Bar Refaeli Trivia: 50 fascinating facts about the model!

Bar Refaeli is an Israeli model, television host, actress and businesswoman.

Let’s see some fun facts about her!

1. Bar Refaeli was born 4 June 1985 in Hod HaSharon, Israel.

2. She was born to a secular Jewish family.

3. Her parents, Rafi Refaeli and Tzipi, own a horse ranch. Her parents were both born in Israel, and her grandparents were immigrants from Europe (Italian Jewish, Lithuanian Jewish, and Polish Jewish).

4. Her mother was a successful model in the 1970s under her maiden name, Tzipi Levine.

5. Refaeli began modeling at the age of eight months, when she first appeared in commercials.

6. Orthodonture at twelve interrupted her modeling until she was fifteen, when an Israeli beauty pageant awarded Refaeli “Model of the Year” (2000).

7. She played prominently in campaigns for the fashion brands Castro and Pilpel, and she starred in a Milky pudding commercial.

8. She has appeared in editorials for French, American, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian Elle, Spanish Vogue, British, Russian, Australian, and Vietnamese Harper’s Bazaar, V, French and Dutch L’Officiel, American, British, Italian, German, Spanish, and Indian GQ, i-D, and Allure.

9. She has appeared on the covers of French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Belgian, Danish, Swedish, Australian, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Slovenian, Croatian, and Turkish Elle, French, Spanish, and Russian Marie Claire, British, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Mexican GQ, American, British, Australian, and Serbian Maxim, and Esquire.

10. Refaeli has appeared in advertising campaigns for Chanel, Escada, Ralph Lauren, Desigual, Andrew Marc, Victoria’s Secret, Marks and Spencer, Gap, Moët & Chandon, Hurley, Rampage, True Religion, Lucky Brand, Accessorize, Passionata, Fox, Reebok, Sears, Arrow, Besni, Marco Bicego, and Agua Bendita.

11. She also has appeared in advertising campaigns for non-fashion brands such as Garnier Fructis, Samsung, and Subaru.

12. Refaeli became the second Israeli model to appear in Sports Illustrated magazine, in her 2007 debut in its Swimsuit Issue, where she posed with the rock band, Aerosmith.

13. Refaeli was the cover model for the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

14. Southwest Airlines painted a bikini-clad Refaeli from that shoot on the side of its Boeing 737, which led some passengers to criticize the airline for what they regarded as prurient, and hence “offensive to families.”

15. Refaeli has modeled for Subaru, Accessorize, Brazilian clothing line Besni, Italian jewelry line Marco Bicego, and Rampage. In 2009 she modeled for Garnier International.

16. On 5 March 2009, Refaeli received the World Style Award presented by the Women’s World Awards for her “natural elegance, sense of style and compassion.”

17. In October of the same year, Refaeli co-hosted Fashionable Istanbul’s press conference, announced its October 2009 fashion event, and appeared in its advèrtisements.

18. FHM voted Refaeli No. 42 in 2008, No. 57 in 2010, and No. 97 in 2011, in its lists of the “100 Sexiest Women.”

19. Maxim placed Refaeli at the very top of its Hot 100 list in 2012.

20. In April 2012, Shalom Life ranked her fourth on its list of the “50 most talented, intelligent, funny, and gorgeous Jewish women in the world.”

21. Refaeli has been referred to as a supermodel by Maxim Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, the Dailymail, The Algemeiner, Jpost, The Independent and others.

22. According to Forbes Israel, in 2013 she was the highest paid model in Israel, ahead of the combined modelling income of such other Israeli models as Esti Ginzburg, Gal Gadot, and Shlomit Malka.

23. Refaeli co-starred in the Israeli TV drama series Pick Up in 2005.

24. In October 2008, she co-hosted the Bravo special program Tommy Hilfiger Presents Ironic Iconic America, based on the book Ironic Iconic America written by George Lois. She returned as a program host in 2009, this time for MTV’s brief revival of House of Style.

25. In 2011, Refaeli starred in American-Israeli film Session directed by Haim Bouzaglo. T

26. She also served as a guest judge on cycle four of Germany’s Next Topmodel hosted by Heidi Klum.

27. In November 2012 she started her own model casting show Million Dollar Shootingstar on German TV Channel Sat.1.

28. In January 2013, Refaeli appeared in Go Daddy’s Super Bowl XLVII commercial, acting with Jesse Heiman (with whom she intimately kisses) and NASCAR driver and perennial Go Daddy pitchwoman Danica Patrick.

29. In 2013, Refaeli also hosted the first season of The X Factor Israel, which became the most popular music show in Israel, leading to them bringing her back in 2015 for season two.

30. In 2013, Refaeli played a starring role in the French-Israeli crime-caper film Kidon, a comedy in which she stars as a Mossad assassin involved in liquidating a terrorist.

31. Refaeli invests in a variety of business ventures in Israel, and has also launched her own.

32. Bar Refaeli has an ownership stake in a number of fashion companies, such as in the designer glasses manufacturer Carolina Lemke.

33. In 2011 Refaeli and Dudi Balsar, an attorney and former male model, set up an E-commerce company called Under.me, to sell designer underwear.

34. As well as its investor, Refaeli runs business development for the venture.

35. By November 2011, the company had raised $1 million in venture capital funds.

36. In 2013, her startup ‘Mika Look’, which is an iPad app that allows users to purchase the items that models are wearing, raised $1.2 million in its first financing round.

37. Refaeli is one of the main investors behind MyCheck, which processes payments behind smart phones, and which raised $1.7 million in its first financing round. In its second financing round, it raised $4.2 million.

38. On 16 December 2015, Israeli tax authorities in Tel Aviv detained Bar Refaeli and her mother overnight for questioning related to potential tax evasion; she is accused of failing to pay income tax on two vehicles that she received as compensation for posing in pictures with the vehicles, and for evading taxes by disguising her Israeli residency by renting a luxury apartment in Tel Aviv through relatives.

39. In 2016 Rafaeli lodged a police complaint for identity theft with the Israel Police after a news item in Calcalist linked her to suspicious money transfers involving Amir Bramly based on leaked banking correspondence. Bramly sued the Calcalist reporter in relation to this media coverage.

40. She led a free campaign under the slogan “One Bag Less” to reduce the use of plastic bags in Israel.

41. In 2009, she led an unpaid campaign on behalf of the Israel Water Authority, to educate the public about water use and conservation.

42. On 7 June 2013, Refaeli hosted a beach party in Tel Aviv for participants of the city’s gay pride parade.

43. In November 2013, Refaeli spoke out in support of legislation for civil marriages in Israel, as part of a campaign for the proposed Knesset bill.

44. Refaeli once dated Baywatch actor David Charvet.

45. In November 2005, she began a relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio after meeting him at a party in Las Vegas thrown for members of U2. In the course of their trip to Israel in March 2007, the couple met with Israeli president Shimon Peres and visited Refaeli’s hometown of Hod HaSharon. The relationship ended in June 2009.

46. In 2010, numerous reports indicated that their romance had been rekindled, but in May 2011, it was reported that the couple had ended their romantic relationship, although they would remain friends.

47. Refaeli got engaged to Israeli businessman Adi Ezra in March 2015. She has stated she plans to raise “a big Jewish family” with him. The couple were married in Israel on 24 September 2015. They have a daughter born in August 2016. Rafaeli announced that she is pregnant with her second child on March 28th, 2017.

48. As early as 2004 Refaeli received criticism in Israel for evading service in the army.

49. In 2007 it was reported that Refaeli had evaded the draft by marrying family acquaintance Arik Weinstein in 2003, and divorcing him soon afterwards to avoid military service in the Israel Defense Forces, which is mandatory in Israel for unmarried secular Jewish women over the age of 18.

50. In 2014 during Operation Protective Edge, Refaeli frequently expressed solidarity and appreciation of Israeli citizens serving in the Israeli Army with postings on her social network accounts, and by posting selfies of her together with smiling Israeli soldiers.