Lena Gercke – Facts About German Fashion Model

Lena Gercke is a German fashion model and television host who won the first season of the reality television series Germany’s Next Topmodel. She later hosted four seasons of Austria’s Next Topmodel, several episodes of Red! – Stars, Lifestyle & More, and both seasons of The Voice Senior. Since 2015, she has been co-hosting The Voice of Germany with Thore Schölermann. Lena, who started her career as a model, has featured on commercials for Burger King, Microsoft, H&M, Mexx and Geox. She has also appeared on the covers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Sports Week, Glamour, GQ, Fitness, Style, and Woman.

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She Had Several Interests Growing Up

Lena Johanna Gercke was born on February 29, 1988, in Marburg, Hessen, West Germany to Elvira and Uwe Gercke. However, she was raised in the town of Cloppenburg, where she attended the Roman Catholic Gymnasium, Liebfrauenschule Cloppenburg (ULF). She completed her Abitur, i.e. secondary education, in 2007. She has a sister named Yana Gercke, singer of the band “Oh, Alaska”, and two half-sisters from her father’s side. She told kapten-son.com that as a child, she “wanted to be something else every month” and had such diverse interests that she “could never settle on a single thing”. She grew up in a musical family, participated in dance competitions and played amateur chess. In fact, it was her dance teacher who first recognized her potential and encouraged her to get into modeling. She was very tall even as a teenager and had earned the nickname Raffi, short for Giraffe.

She Won Germany’s Next Topmodel

Lena Gercke’s modeling career started after she won a casting call for Burger King on August 14, 2004, following which she appeared in a commercial for the fast food chain. In the early days, she was represented by Langer-Pueschel and continued to participate in photoshoots, catwalk shows, and dance events. In early 2006, she was selected as a participant on the inaugural season of the reality competition, Germany’s Next Topmodel, hosted by popular German model Heidi Klum. She won the competition, bagging an advertising contract with the fashion label OuiSet and a modeling contract with IMG Models in Paris. Furthermore, she appeared on the cover of the June 2006 issue of the German Cosmopolitan magazine and signed an advertising deal with Microsoft for Windows Live. In the following years, she appeared on covers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Sports Week, and Glamour in America and Votre Beauté in France and featured on advertisement campaigns for brands like H&M, Mexx and Geox. Nevertheless, the child of a nutritionist who is very health-conscious once mentioned that her future as a runway model in Paris was slim because of her feminine, healthy figure, as opposed to “the almost boyish skinny body” usually preferred. Instead, she tried her luck in the United States and walked on the runway at the New York Fashion Week for the Spring season of Custo Barcelona in 2010.

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She Earned Success as a Television Host

Lena Gercke, who made many television appearances since her GNTM win, was selected as the host of the Austrian reality television series, Austria’s Next Topmodel, in 2009 and hosted the show for the first four seasons till 2012. She hosted several episodes of Red! – Stars, Lifestyle & More from 2009 to 2013, and later made guest appearances on the show as well. In 2013, she became one of the judges on the German talent show, Das Supertalent, in which her sister Yana joined her for a surprise audition the following year. She was the host of the prime time hidden camera show Prankenstein in 2015. The same year, she joined Thore Schölermann as co-host of The Voice of Germany, which was recently renewed for its 11th season. The two of them also presented The Voice Senior in 2018-19.

She Has a Daughter with Husband Dustin Schöne

On April 7, 2019, Lena posted a picture on her Instagram to announce her relationship with Dustin Schöne, a commercial film director who has shot spots for Mercedes Benz and Absolut Vodka and is also the managing director of a film company. In January next year, she again took to Instagram to reveal that she was expecting a baby by posting a picture of herself flaunting her baby bump with the caption, “1 + 1 = 3”. The couple welcomed daughter Zoe Schöne in July 2020, which she again shared with an Instagram post. Amidst speculations about their engagement, Berlin Daily News reported in early August 2021 that the couple got hitched in a secret intimate ceremony.

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She Previously Dated Jay Khan and Sami Khedira

Prior to dating Schöne, Lena had been involved in a number of relationships. Her first public affair with British singer Jay Khan lasted only a couple years from 2007 to 2009. She was next involved in a long-term relationship with German footballer Sami Khedira, which created controversy when she appeared on the cover of the GQ magazine for a nude photoshoot with the latter covering her modesty with his hands. Between March 2016 and May 2018, she had a low-profile relationship with Kilian Müller-Wohlfahrt, son of sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt.

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She Supports Several Charities

Lena Gercke has been involved with several charitable causes since the early days of her career and actively fights against diseases like leukemia and breast cancer. She supports the nonprofit German bone marrow donor center DKMS. During an appearance on the OMR podcast, she mentioned that she has been “working closely” with the organization for several years and is primarily focused on supporting young women with breast cancer. She further revealed that a portion of her income from her “LeGer” collection also goes to make T-shirts and sweaters for donating. According to her, she is particularly committed to fighting cancer because “In my family, almost everyone has had cancer”. She also participates in charity events for the benefit of children and was a racer at the Charity Horse Race on September 23, 2006 in Cologne, Germany.