A Bohemian on the Riviera

“People always go, ‘Oh, what a glamourous life you lead in the South of France!’,” says Maxová. “The most glamourous part is when I take my children to the beach after school. Otherwise my life is similar to that of any other mum.”

Let’s take a quick look back. In 1989, Maxová, 18 at the time, broke off law studies in Prague, moved to Paris and became a full-time model. As well as being a giant career leap for a girl who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, it represented something of a culture shock. When the US actor Sylvester Stallone turned up backstage during a Chanel fashion show, she was the only one who had never seen his face before. However, Maxová was soon to be a star herself. In the 1990s, the great era of the supermodel, she worked for the famous haute couture houses. She lived in New York City for two years, and graced the covers of magazines such as Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan. A wild time.

In 1997, Maxová began preparing for life after her career. She founded the Tereza Maxová Foundation, which helps orphans in the Czech Republic. When her daughter Mina was born in 2009, she started withdrawing from the modelling business, and changed her primary residence back to Prague. Maxová still finds the time to do a bit of modelling now and then, but her main focus – if she happens not to be working on one of her interior design projects just then – is her foundation. 

ŠKODA AUTO has also played a role in Maxová’s life at various points over the years. She gets nostalgic when she thinks about her very first car, a used ŠKODA Favorit, in the late 1980s. When the new Octavia was launched in 1996, she became the face of the campaign, posing in front of the car wearing a black dress and with a Weimaraner dog. ŠKODA has been supporting the Tereza Maxová Foundation since 2011. In all those years, the special Czech connection was never severed. It extended all the way to New York and Paris, and now to the Côte d’Azur.

“During those years, I was always in the centre of attention, always being pampered,” says Maxová. “And then, visiting Czech orphanages, where all these abandoned kids get no attention at all – that was when I said, I have to do something!“

That was in the autumn of 1996. Maxová was visiting her mother in Prague when she knocked on the door of a neighbouring children’s home and let herself be shown around the hopelessly overcrowded facility. This was no isolated case in the post-communist Czech Republic. And because Maxová realised that a few donations wouldn’t be sufficient, she founded the Tereza Maxová Foundation in 1997. She was 26 at the time and recruited the first employees from her own circle of friends. It is said that there are VIPs who have little to do with the charities to which they have lent their names. The Tereza Maxová Foundation is the exact opposite.

“I’m giving my voice to Czech children who don’t have families,” says Maxová. “People ask me, why don’t you also support children in Africa or Asia? It’s because I think that if you concentrate on just one thing, you might even get close to solving it some day.“

While the foundation concentrates on placing orphans with foster families, it also supports mothers in distress, in order to prevent children from having to be given away in the first place. Since 2011, ŠKODA AUTO has supported various Tereza Maxová Foundation activities – for example, the Fashion for Kids fashion shows, the charity-run Teribear moves Prague and the Rozjedu To (“Turn it up”) programme that encourages and provides better education for disadvantaged children in their early teens.

The sun is already low on the horizon as we reach the final stop of our tour: Cap-d’Ail, the small beach resort directly adjacent to Monaco. Two spectacular natural beaches offer expansive vistas to those seeking tranquillity away from the hustle and bustle of the principality. Maxová’s mother, who is here visiting from Prague, has picked Mina and Aiden up from school and brought them along. The 15-year-old Toby preferred to go and play football instead.

Maxová frolics in the sand with her children, throws stones into the water, and runs away from the incoming waves for fun. It’s easy to understand without her having to explain: The supermodel picked exactly the right time to take a new course with the focus on family. And that’s the reason she can now also take care of children whose lives have not run so smoothly.

Then it’s time to leave. Maxová is expecting more guests in the evening. A Czech meal is planned, accompanied by Bohemian champagne and Pilsner beer. “Sometimes people ask me where my home is,” she says in parting. “And I say, wherever my family is. You could drop me with a parachute in the middle of Iceland – as long as my children and my partner are with me, I’m going to adapt and be really happy.”

She pauses for a moment of reflection before climbing into the Superb to drive off. “Perhaps this is all due to my communist education,” she then laughs. “We learned adaptability!” A talent that in the past has always helped Tereza Maxová get over the toughest hurdles.