing so, they empower others to (hopefully) take action to help themselves.

Some of these women talked openly about their struggles, while others endured in silence. Some have lives that have been chronicled in popular movies, and others are more famous for working in media like television than they are for their beginnings in the fashion world. But all of their narratives definitely reflect the fact that public image and private turmoil are, indeed, often at startling odds.

Model Daul Kim of Seoul was a muse for designers like Chanel and Alexander McQueen. She appeared in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and seemed, on the surface, to have everything, including a great sense of humor (as this New York magazine clip shows) and a keen artistic sensibility. 

Kim had a blog, the quirkily titled I Like to Fork Myself, which functioned as a kind of running diary. Though it was full of fun, it was also full of reflections on her own depression and sense of hopelessness. "The more I gain the more lonely it is ... I know I'm like a ghost," she wrote on November 5, 2009, just two weeks (via the Independent) before she died by suicide. Kim's final blog post was entitled, "Say hi to forever" (via The Telegraph), though few likely suspected that she meant it as a farewell note. The blog remains online.

At the age of 16, Charlotte Dawson signed with the much-coveted Ford modeling agency and embarked upon a lucrative career. She also worked widely in television, appearing as a judge on "Australia's Next Top Model." She was also plagued by depression, on which she spoke openly and courageously. She wrote a book, "Air Kiss and Tell," which the Sydney Morning Herald called "jarringly honest."

In 2012, Dawson attempted suicide after a deluge of cyberbullying that was reportedly a reaction to her involvement with the anti-cyberbullying organization Community Brave. She later actually tracked down and confronted her most inane and vehement Twitter trolls in person. In her final televised interview, filmed for Australian news show "Sunday Night" just a month before her death, Dawson appeared despondent but determined, saying, "I can't be fearful. That's my worst enemy. It's everybody's worst enemy: fear of the future. Especially when you don't have one to look at" (via News.com.au) On February 22, 2014, Dawson died by suicide in her home. But her dedicated activism and compassion live on.

Supermodel Gia Carangi was a household name, even before she was portrayed by Angelina Jolie in the 1997 HBO biopic "Gia." Though Carangi was known for her free-spirited and seductive personality, her intelligence, and her authenticity, she is also synonymous with tragedy. Carangi is considered by many to be among the world's first supermodels. She was also one of the first female celebrities to die of AIDS, back when it was still a widely misunderstood disease. 

Carangi struggled with heroin addiction, which derailed her career for a time. In 1981, she went to rehab, got sober, and started working in the industry again. Later that year, she did a much-publicized television interview for ABC, in which she came across as wise, contemplative, well spoken, and fully committed to starting a new life. Her sobriety didn't last, though, and, sadly, her illness had already progressed too rapidly to be properly addressed. On November 18, 1986, Carangi died at the age of 26. 

Margaux Hemingway, granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway and sister of actress Mariel Hemingway, seemed to have the world at her feet. Hemingway was a much in-demand model whose distinctive beauty was likened to Grace Kelly's. She was all over almost every high-end fashion magazine in the industry for a time. She also appeared in a number of films. Nevertheless, Margaux's personal life was troubled. 

In addition to suffering from epilepsy, she also struggled with substance abuse problems and severe depression, and attempted suicide at more than one point. On July 1, 1996, Hemingway was found deceased in her Los Angeles home, the victim of a massive overdose of phenobarbital. She was 41 years old. The question of whether her death was actually a suicide or not will likely always be up for debate, but the official verdict was that she did take her own life. Mariel Hemingway, who suffers from depression herself, has since become an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness.

Lucy Gordon is probably best known for her roles in "Spider-Man 3" and 2002's "The Four Feathers," starring the late Heath Ledger. She was also in several acclaimed independent and art house films. Before she was an actress, however, Gordon was a teen model who was chosen to be the face of CoverGirl cosmetics. So when in May 2009, two days before her 29th birthday, she was found to have died by suicide, it was utterly devastating and inexplicable. 

Comic book artist and filmmaker Joann Sfar, who directed Gordon in the movie Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, told The Standard that most of Gordon's friends were models who were "often upset" and talked of suicide, but would always get reassured by Gordon that life was "joyful." Gordon left two suicide notes. In one, she stated that she was "of sound mind and body" and left instructions regarding the dispensation of her estate. The other was a personal letter to her parents.

The heartbreaking death of Ruslana Korshunova, the model the press dubbed "The Russian Rapunzel" because of her long hair, gained considerable media attention. On June 28, 2008, Korshunova jumped to her death from her Manhattan apartment at the age of 20.

Investigations later revealed that Korshunova, a Russian Vogue cover girl, had been a member of a cult known as Rose of the World; another model, Anastasia Drozdova, who was also allegedly associated with the group, killed herself the following year. Nevertheless, "representatives" for the cult denied having anything to do with either death. Other reports claimed that Korshunova had posted about her despair online. Whatever happened, her death was eventually ruled a suicide. But the bizarre circumstances surrounding it still cast an even more disturbing shadow on the tragedy.

South African model Reeva Steenkamp rose to prominence as the face of Avon. She also worked for many other high-profile companies and magazines. Steenkamp was a passionate advocate for women's rights and for victims of sexual assault — a cause that inspired her to attend and graduate from law school. 

Nevertheless, her relationship with Oscar Pistorius, an Olympic runner who made headlines as the "fastest man on no legs" (a documentary about him also bore this title) because of his two prosthetic limbs, was perhaps not as idyllic as it seemed to be. On Valentine's Day 2013, Steenkamp was found dead on the floor of the home she shared with Pistorius. She had been shot four times.

Pistorius maintained that he had killed Steenkamp in error after mistaking her for an intruder. Others (including one of his former partners) claimed that he had a history of violent behavior. Ultimately, he was only sentenced to a six-year prison term, but his sentence was increased to 15 years minus time served on appeal in 2017.

L'Wren Scott started out as a model in Paris, working with the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, and Jean-Paul Goude. She became famous in the fashion industry for her 42-inch legs. Nevertheless, at the time of her death, L'Wren Scott was primarily known as a fashion designer. She was also the longtime partner of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and appeared to have a life full of stability, close friends, and success. At least on the surface.

Scott hanged herself in her home on March 17, 2014. To many of her friends, her death was a complete shock. Few people had sensed the depth of her suffering, though a group of her closest confidantes were concerned that she had been unusually despondent. Though she had suffered through some medical problems shortly before her death, they didn't appear to be terribly serious. All of which proves that red flags, sadly, don't always go up.

Dayle Haddon earned supermodel status long before the term even reached mainstream consciousness. The Canadian native got her start in showbiz very young at the age of 5, and dance was her first love. At some point during her girlhood years, she found her calling in the modeling world and garnered enough acclaim by the time she was 18 to win the title of Miss Montreal. As she went from milestone to milestone in her home country, the fashion world in New York took notice, and soon enough, Haddon received an invite from none other than Eileen Ford herself. 

But it was hardly a smooth-sailing journey for Haddon, who, though stunning, didn't exactly fit into the contours of the American fashion industry. "I was a very small, dark-haired Canadian with little freckles. It just wasn't an 'in' look," she told Women's Wear Daily. "It took me a long time to be successful," she added. But when she did, she broke records. With contracts for four big cosmetic companies in hand, features on major magazine covers, and film projects on the side, Haddon was a history-making model in her time. 

The L'Oréal icon continued to model and break new barriers up until her death at 76. In 2024, Haddon was found dead on her daughter's property in Pennsylvania, following a reported carbon monoxide poisoning. Police pinned the accident down to "a faulty flue and exhaust pipe on a gas heating system," according to CNN.

Stella Tennant stormed into the fashion industry in the early '90s with her grungy pixie cut, androgynous look, and rebellious streak, which defied the soft and safe beauty standards of modeling. And yet, despite her unwillingness to play by the rules, or perhaps precisely because of it, the world fell in love with her. From photo shoots to magazine covers and labels like Chanel and Versace, the British supermodel was one of the most in-demand muses of her era. In fact, at one point in time, she held an unofficial (but believable) record for walking the highest number of catwalks in one single season.

Where fashion bosses like Karl Lagerfeld were effusive in their praise of her, fellow models couldn't conceal just how much in awe of Tennant they were, either. On working with Tennant for the first time, modeling legend Linda Evangelista once wrote on Instagram: "I laughed and told her, that was the day I found out I wasn't cool. I had just met the coolest person I would ever meet." As fashion cycles turned, Tennant's brand of cool was slowly overtaken by other trendier successors in the new millennium. Though she gradually withdrew from the spotlight, her shine hardly dimmed. The modeling icon continued to dazzle in fashion projects up until 2020, the year she died. She tragically took her own life in Scotland just days after turning 50, with her family telling The Telegraph that she had been struggling with her mental health.

To say that Lina Marulanda was a sensation in Colombia would be an understatement. The ravishing Latin American supermodel was a beloved fixture across media and formats, building an unmatched legacy that spanned decades of work. She took the country by storm from a young age, starting her career in showbiz at 12 after getting discovered while out shopping. Despite the pull of glamour though, the model did not eschew her education. Throughout her youth, she balanced her camera-facing life with first school and then college. It's no surprise that her reputation as a perfectionist preceded her. 

Marulanda's modeling career paved the way for her to explore more avenues, most notably in television. She earned renown as the face of news segments on CM& and Noticias Caracol, while also making a mark with her appearances in projects such as the telenovela "Yo soy Betty, la fea," which inspired the ABC series "Ugly Betty." Though she reached dizzying heights of success, Marulanda seemed to have some reservations about the whole affair. "She did not want to be pigeonholed," a television associate of Marulanda told BBC Mundo. Several accounts also claimed that in her final years, her personal life was in turmoil, and the effects of depression and multiple divorces left her isolated. Marulanda's saga ended in tragedy in 2010, when the 29-year-old fell to her death from her apartment in Bogotá. Her death was widely considered a suicide. 

For anyone who lived through the dizzy, defiant era of Cool Britannia in the '90s, Georgina Cooper was more than just a model. She was the defining face of the cultural shift happening in Britain at the time, capturing the pulse of the movement with her effortless cool and iconic gap-toothed grin. "She was such a people person, one of those models who just never changed," her friend and fellow model Jade Parfitt told Women's Wear Daily. "She never got airs and graces despite her huge success in the industry." 

Cooper began modeling in her teens. Her distinct look and camera presence brought her quick popularity. At only 15, she was rubbing shoulders with the likes of legendary photographer Corinne Day. "I was so young at the time I didn't really understand how influential the work we were doing was until I got older and people would compliment me on the work we did together," Cooper told The Cultural Omnivore. Though she got her start in the U.K., Cooper's influence transcended borders and landed her on magazine covers and runways across the world. 

For years, she was the go-to supermodel for designers and editors who wanted to give their brand a certain edge. But when she embraced motherhood, her priorities changed, and she gracefully bowed out of fashion to work in the hospitality sector. In 2024, reports surfaced that Cooper had died on the island of Kos in Greece due to a COVID-related brain hemorrhage, just months after getting married.

Lisa Fonssagrives was the ultimate golden girl of modeling before the industry even came to terms with everything a supermodel could signify. Decades before the Cindy Crawfords and Gigi Hadids of the world gave modeling a celebrity touch, Fonssagrives — a spunky Swedish stunner — was boldly carving her path through 20th-century fashion, breaking new barriers with each elegant step forward. Fonssagrives walked so contemporary models could run. From Vogue to Harper's Bazaar, she graced the topmost magazine covers and worked with some of the biggest photographers of her time, including Irving Penn, whom she later married.

Also deemed the world's first ever supermodel by many accounts, Fonssagrives' influence was summed up by Time magazine in 1949 during one of the brightest phases of her career: "the highest-paid, highest-praised high-fashion model in the business, considered by many of her colleagues the greatest fashion model of all time." Fonssagrives is also credited with bringing about a significant shift in the fashion industry, by claiming a place for models alongside designers in the spotlight. Though her cultural impact still lives on today — disputing her infamous quote: "I'm just a good clothes hanger" — a lot of this recognition was posthumous. After Fonssagrives left modeling to work in fashion design and sculpting, the fanfare that had surrounded her during her youth eventually quieted down. She was a name so lost in the pages of fashion history that her death from pneumonia in 1992 barely made any headlines.

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