Eva Ionesco

Eva Ionesco (born 18 July 1965) is a French actress and filmmaker. She is the daughter of photographer Irina Ionesco and came to international prominence as a child model after being featured in her mother's works.

Early life

Ionesco was born to photographer Irina Ionesco, a Frenchwoman of Romanian descent, who had a relationship with a Hungarian man who worked in the military. Prior to Ionesco's birth, her mother had worked as a contortionist as she had come from a family of circus performers on her maternal side. Her parents separated when she was 3 at which point Ionesco became estranged from her father.

In 1977 her mother lost custody of her and Ionesco lived for a time with the parents of footwear designer Christian Louboutin who had already left home.

From the age of 13 Ionesco became a regular club-goer at Le Palace along with Christian Louboutin and Edwige Belmore and also developed a drug habit. She was in and out of various foster homes until an older boyfriend of hers took custody of her at the age of 16.

Career

At the age of 5, Eva became her mother's favorite photo model. Irina Ionesco's erotic photographs of her young daughter Eva have been a source of controversy since they first appeared in the 1970s. Eva also modeled for other photographers such as Jacques Bourboulon.

She is the youngest model ever to appear in a Playboy nude pictorial, since she was featured at age 11 in the October 1976 issue of the Italian edition of the magazine in a set by Bourboulon. In that picture, she posed nude at a beach. Another of her nude pictorials, in the November 1978 issue of the Spanish edition of Penthouse, was a selection of her mother's photographs. She also appeared on the cover page of Der Spiegel at the age of 12 completely nude. The issue was later expunged from the magazine's records.