Mulder was among the top supermodels of the 1990s, gracing magazine covers and runways for fashion houses like Christian Dior
Credit: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Karen Mulder was one of the top supermodels of the 1990s and a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 1998
- Mulder made claims of abuse in the modeling industry on a French talk show in 2001, which were never investigated. Instead, she went into a psychiatric facility
- She now says she was “silenced” but feels the industry has changed and is ready for a positive comeback
A Dutch supermodel is back in the spotlight years after entering a psychiatric institution after calling attention to abuse in the modeling world.
Karen Mulder was among the top supermodels of the 1990s, gracing magazine covers and runways for fashion houses like Christian Dior. But even as the Dutch model posed alongside other “Supers” — Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell — she began to raise the alarm about abuse behind the scenes.
And then, everything fell apart, with Mulder making public claims before going into a psychiatric institution in Paris for several months.
In an interview with Vogue Germany,Mulder, now 57, opened up about that period in her life.
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Credit: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
Per the outlet, Mulder was named “Model of the Year” in 1996, when her day rate exceeded $10,000. She was also one of the first Victoria’s Secret Angels to take to the runway with white wings in 1998.
But on October 31, 2001, she made waves for a different reason, during an appearance on the French talk show Tout le monde en parle…
Then 32, Mulder spoke about “severe abuse, the use of drugs, and business-related pressure and threats to make girls compliant,” Vogue Germany reports, adding: “At one point, she reportedly did nothing but scream before collapsing on camera—or so eyewitnesses and host Thierry Ardisson later recounted. The appearance cannot be fully reconstructed or verified, as it was never broadcast.”
Reports also surfaced that the host had the tapes destroyed following the appearance, even as Mulder went on to make similar claims to other outlets, and finally went to the police with them.
But the claims were not investigated. Instead, Mulder was taken to a psychiatric facility in Paris, where she remained for “several months,” per Vogue Germany, and “subsequently told the police that she had ‘fabricated’ all the accusations.”
In December 2002, after leaving the facility, Mulder was found unconscious in her Paris apartment by her former boyfriend, Jean-Yves Le Fur, following an overdose of sleeping pills.
Speaking to Vogue Germany now, Mulder claims to have been “silenced,” saying, “I was forced to say I had made it all up.”
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“I thought that because I was famous, people would believe me,” she adds. “All I wanted was for those terrible things to stop—for men to stop thinking they could do whatever they pleased.”
While she doesn’t go into specifics about the abuse or who may have silenced her, Mulder tells the outlet she believes the industry has changed, adding, “now, I think, is the right time to come back. I’m not the same person I used to be. I’m looking to the future with nothing but positivity.”
Read the full article here