Why Adriana Lima Really Got Divorced
Adriana Lima and her now ex-husband, Marko Jarić, seemed like the epitome of young love when they first got married in 2009. The supermodel was at the top of her game as one of Victoria's Secret's leading Angels, and he was riding high as a top basketball player who'd played for the likes of the Los Angeles Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. These two were super romantic too. Jaric actually popped the question to the supermodel on her birthday, before the twosome tied the knot by eloping on Valentine's Day, according to People.
Love's young dream didn't waste too much time in starting a family, either. They welcomed their first daughter, Valentina, the November after their wedding, and then became parents for the second time when Lima gave birth to another daughter, Sienna, in September 2012.
But, sadly, this one just wasn't built to last. In May 2014, after five years of marriage, Lima and Jarić announced they were going their separate ways. "After long and careful consideration, we have decided to separate after five years of marriage. We are grateful to be the parents of two incredible young daughters that we will continue to co-parent," they said in a statement obtained by Us Weekly. "We would greatly appreciate your respect for our family's privacy as we begin this delicate next chapter for all members of our family," they added. But what really went wrong here?
Were Adriana Lima and Marko Jarić too different?
Adriana Lima and Marko Jarić may just have been too different to make it work for the long haul. Jarić confessed the year after they tied the knot that they didn't totally see eye to eye on a few things, but claimed at the time it was actually a positive for their relationship. "We're opposite in some things, but that's good. There's a sparkle in our marriage," he told Hello! Canada (via E! News). "We match unbelievably well and we have a great adventure together," he added, though things clearly changed.
As for what all those differences were? Jarić didn't elaborate, though Lima has touched on how she'd personally changed since becoming a mom. She told Vogue India in November 2021 that she'd learned how important it is for her to set a good example to her children the older they got. "I try to teach them to love the skin they're in and eat healthily for their bodies and to also practise positive mental wellness through meditation," she said.
Notably, Lima and Jarić also seemed pretty different on their social media accounts. Jarić appeared more comfortable sharing a look at his down-to-earth time with his kids across his Instagram grid (where he has over 58,000 followers as of September 2022), while Lima (who's earned herself a whopping 14.9 million followers) appears to keep her family time a little more private. Her page is littered with gorgeous glimpses at her jet-setting life, like this shot of her at Cannes Film Festival.
Did busy schedules get in the way?
Adriana Lima has hinted absence may have played a part in her divorce from Marko Jarić, having posted a series of cryptic quotes around the time she announced her split. Two months after going public with the breakup news, Lima shared one of her potentially most telling quotes on Instagram: "If you're absent during my struggle don't expect to be present during my success."
Lima herself appeared to be very busy jet-setting around that time, which may have made maintaining a relationship and spending time at their Beverly Hills home more difficult. A quick look at her Instagram showed she was traveling a lot around her split, as she shared a snap of herself and her daughters at the airport in Miami, just days after she was in France for Cannes Film Festival. A few days after that, Lima was in New York City, and (somehow!) also fit in a trip to Turkey around the same time. Lima also made it clear that work was, understandably, very important to her, posting a quote in March 2014 that read, "Work hard, in silence and let success make the noise!"
Packed schedules certainly wouldn't be a surprising factor in Lima and Jarić's split, as that's exactly what a source claimed got in the way of the former's subsequent relationship with NFL star Julian Edelman. They split in March 2017, with an Entertainment Tonight tipster suggesting things didn't work because they were just too busy.
The miles between Adriana Lima and Marko Jarić
Not only did Adriana Lima and Marko Jarić clearly have very busy schedules during their marriage, but the basketball star and the international supermodel also came from totally different cultures. Jarić was born in Serbia and played for several basketball teams during their relationship, including the Memphis Grizzlies, Real Madrid, and Montepaschi Siena, which may have made for some culture clashes as well as a difficult long distance romance.
As for Lima, she's a very proud Brazilian — when she took part in supporting her country during the Rio Olympics, she cried as she carried the Olympic torch — but that doesn't mean she didn't want to get as close to her husband's native culture as she could. The star reportedly gained Serbian nationality after being offered a Serbian passport by politician Ivica Dacic, per Balkan Insight.
In fact, there was such a mashup of cultures in the Lima/Jarić household that the former revealed their eldest daughter, Valentina, was using a whopping three languages by the time she was 21 months old. In addition to English, the model confirmed to New York Post in 2011 that Valentina had learned her mom's native tongue, Portuguese, and Serbian, her dad's native language.
Adriana Lima has strong values
Adriana Lima has been pretty vocal about how important her values and morals are to her, even remaining a virgin until she married Marko Jarić when she was 27 years old. Though she's never confirmed the exact reason for the demise of her marriage, it's possible the stunning supermodel's admirable headstrong may potentially have played a part. As she told "HuffPost Live" in 2013, "Well, you know you have to stick up for your beliefs. Whatever makes you comfortable. Just follow your own values." You go, girl.
When the runway star was asked what made her choose Jarić in what was surely a sea of admirers, she said, "He's smart and he makes me laugh. He's very funny, he's very athletic." She appeared to hint it may not exactly have been love at first sight, though, adding, "It takes time for you to know. It's not like that, you meet the person and you click. You have to meet the person step by step and you start to know the good and the bad."
Lima also touched on how important her unwavering morals are to CNBC in 2017, explaining she learned to have a strong moral in the spotlight because so many people look up to her. "People are watching you and you become their inspiration. I really just want to put a positive message and try to show the real values, the most important values in life out there," she said.
Trouble in paradise?
Was Adriana Lima hinting there was a little trouble in paradise before she and Marko Jarić officially confirmed their breakup? Well, she certainly gave us a lot of cryptic clues. The former Victoria's Secret model's Instagram account was littered with inspirational quotes around the time of her split, with one in particular potentially hinting at how she felt towards the end of her marriage. In a post which since appears to have been deleted, Lima snapped a photo of a sign that read (via Us Weekly), "Quote of the day: He offered her the world. She said she had her own." The month prior to the divorce announcement, she shared two more telling quotes. One read, "How people treat you is a direct reflection on how they feel about themselves" while another stated, "You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life." Another hint about what really went down may have come in July 2014, when Lima posted a quote that read, "The real power of a man is the size of the smile of the woman sitting next to him."
Lima also appeared to be spending more time with her equally stunning girlfriends around the time of her split, and even shared a stunning photo to Instagram of herself and Candice Swanepoel kissing their fellow Victoria's Secret Angel Doutzen Kroes' baby bump in early May 2014. Oh, to have been a fly on that wall to get all the gossip.
Adriana Lima is married to herself
Could a need for independence have been behind Adriana Lima and Marko Jarić's split? In May 2017, Lima hit the headlines when she made it clear how much she valued herself by announcing she was married... to herself. The revelation came via Instagram when the former Victoria's Secret Angel addressed speculation she may have gotten married again as she was spotted sporting a ring on that special finger. "WHATS UP WITH THE RING? ITS SYMBOLIC," she captioned the snap in all caps as she put her index finger up to her lip while showing off a stunning diamond band. "I AM COMMITTED TO MYSELF AND MY OWN HAPPINESS I AM MARRIED WITH ME[.] LADIES LOVE YOURSELF AND YES I AM SINGLE," she added. When ET asked the runway stomper a few months later about the post, she said, "If you're incapable of loving your own self, how can you love anyone else in your life, if you don't know how to embrace you?"
Lima didn't exactly hide the fact that maybe she hadn't had the easiest time when it came to love. Two months after announcing she was her own partner, the Daily Mail shared some photos of Lima at the airport with some interesting flight reading. The star's choice? The self-help book "Invasion Of Love — The Path" by Metin Hara. As People reported, Hara and Lima were an item until 2019.
The cheating rumors swirled
Where there's a celeb split, there's very often celeb cheating rumors. And that was no different when Adriana Lima or Marko Jarić called it quits. Though neither has confirmed there was infidelity in their five years marriage, the gossip mill has certainly churned up some stories as there was speculation aplenty the basketball star may not have been 100% faithful. Macedonian website Slobodenpecat alleged Jarić had supposedly cheated, though that was never officially proven.
Plenty speculated on Twitter that there may have been some infidelity, though. "It's crazy how u can spend ur whole life abstinent til marriage, [still] not be valued & get cheated on by the Ahole u married[.] Ask Adriana Lima," one person tweeted amid all the unproven speculation, while a second wrote on the social media site, "oh wow, Marco Jarić is divorcing Adriana Lima after allegedly [cheating] on her, WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS MANNNNNNN."
Whatever really happened here, though, it seems like it was for the best. While Jarić has remained a little more tight-lipped on his dating life, we know Lima has moved on and found happiness with boyfriend Andre Lemmers. In April 2022, the star revealed via TikTok that they are expecting a baby boy, which came after she called him her "forever twin soul mate" for Valentine's Day.