Heather Stewart-Whyte

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]

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] 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]

Stewart-Whyte became Yannick Noah's second wife in 1995, but they divorced in 1999.[5] 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.[5] Koonoo was known by many aliases, including Franck Ferrando and was an off and on prison detainee.[6][7] 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,[8] and custody was adjudicated in the British Courts.[9] Daughters Elijah and Jénayé were born in 1996 and 1997, respectively.[10] She was stepmother to Noah's children from his prior marriage to Cécilia Rodhe: Joakim Noah and Yelena Noah.[10] 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.[9] 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.[11][12] 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,[13] but was later determined to be a pulmonary edema.[6]

• Heather Stewart-Whyte at Fashion Model Directory