By Marcellous L. Jones


British supermodel Yasmin Le Bon was born on October 29, 1964 as Yasmin Parvaneh. Her mother is British and her father is of Iranian descent. Her father, Iradj Parvaneh, became known as lecturer in photography at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University). Her mother is Patricia Parvaneh and her older sister's name is Nadreh.

While growing up, Yasmin was a painfully shy girl. Subsequent drama classes helped her to come out of her shell. She did well in school and did not date. In 1981 and at 17, Jayne Turner from the Elliot Brown modeling agency in Oxfordshire spotted her while she worked part-time selling clothes. She was signed to the agency and competed in beauty pageants finishing second each time.
In 1983, Jasmin took the train to the London office of Models 1. The agency gave her a one month trial period. Though she worked steadily, the jobs offered to her suggested nothing of the long impact that the future supermodel would have on the industry. But the clients did love working with her, and things got progressively better. Yet due to her dark hair and brown skin which went against the grain of the era, it was difficult to get magazine covers and she got none in the US during this time. But Yasmin persisted and became a successful model working for the world's top designers, appearing on magazine covers, in fashion spreads and in advertisement campaigns.

In 1984, Simon Le Bon of the internationally famous electronic pop/rock group, Duran Duran, came across her photo and immediately set out to date her. The first time that he called and introduced himself to her, she replied, "Thank you, but I'd prefer to out with Rod Stewart". Still thinking that the caller was a mere prankster, she then hung up on him. Simon persisted and on their first date, he took her to the premiere of Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom. Though it was love at first sight for her, Simon dumped her two weeks later when she would not "put out" the goods for him. ...

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