What Happened to Adriana Lima?

By CelebPaid Editorial Team · 9 min read

Adriana Lima, 45, was Victoria's Secret's longest-running Angel and remains an active supermodel.Image via Wikimedia Commons

The Longest-Running Angel

Adriana Lima, born June 12, 1981, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 2000 to 2018, making her the brand's longest-running Angel and model, with her first VS Fashion Show in 1999. Her 2017 designation as the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel by analytics firm D'Marie only confirmed what fashion already knew: Lima was the face of an era.

Discovered at 15 when she won Ford's Supermodel of Brazil competition, she moved to New York and quickly became one of the highest-paid models in the world, fronting Maybelline for over a decade and appearing in Super Bowl and Kia commercials that made her famous far beyond fashion.

The D'Marie analytics 2017 ranking naming her the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel quantified what the industry knew: Lima moved product like no one else, her social engagement and search volume dwarfing her peers. The data-driven crown complemented the cultural one.

Her 2012 Forbes ranking, among the world's highest-paid models with estimated $7.3 million in earnings, quantified her commercial dominance. Year after year, she appeared on the list, a model of consistency in a volatile industry.

The 2018 Farewell

Lima's 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show walk was staged as a farewell: she retired from the brand after nearly two decades, tearfully closing a chapter that had defined her career. The show itself would go on hiatus after 2018 amid the brand's cultural reckoning, making her exit feel like the end of an era twice over.

She continued modeling selectively: high-fashion editorials, beauty campaigns, and red carpets, including acclaimed appearances at Cannes and the Venice Film Festival, where her style evolution drew praise.

Family: Three Children

Lima has three children. With ex-husband, Serbian basketball player Marko Jaric (married 2009, divorced 2016), she shares daughters Valentina (born 2009) and Sienna (born 2012). With film producer Andre Lemmers, she welcomed son Cyan in 2022.

Motherhood reshaped her public image: the untouchable Angel became a relatable mom sharing family moments, and she has spoken about the challenges of returning to modeling after children in an industry obsessed with youth.

Her co-parenting with Jaric appears amicable, with both attending the daughters' events, while her relationship with Andre Lemmers and their son Cyan represents her current chapter. Valentina, now 17, and Sienna, 14, are growing up largely out of the spotlight their mother commanded.

The 2024 Return

In a moment of pure fashion nostalgia, Lima returned to the Victoria's Secret runway for the brand's 2024 show, its first major revival, walking to thunderous applause. The appearance, at 43, was celebrated as a triumphant homecoming and a statement about longevity in modeling.

She has since continued selective runway and campaign work, her status as a living legend secure. Her 80th Venice Film Festival appearance in 2023 had already signaled that the industry still rolls out the red carpet for her.

The 2024 show's broader significance, Victoria's Secret's attempt to reconcile its Angels past with its inclusive rebrand, made Lima's participation symbolic: the ultimate Angel blessing the new era. Her walk was the night's emotional peak, nostalgia and reinvention in a single stride.

Business and Influence

Beyond modeling, Lima has invested in business ventures and philanthropy, supporting children's causes in Brazil. Her social media presence, tens of millions of followers, keeps her commercially potent, and she remains one of the most-booked mature models in the industry.

Her career longevity, nearly 30 years since her discovery, is almost unmatched among her generation of supermodels.

Her investment portfolio, spanning fashion, beauty and tech startups, reflects the business acumen of a model who watched the industry from its pinnacle for decades. She has spoken about financial literacy for young models, a cause informed by her own long, well-managed career.

Where Is Adriana Lima Now?

At 45, Adriana Lima is a supermodel emeritus who still works: campaigns, covers, runway returns, and a family life with three children. The girl discovered in Salvador at 15 became the defining Angel of the 2000s and 2010s, walked away on her own terms, and came back to a hero's welcome.

What happened to Adriana Lima is the fashion fairy tale with a second act: retirement, motherhood, and a return that proved some icons don't fade, they just take intermissions.

Her philanthropy in Brazil, supporting children's hospitals and education initiatives in Salvador, connects her global fame to her roots. The girl from Bahia who conquered New York never forgot where she started, and her charitable work is the quiet counterpart to the runway glamour.

Her 2026 campaign calendar, spanning luxury fashion and mass-market beauty, shows a 45-year-old model working at a pace that would exhaust newcomers. The industry's embrace of her longevity is itself a sign of changing times.

Maybelline and the Commercial Crown

Lima's Maybelline contract, spanning well over a decade, made her one of the most recognizable faces in drugstore beauty worldwide: the ads were inescapable, from subway posters to Super Bowl-adjacent campaigns. The partnership's longevity, rare in an industry that cycles through faces, testified to her commercial reliability.

Her Super Bowl and Kia commercials introduced her to audiences who never watched a fashion show, with the Kia ads in particular becoming water-cooler moments. Few models have crossed from high fashion to mass-market ubiquity as completely as Lima, whose face sold both couture dreams and affordable mascara.

The 2024 Comeback Show

The 2024 Victoria's Secret show, the brand's first major runway revival after its 2019-2023 hiatus and rebrand, needed its icons, and Lima's return provided the emotional climax. Walking to thunderous applause at 43, she embodied the brand's attempted reconciliation with its past: the Angels era acknowledged, the supermodel celebrated on her own terms.

The appearance reignited her runway career: subsequent fashion-week and campaign bookings treated her not as nostalgia but as a working legend. Her 2023 Venice Film Festival appearances, in particular a red gown that broke the internet, had already signaled that the industry's embrace was about the present, not just the past.

Supermodel Longevity

Discovered at 15 winning Ford's Supermodel of Brazil, Lima's career spans nearly 30 years, a longevity almost unmatched in modern modeling. She navigated the industry's shifts, from 90s heroin chic to 2000s glamazon to 2010s Instagram model to 2020s authenticity era, adapting her image while keeping her core brand: exotic, athletic, timeless.

Her candor about post-pregnancy body image and the pressures of returning to modeling after children resonated with women far beyond fashion, and her refusal to retire quietly, the 2024 return, the continued campaigns, makes her a role model for aging in an industry built on youth.

Timeline

1981: Born in Salvador, Brazil. 1996: Wins Ford's Supermodel of Brazil at 15. 1999: First VS Fashion Show. 2000-2018: Victoria's Secret Angel, the longest-running ever. 2009-2016: Marries and divorces Marko Jaric; two daughters. 2018: Retires from VS. 2022: Son Cyan born. 2024: Triumphant VS runway return. 2026: At 45, still modeling.

Cannes and the Red Carpet

Lima's Cannes Film Festival appearances have become red-carpet events in themselves: her 2023 Venice turn in a red gown broke the fashion internet, and her Cannes looks, bold, glamorous, unapologetic, consistently land on best-dressed lists. At an age when models typically retire from such stages, she commands them.

The red-carpet strategy is deliberate: selective, high-impact appearances that reinforce her icon status without the grind of constant visibility. Each look generates the kind of global coverage that keeps her commercially potent between campaigns.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Era

Lima's 18 Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows (1999-2018, missing only a few) made her the event's defining face: she opened the show multiple times, wore the Fantasy Bra three times (2008, 2010, 2014), each worth millions, and her 2018 farewell walk, tearful and triumphant, was the show's emotional peak.

The Fantasy Bras, encrusted with diamonds and gems, were the show's crown jewels, and Lima's three turns wearing them is a record. Her runway walk, powerful, athletic, joyful, became the template for the Angel aesthetic, imitated by every model who followed.

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