Heather Stewart-Whyte
Heather Stewart-Whyte
Heather Stewart-Whyte | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 September 1968[1] East Sussex, England |
| Residence | France, New York, Hampstead[2] |
| Occupation | Model |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Spouse(s) | Yannick Noah (m. 1995;div. 1999) Dan Koonoo (m. 2001; died 2004) |
| Children | 2 (with Noah) 1 (with Koonoo)[2] |
| Modelling information | |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Hair colour | Brown[1] |
| Eye colour | Green[1] |
| Agency | Models 1[1] |
Heather Stewart-Whyte (born 25 September 1968) is a British model. She is the former wife of Yannick Noah.
Heather Stewart-Whyte | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 September 1968[1] East Sussex, England |
| Residence | France, New York, Hampstead[2] |
| Occupation | Model |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Spouse(s) | Yannick Noah (m. 1995;div. 1999) Dan Koonoo (m. 2001; died 2004) |
| Children | 2 (with Noah) 1 (with Koonoo)[2] |
| Modelling information | |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Hair colour | Brown[1] |
| Eye colour | Green[1] |
| Agency | Models 1[1] |
Early life
Born in the UK,[2] Heather Stewart-Whyte is the daughter of Doug Stewart-Whyte, a notable Tory Party activist, but was raised, along with her sisters, and by her mother. Her younger half-brother Don Stewart-Whyte, who was raised by Doug, was suspected of terrorism.[3][4] She was raised on an English farm.[1]
Career
Stewart-Whyte got her first modelling job by replying to an ad by Elite Model Management at age 17 after becoming a nanny. She did not begin modelling full-time until age 21.[1] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stewart-Whyte performed runway shows for Versace, Armani, Saint-Laurent and Lagerfeld. She also modeled for Victoria's Secret, Christian Dior, and Maybelline.[1][5] Stewart-Whyte also landed magazine covers such as back-to-back September Vogue Paris in 1991 and 1992, and the British and Italian editions of both Elle and Marie Claire and French Elle.[1]
Personal life
Stewart-Whyte became Yannick Noah's second wife in 1995, but they divorced in 1999.[6] They had been married in Saussay.[2] At first Stewart-Whyte was awarded custody of their two daughters in 2000, but after pregnancy-induced hospitalization during her second marriage to British record executive Dan Koonoo,[2] Noah gained custody of their two daughters.[6] Koonoo was known by many aliases, including Franck Ferrando and was an off and on prison detainee.[7][8] Stewart-Whyte's son Stephane was born in August 2001 and Noah gained custody of the daughters in November.[2] Noah and Stuart-Whyte lived in Europe,[9] and custody was adjudicated in the British Courts.[10] Daughters Elijah and Jénayé were born in 1996 and 1997, respectively.[11] She was stepmother to Noah's children from his prior marriage to Cécilia Rodhe: Joakim Noah and Yelena Noah.[11] In 2003, she complained in the press that Noah had not respected her court-ordered visitation rights with daughters Elyjah and Jennaye and that he was using them to promote his album, Les Lionnes.[10] She demanded that her children's faces be blurred in the trailer for a documentary film about Noah.[2]
In March 2004, she was reported as kidnapped in Paris with a $60,000 ransom demand by her mother and sister, but upon her reappearance, the French Police said that she had not actually been kidnapped.[12][13] Ferrando/Koonoo died at the Marcel-Cerdan boxing gym in Noisy-le-Grand at the beginning of a boxing match in July 2004. At first the cause of death was described as a heart attack,[14] but was later determined to be a pulmonary edema.[7]