Adorable Story #41: Anne Anka
The model with a life-long attraction for modern art
Anne Alison Anka was born on October 2nd, 1942 in Alexandria, Egypt with her twin sister.
After moving back to Europe in her teens, she was discovered by Paris Match Magazine. She soon moved to New York City to pursue modeling under the wing of Eileen Ford.
After meeting singer, Paul Anka, in Puerto Rico in 1960, they married and resided in NYC.
During her time there, she became involved in the art scene as a collector. She and Paul raised their family there for several years until they moved west over a decade later, settling in Carmel, California. They resided there until 1990. After moving to Los Angeles, she and Paul amicably divorced after 37 years of marriage.
Her great loves were art, languages, and her grandchildren. She died on March 29th, 2017 at age 74, in Hollywood, California. She is survived by her five daughters, Alexandra, Amanda, Alicia, Anthea and Amelia.
If you aren’t subscribed yet, hit the subscribe button below to receive the Adorable Stories every weekend, directly in your inbox:
Origins
Anne De Zogheb was born on October 2, 1942, in Alexandria, Egypt to an English mother and a Lebanese father.
Her father was the Lebanese diplomat Charles de Zogheb. She was raised in Egypt and was of Lebanese, English, French, Dutch, and Greek descent.
Anne’s grandfather had been educated in France and knighted by the King of Italy. He had inherited vast swaths of land in Alexandria, which was where the de Zoghebs were living during the Egyptian revolution of 1952.
In order to avoid persecution, Anne and her family left Egypt in a hurry and relocated to England, where Anne, only 10 years old at the time, was placed in a convent school.
By the time Anne graduated, there was not enough money to take her to the university.
“I was sent to a finishing school instead, which to me was a disaster: manners and all that. My parents had moved to Paris, and I called them and said, ‘I can’t stand this place. I’m not staying.’”
By the time she was 16, Anne decided to join her parents and moved to Paris, where she took a job at a small fashion house.
She was encouraged by her then-boyfriend to visit the offices of Dorian Leigh, the famous model who by then owned a major modeling agency in Paris: she was offered a job as a model and, within a couple of weeks, Anne had booked the cover of French Elle, at age 17.
Eventually, Anne was noticed by legendary American modeling agent Eileen Ford. Ford asked Anne’s parents for permission to relocate her to New York, to which they agreed on the condition that Ford would take their daughter to live in with her.
In 1959, still 17, Anne moved into Ford’s Upper East Side townhouse.
“I worked hard”
“I wasn’t the type to date photographers and that sort of thing. I was serious, I think, because my family had lost everything. My father had tried to do the stock market a bit, but he was in his 50s when we came to Europe. He was an elegant and sophisticated person, but you couldn’t just land and find a job.”
Soon, Anne’s face became one of the most photographed faces of the early ’60s. She worked with well-known photographers including Richard Avedon, Bert Stern, and Helmut Newton.
She graced the covers of many fashion magazines and Anne decided to support her family with her earnings.
Meeting Paul
Anne met Paul Anka in the early 1960s, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the time they met, Anne was in Puerto Rico for a shoot. Her beauty caught Paul Anka’s eye.
“Paul was very famous,” Anne recalled.
“The nuns would not allow us to listen to Elvis Presley—and I was so madly in love with Elvis—because he was too suggestive.”
“But Paul’s music they allowed, so I knew all his songs.”
They began dating soon after they first met.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Adorable Times’ Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.