Victoria Silvstedt

About Victoria Silvstedt

Victoria Silvstedt is a Swedish model, actress and television personality. She was raised in Bollnäs and began alpine skiing at five. In 1989 she placed fourth in the giant slalom at the Swedish national alpine skiing youth championship, an event won by Pernilla Wiberg. A shoulder injury ended her competitive skiing career at 16.

After her mother and sister sent pictures of her to pageant officials, she was invited to enter the Miss Sweden pageant. She represented Sweden at the 1993 Miss World pageant in Sun City, South Africa, where she placed in the Top 10. She then signed with a modeling agency in Paris and worked for fashion houses including Chanel, Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, Givenchy, Loris Azzaro and Valentino. In Paris she shared a flat with Melania Trump.

At Hugh Hefner's invitation, she did a Playboy photo shoot in Los Angeles. She was the December 1996 Playmate of the Month and the 1997 Playmate of the Year. She appeared in 19 Playboy editions, as well as Playboy Special Editions and Playboy Videos, and was Playmate of the Month in several international editions between December 1996 and April 1998. In the late 1990s she became the Guess? spokesmodel, succeeding Claudia Schiffer and Anna Nicole Smith, among others. In the 2000s and 2010s she appeared in magazines including FHM, Glamour, GQ, Hello!, Maxim and Vanity Fair, worked for brands including Lynx, Nike, Renault and Triumph International, and was the cover model for the re-issued Russ Meyer DVDs.

Her television acting roles include Malibu, CA, Melrose Place and Ocean Ave., and her films include BASEketball, The Independent, Out Cold and Boat Trip. In Italy she had leading roles in La mia vita a stelle e strisce and Un maresciallo in gondola, in which she played Kim Novak, and supporting roles in Un'estate al mare and Matrimonio alle Bahamas. In 2010 she starred with Steven Berkoff in the British mockumentary Just for the Record. She had a small role in the French film Heartbreaker. In 2004 she appeared in the Los Angeles run of the Off Broadway production Pieces (of Ass).

She has hosted Candid Camera on CBS, Eurotrash on Channel 4 and Wild On! on E!, presented at awards shows including the NRJ and World Music Awards, and was a celebrity judge on the British series Project Catwalk. From 2006 she hosted La Roue de la Fortune in France and La Ruota Della Fortuna in Italy, both based on Wheel of Fortune. The Italian version was cancelled in 2009, and by 2012 she had left the French version. In 2010 she hosted Sport by Victoria on Eurosport during the Winter Olympics, in English and French. Since 2011 she has hosted Le grand bêtisier specials on TF1, including Le grand bêtisier de Noël, which drew over three million viewers on Christmas Eve 2011. Her reality series Victoria Silvstedt: My Perfect Life debuted on E! in 2008, and in 2016 she took part in the Swedish reality series Stjärnorna på godset on TV3.

In 1999 she released the dance album Girl on the Run on EMI, with the singles "Hello Hey", "Rocksteady Love" featuring Turbo B, and "Party Line". The album went gold in Sweden. In 2010 she released her fourth single, "Saturday Night", a Whigfield cover. She has said singing is a hobby rather than a full-time career. In 2025 she took part in Melodifestivalen with the song "Love It!".

She launched the lingerie collection Very Victoria Silvstedt at London Fashion Week in 2006; the brand was launched for retail with Marie Meili in Paris in 2013. In 2010 she published her autobiography, Les Secrets de Victoria. Dans la Tête de Victoria Silvstedt (Jean-Claude Gawsewitch Éditeur), co-written with journalist Christelle Crosnier. In 2011 she became an ambassador for Betsafe, a Betsson subsidiary. The partnership ended in 2012, after which she promoted Betsson's StarCasino.it brand in Italy.

Silvstedt met news anchor Chris Wragge in 1999, when he interviewed her for Entertainment Tonight. They married in June 2000 and divorced in 2009. She speaks Swedish, English, French and Italian.