Brigitte Nielsen

Brigitte Nielsen (born Gitte Nielsen; 15 July 1963 in Copenhagen) is a Danish actress, model, singer, and reality television personality who began her career modelling for Greg Gorman and Helmut Newton and several years later acted in the 1985 films Red Sonja and Rocky IV. She is also known for her marriage to Sylvester Stallone, with whom she starred in the 1986 film Cobra. She played Karla Fry on Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), co-starring Eddie Murphy, and played the Dark Witch in the Italian TV Series Cave of the Golden Rose between 1992–1996. She appeared also in Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" and Austrian Rock Star Falco's "Body Next To Body" music videos.

Life and Career
Her exploits were well-covered in the entertainment media in the 1980s, and the world press started referring to her as an "Amazon" because of her tall stature.

She later built a career appearing in B-movies, and in the 2000s, for appearing on reality shows such as Flavor of Love. In 2008, she appeared on the reality show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which depicted her and several other celebrities dealing with recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

She released several albums between 1987–2002 (Every Body Tells a Story, I'm the One... Nobody Else and more singles). Recently, she performed (as Gitte Nielsen) on the song Misery with Spleen United, from the album School of Euphoria (2012).

Nielsen married actor Sylvester Stallone, on 15 December 1985 at the Beverly Hills, California home of producer Irwin Winkler. Stallone and Nielsen's marriage lasted 19 months, with their divorce finalized July 1987. She later confessed to an affair with Tony Scott.

Her second child, Killian Marcus Nielsen (born in 1989), she had with ex-fiance Mark Gastineau. Between 1990 and 1992, she was married to director and photographer Sebastian Copeland (Orlando Bloom's cousin). Nielsen has two sons with fourth husband Raoul Meyer, Douglas Aaron (born in 1993) and Raoul, Jr. (born in 1995). In 2005, Nielsen had a highly publicized relationship with rapper Flavor Flav. The relationship was filmed on their reality show Strange Love. Her current husband, Mattia Dessi lived with her in Italy as shown on Strange Love, which was filmed prior to their marriage. They live in Palm Springs, USA.

In the aftermath of Arnold Schwarzenegger's infidelity scandal, Nielsen confessed that she also had an affair with Schwarzenegger while he was in a relationship with Maria Shriver, saying, "Maybe I wouldn't have got into it if he said 'I'm going to marry Maria' and this is dead serious, but he didn't, and our affair carried on." In January 2012, during an interview on the German Reality TV-Show Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!, she confessed once having an one-night stand with Sean Penn in Cannes.

She is also the ex-sister-in-law of Drive director, Nicolas Winding Refn.

Nielsen has been married five times and has four sons. She has a son, Julian Winding (born in 1984), with her first husband, Kasper Winding, to whom she was married from 1983–84.

Besides her native Danish, Nielsen is fluent in Swedish, Norwegian, English, German and Italian, and has some understanding of French.

Alcohol problems
On 9 July 2007, Nielsen checked herself into the Cri-Help rehabilitation facility in North Hollywood following what some reports claim was a family intervention. Her manager, Steven Tempone, confirmed on 19 July 2007 that she had checked into rehabilitation and told the Associated Press "All I know is it's something she did of her own free will and we're proud of her and wish her very well...When she gets out we'll have a big birthday party, and Coca-Cola only".

As of 22 July 2007, Nielsen was out of rehabilitation to attend the Comedy Central roast of Flavor Flav. She told People that she felt "like a new-born person ... I made a choice about a new life. It's not been easy but it was definitely time." While People does not report the date that Nielsen checked into rehabilitation, it states she "had been in treatment for a few weeks". On 10 January 2008, VH1 began airing the reality TV series, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Nielsen appeared on the show for alcoholism. In a January 2010 TV Guide story on her success with sobriety, Celebrity Rehab producer John Irwin stated, "She's sober, and she quit smoking. She's doing crazy good."