Danish Dream

From gracing magazine covers to jet-setting around the world, it’s been a wild ride for Leonardo DiCaprio’s ex — the ever-gorgeous swimsuit model NINA AGDAL ...

- Sarah Horne Grose

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Nina Agdal is the most attractive dentist in Denmark. As a teenager, the athletic blonde briefly considered a career in oral hygiene, eventually jettisoning those plans because of the years and years of study involved. “One of my best friends back home still has two years left to go in the course,” she adds, contemplating the life in scrubs that might have been.

Fortunately for the rest of us (and a certain Hollywood superstar ex-boyfriend), instead of examining molars, at 18 Agdal flew to Miami to become a model. “English was my worst subject in school,” she says. “I was very shy about saying anything and was so scared. I landed with US$40 and a little piece of paper with the address for the model apartment.” She remembers crying at the airport as she struggled to communicate with a taxi driver. But after just two heady years she skyrocketed to fame as the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue’s “Rookie of the Year.”

When we speak, Agdal had just flown back to Los Angeles from Cabo San Lucas, where she rang in the New Year with her then boyfriend of nine months, Leonardo DiCaprio (they split after a year together). During their courtship the pair were spotted everywhere from French Polynesia and a private island in the Bahamas to Montauk, with 42-year-old Leo laying on the PDA in Malibu. “I was all over the place last year. It was all awesome but it’s all a blur,” she says.