Sultry latin supermodel Adriana Lima, beloved of Victoria's Secret and all of the world's biggest fashion magazine titles, regularly features in top lists of the sexiest and most desirable women on the planet. But this exotic beauty born on 12 June 1981 in the backstreets of Bahia, Brazil, never wanted to be a model. At aged 15, she entered Ford's 'Supermodel Of Brazil' competition to accompany a school friend who didn't want to enter alone. Adriana won it and went on the following year to take second place in Ford's 'Supermodel Of The World', earning an exclusive contract with Elite Model Management in New York City soon after. From a poor family, brought up by her mother and grandmother, it was first time Adriana Lima had left her country or even been on a plane. She was soon gracing the covers of the likes of Vogue, Marie Claire and Cosmpolitan, and strutting down the catwalk for designers like Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Valentino. She was made a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2000 and became the spokesperson of Maybelline cosmetics in 2003. She was the world's fourth highest paid model by 2007 and has begun widening her horizons to TV and cinema, hosting What Is Sexy? for E! Entertainment Network and making her acting debut alongside Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker in The Follow. Shy around boys growing up, Adriana claims she didn't have her first kiss until she was 17. A devout Catholic who studied to be a nun as a girl, Lima told US GQ magazine in 2006 that 'sex is only for after marriage', leading the magazine to dub her 'The World's Most Voluptuous Virgin'. That hasn't stopped her being linked with a string of famous boyfriends.
