Not gorgeous but not ugly lah. Some more not a "vase" ...
High-octane chatelaine:
Irina Abramovich
There are trophy wives, then there are Russian trophy wives, and
then there is Irina Abramovich, spouse of Chelski-owning Roman. A
diminutive, brisk-looking blonde, Mrs A has developed into a
high-octane chatelaine.
Her responsibilities include running an excess of properties and
bringing up the couples five children, together with the onerous
task of conjuring up retail opportunities befitting her husbands
Croesan fortune.
Today, the Abramovich family will wake to find themselves still
more prosperous than they began the week, after Roman sold his
controlling stake in the oil com- pany Sibneft for £7.4 billion. It
is a figure that most of us have problems even contemplating; for
Irina it is merely business as usual. Another day, another £5.5
billion.
Husband and wife are both in their late thirties and share
similarly humble backgrounds. Irinas origins lack the potboiler
awfulness of her spouses childhood (orphaned at four, his mother
perishing after a botched abortion, his father having being crushed
by a crane).
But she too lost a father to an industrial accident, and memories
of her waitress mothers struggle to raise her on 120 roubles a
month (then about £60) are doubtless still not scotched by having
the run of Harvey Nics.
The young Irina became an air hostess. As an Aeroflot trolley dolly
at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, she progressed straight on
to the coveted international routes, where hostesses could
establish contact with the great and the not-so-good. She caught
the eye of a young chancer by the name of Abramovich and the couple
were married in 1991.
Today, Roman is said to enjoy playing the patriarch and likes to
have his wife at home. But no Stepford wife, she having secured a
degree in fine arts from Moscow University.
- credit: Hannah Betts, Times
Online
