Age, Biography, and Wiki
Monica Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy, to Pasquale Bellucci and Brunella Briganti. She began modeling at the age of 13 and later pursued a career in law before transitioning back to modeling and eventually acting. Her rise to fame was swift, with prominent roles in both Italian and international films. Bellucci has been recognized with several honors, including being conferred as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters and the National Order of the Legion of Honour in France.
| Occupation | Voice Actress |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 30 September 1964 |
| Age | 60 Years |
| Birth Place | Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | Italy |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about her current height and weight are not readily available, Monica Bellucci is known for her statuesque figure, which has been one of her defining features throughout her career as a model and actress.
| Height | 5ft 9in |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Monica Bellucci has been in several notable relationships. She was married to actor Vincent Cassel from 1999 to 2013, with whom she has two daughters, Deva and Léonie. After her divorce, she dated sculptor Nicolas Lefebvre and later was linked to filmmaker Tim Burton in 2022.
Bellucci starred alongside her second husband Vincent Cassel in on-screen partnerships that spanned ten years. She has remained involved in modelling, and worked as a brand ambassador for luxury brands such as Cartier and Dior. Some media outlets have labelled Bellucci a sex symbol. Bellucci received the knight insignias of the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2006 and of the French Legion of Honour in 2016. She represents Italy as a permanent member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Her father Pasquale Bellucci owned a trucking company, and her mother Brunella Briganti was a housewife and amateur painter. Bellucci was the only child in her family since her parents did not want another one. Bellucci grew up in Selci-Lama, in the comune (municipality) of San Giustino on the banks of the Tiber River.
Bellucci received a Catholic education. She was an "intelligent child". According to her father, she was discreet and increasingly interested in fashion, and grew up "surrounded by love". Bellucci was introduced to modelling at age 13 when she posed for a photographer friend-of-the-family in Città di Castello. She was distant from other children her age, regularly made detours to get home after school, and did not spend time with them in the comune's public space. Bellucci's father said she complained that everyone stared at her. Her father helped her gain self-confidence.
Bellucci developed a taste for cinema, watching films by Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Marcel Carné, and Jean-Luc Godard. Bellucci has said her personality largely reflects her upbringing: "Certainly a lot of positivity also depends on the climate in which my parents raised me".
At age 16, Bellucci was asked to pose for photography sessions by her father's friend, the director of a fashion agency. Having begun her modelling career, Bellucci periodically travelled to Milan and Paris while continuing her studies at Città di Castello. According to Bellucci: "I approached the adult universe very early" because she worked with models ten years older than herself. Bellucci said: "Modelling came to me naturally, and I loved pictures. I loved the world of image".
While hitchhiking, Bellucci met Piero Montanucci, a hairdresser from Città di Castello, who persuaded her to become his model. Bellucci, a student at the liceo classico, attracted attention wherever they went due to her striking appearance. She was considered a local model. Bellucci studied philosophy, literature, Latin and Greek. In 1983, Bellucci was dressed by Città di Castello-based fashion entrepreneur Pina Alberti and modelled at a fashion show at the Teatro degli Illuminati, the city's municipal theatre, as part of an event called Momento Donna, which Maria Giovanna Elmi hosted. Montanucci, her mentor at the time, accompanied Bellucci to the event. While in high school, Bellucci's father's friend allowed her to debut on the catwalk during a fashion show in Florence and at another in Milan.
Bellucci studied law at the University of Perugia, aiming to become a lawyer. She financed her studies by working as a model through her father's friend. After a friend of Bellucci encouraged her to apply to modelling agencies during her studies, she moved to Milan, one of Europe's fashion centres. Modelling agent Piero Piazzi saw Bellucci's arrival at the Elite Model Management agency and thought she could have been an actress. Piazzi had been critical in his assessment when he first saw Bellucci in 1987, telling her she was "not ready". Between 1988 and 1989, Elite signed Bellucci to a contract. In 1988, she featured on the cover of Elle France, photographed by Oliviero Toscani, and Vogue Spain.
In 1992, Bellucci played one of the three brides of Dracula in the horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula. Roman Coppola saw a photograph of Bellucci in the Italian magazine Zoom and implored his father Francis Ford to offer her a film role. Coppola arranged a meeting with Bellucci in Los Angeles while she was in New York for a photography session. After talking with Coppola, Bellucci realised she would embark on an acting career. At Coppola's request, Bellucci stayed in Los Angeles during filming; she was apprehensive about the city and believed her English needed improvement. She decided her next acting work would be in Italy. Bellucci's role as a "sensual vampire" was her international film debut.
In 2002, Bellucci co-starred with Cassel in Gaspar Noé's "violent" arthouse thriller Irréversible. The revenge film, which was filmed on Super 16 film using hand-held cameras, depicts Bellucci playing Alex, who is graphically raped for nine uninterrupted minutes in an underpass, a scene Bellucci had to film four times. Bellucci's "indelible scene" was filmed on the outskirts of Paris, in an area frequented by prostitutes. Bellucci and Cassel, who at the time were in a relationship, were some of "the country's biggest talents". Audiences at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival were outraged during the midnight premiere of Irréversible, with some calling it "unsustainable". Lisa Nesselson of Variety said Bellucci showed "responses to peril and joy [that are] particularly memorable". The film has been studied in film schools. Noé said he "has never seen an actress so charismatic ... with that much guts ... her performance is incredibly audacious". K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone called Irréversible "one of the most controversial movies ever".
Bellucci successively portrayed the character Persephone in the two 2003 science fiction films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. She described her character as "dangerous, sensual with some sense of humor", recalling fond memories with Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and Keanu Reeves throughout the filming process in Australia. Film critic Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer gave The Matrix Reloaded a positive review, grossing $742.1 million worldwide against a budget of $150 million. Alongside its release, Bellucci appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Spanish edition. The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) again accompanied Bellucci as her screen husband in The Matrix Revolutions, which received mixed reviews from critics. It grossed $427 million against a production and marketing budget of $185 million.
In 2006, Bellucci starred alongside Daniel Auteuil in Paolo Virzì's period comedy-drama Napoleon and Me as baroness Emilia, who has a turbulent relationship Martino (Elio Germano). The film depicts Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile to Elba from 1814 to 1815. Author Mark Feeney said Bellucci does not take "things too seriously" in the film. Bellucci said she declined to play a role in the blockbuster 300 and instead appeared in the film d'auteur (auteur film) The Stone Council. Bellucci was cast after the initial announcement of Sophie Marceau for the lead role in the thriller. The Stone Council was adapted from the eponymous novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé. The film differs by character names; the book's female hero is called Diane Thiberge whereas Bellucci starred as Laura Siprien, a tormented adoptive mother who is confronted by killers who want to steal her child. Sébastien Le Fol of Le Figaro wrote that she "delivers one of her best performances on the big screen" with a muted sex appeal. Bellucci's hair was cut short for the film, a preferred style of French cinema hairstylist John Nollet, who also styled Bellucci on the sets of Brotherhood of the Wolf and Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra.
On 5 March 2009, Bellucci received a World Actress Award at the Women's World Award in Vienna. The same year, Bellucci co-starred with Marceau in the thriller Don't Look Back, a sequel to In My Skin, both of which were directed by Marina de Van. The film depicts Marceau's character seeing changes around her and noticing her body transform into Bellucci's. J.B. Morain of Les Inrockuptibles said Bellucci's physical attitude and "attention to others have never been so well filmed". Variety's Derek Elley said Bellucci "looks elegant and mystified", although both film critics noted the clumsily written dialogue. Bellucci reunited with Reeves in Rebecca Miller's romantic comedy-drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), which co-stars Winona Ryder and Robin Wright. Bellucci portrayed Gigi Lee, the former wife of a successful publisher Herb (Alan Arkin). She next appeared in a cameo role in Tornatore's autobiographical film Baarìa, a family saga traversing several generations that was filmed in Bagheria, Sicily.
In January 2023, at 58, Bellucci performed the play at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. In 2023, recalling Irréversible, Bellucci told The New York Times her "days of acting in transgressive movies are behind her" because she is a mother. In 2023, Bellucci entered talks to star in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as Delores, Betelgeuse's ex-wife and the movie's villain. She won the Nastro d'Argento Award for Protagonist of the Year in Documentaries 2024 for her interpretation of Callas in Letters and Memoirs.
In 2008, Bellucci supported a fundraising campaign for a centre for children with cancer located in Prima Porta, Italy. The campaign was initiated by the Associazione Genitori Oncologia Pediatrica (AGOP) (Association of Parents in Pediatric Oncology). In 2010, Bellucci became patron of Paroles de Femmes (Words of Women), an apolitical, secular French association promoting equality between men and women in society. In March 2010, she organised the Nuit des Femmes (Women's Night), an assemblage of female politicians, researchers, doctors, lawyers, writers, painters, and business leaders, to assess the progression of women's rights in France. The funds raised went towards the building of centres of accommodation, reintegration and support for single mothers in precarious situations. In 2010, Rizzoli and La Martinière Groupe published a book prefaced by Tornatore that described Bellucci's modelling and acting careers through photographs taken by Peter Lindbergh and Helmut Newton. All proceeds from the book's sales were donated to AGOP and Words of Women. She donated €10,000 to the City of Cannes to fund a solidarity campaign to support recovery efforts following the deadly floods of October 2015 in the Alpes-Maritimes region. Bellucci is also a patron of the association SOS Autism France.
Bellucci was in a relationship with Italian actor Nicola Farron for several years. Farron said they met in 1990 on the set of Vita coi figli. Farron said he felt "an overwhelming passion" for Bellucci. Their relationship became unstable because other men increasingly lusted after Bellucci and the couple separated in 1995.
In 2019, Bellucci was in a relationship with the French sculptor and former model Nicolas Lefebvre. They had been dating since 2017. Lefebvre, who was then aged 36, and Bellucci made their relationship "official" in early March 2019 during a Chanel show at the Grand Palais in Paris. Bellucci told Italian magazine F about the end of their relationship, which was reported by other media in early July 2019.
In February 2023, Paris Match reported Bellucci and American filmmaker Tim Burton were in a relationship that began in October 2022. In June 2023, Bellucci confirmed she was in a relationship with Burton. They made their first public appearance at the Rome Film Festival in October 2023.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Claudio Carlos Basso (m. 1990-1994) Vincent Cassel (m. 1999-2013) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Monica Bellucci's net worth is estimated to be approximately $45 million, primarily due to her successful acting and modeling career, as well as her involvement in various brand endorsements and business ventures. Her work in films and her status as a global ambassador for luxury brands have contributed significantly to her wealth.
On 2 July 2005, Bellucci was awarded the European Golden Globe for cinema at Rome's 45th Globo d'oro ceremony. She said she appreciated acting in both American and European films. In Terry Gilliam's fantasy adventure film The Brothers Grimm (2005), Bellucci played the 500-year-old Mirror Queen, starring opposite Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. Gilliam later said: "[i]mmediately she comes on-screen, it seems to me the whole film lifts up into another realm, a realm of sex and sensuality and danger". San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle said Bellucci convincingly portrayed her character, whose centuries-old age appeared to him to be discordant with her "allure". She also voiced Cappy for the French version of the 2005 animated film Robots. Bellucci had a leading role in Bertrand Blier's French romantic comedy How Much Do You Love Me?, which also starred Gérard Depardieu. Bellucci portrayed Daniela, the most beautiful prostitute in Pigalle, Paris, whom a lottery-winning office worker offers to pay to live with him. A journalist at Le Monde called the film "a hymn to the beauty of Monica Bellucci", and said it is neither Blier's best film nor his most failed. Nesselson commented Bellucci was optimally used in the film because she stimulates the viewer's senses and intellect.
Career, Business, and Investments
Bellucci's career spans over three decades, with a diverse range of roles in films like "Irréversible," "The Passion of the Christ," and "Spectre." She has effectively balanced her acting career with modeling, appearing for top brands like Dolce & Gabbana and French Elle. Her business ventures include partnerships with luxury brands, which have further enhanced her financial standing.
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model who began her career as a fashion model before working in Italian, American, and French films. She has an eclectic filmography in a range of genres and languages, and her accolades include the David di Donatello, Globo d'oro and Nastro d'Argento awards. In 2018, Forbes Italy included her in their list of the 100 most successful Italian women.
In 1990, the French luxury house Dior used Bellucci's image and name for its Haute Couture line. She was photographed by Richard Avedon, and became the "protagonist" of Dolce & Gabbana's campaigns, "which elevated her to an icon of Mediterranean beauty". She also appeared in fashion parades for the luxury fashion house Fendi. In 1991, Bellucci was the brand ambassador for the cosmetics company L'Oréal. The same year, Bellucci appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which featured photographs of her in the Caribbean. Bellucci also appeared in advertisements for Givenchy, Nina Ricci, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace and other luxury brands. In 1992, Bellucci combined her work as a model with her acting debut. In 1993, she first met Giuseppe Tornatore when he directed her in a television advertisement for Dolce & Gabbana perfume.
Bellucci opted to follow her passion for cinema, turned to acting and stopped modelling full-time, although she remained active in the industry. The Italian luxury company Breil appointed Bellucci its brand ambassador and she starred in advertising campaigns. In the 1990s, Bellucci regularly modelled for calendars, beginning in 1997 at the age of 33 when Avedon photographed her for the Pirelli Calendar. In 1997, Bellucci became the brand ambassador and muse of Cartier jewellery. Nina Hald of the Danish newspaper Berlingske said: "Cartier chose for the first time to associate an actress closely with the house". Cartier accompanied Bellucci throughout her acting career, notably on red carpets, where she wore haute joaillerie (high jewellery) collections, and she worked as a model for opulent creations. Italian fashion photographer Fabrizio Ferri photographed Bellucci for the magazine Max calendar.
Following her minor role in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Bellucci returned to Italy and enrolled in acting classes. According to Bellucci: "I craved it ... I needed to act". Bellucci said a time when all of her friends were leaving the faculty was a challenging time. Bellucci had difficulty overcoming the prejudices related to her modelling and her physical appearance, and had to work to establish her credibility. For the next four years, Bellucci starred in Italian films but was ultimately dissatisfied due to the lack of opportunities, and she aspired to an international acting career. Bellucci appeared in the Emmy-winning biblical television miniseries Joseph (1995). In her view, the Italian film industry needed to invest more money to promote films internationally. Bellucci moved to France to improve her career prospects, and settled in Paris in 1995.
Bellucci's portrayal of Lisa in The Apartment (1996), a "moody" French film noir, earned her a César Award nomination for Most Promising Actress. This launched her career in France and strengthened her position as an actress. It was her first French-language film. Gavanndra Hodge of The Sunday Times stated that her "break-out role" was in the European arthouse film The Apartment. The BBC's Almar Haflidason described the film as "seductive" and "startling", giving it a rating of five stars. Bellucci's second French film was Jan Kounen's Dobermann (1997), in which she portrayed a mute Romani woman and had to learn sign language beforehand to embody her character. Recalling the filming process, she expressed an inclination for mise-en-scènes (stage settings) "that pass more through bodies than through words". At this point in her career, Bellucci made a significant impact on European audiences. Pierce Brosnan performed a screen test with Bellucci for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) then requested she be given the role of Paris Carver but the studio stated only an American actress could be cast in the role. For her leading role as Giulia Giovannini in the Italian comedy-drama L'ultimo capodanno (1998), Bellucci received a Globo d'oro Award for Best Actress. The Apartment later won a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Best Film not in the English language, prompting film director Stephen Hopkins to take a close interest in Bellucci.
In 2014, Bellucci appeared in Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders as Milly Catena, host of a televised contest. In the film, which combines autobiographical aspects with fiction, Bellucci's character is depicted as a Pagan priestess wearing elaborate clothes and surrounded with ancient figures. The Wonders was critically acclaimed and won the Grand Prix Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, Bellucci starred as Sophie Bernard in the Canadian drama film Ville-Marie, which was directed by Guy Édoin. The film traces the journey of Bernard, a European actress visiting Montreal for a film shoot and trying to reconcile with her son. Bellucci stated Édoin had offered her "one of the most beautiful roles" of her career and described a stimulating fear of embodying Bernard's character that emotionally affected her. The film garnered generally positive reviews and Bellucci's performance was unanimously praised. For her portrayal of Bernard, Bellucci received the Best Actress Award from the Dublin Film Critics' Circle at Dublin International Film Festival.
In 2021, at the 66th David di Donatello ceremony, Bellucci received a David Special Award for her career achievements. She co-starred as part of an ensemble cast including Liam Neeson and Guy Pearce in Martin Campbell's action thriller Memory (2022), in which she played Davana Sealman, an unscrupulous real-estate magnate. She was initially interested in the duality of the antagonist's persona she would play and wanted to avoid typecasting based on her physical appearance, which she had experienced in the past. According to Entertainment Weekly critic Leah Greenblatt Memory is "wrapped in leaden dialogue and B-movie cliché" and Bellucci appears "blasé". In 2022, Bellucci performed Maria Callas: Letters and Memoirs at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, Chatelet Theatre in Paris, and at venues in Istanbul and Los Angeles.
Bellucci was mistress of ceremonies at the 56th Cannes Film Festival, presiding over the opening and closing ceremonies that were held on the Promenade de la Croisette from 14 to 25 May 2003. From 17 to 28 May 2006, she was a jury member at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. In 2009, alongside filmmakers from Europe and the US, and 70 other industry names, Bellucci signed a petition to support film director Roman Polanski, who had been arrested in connection with his 1977 sexual abuse charges while on his way to Zurich Film Festival. Bellucci was also master of ceremonies at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, which took place from 17 to 28 May, where she was in charge of opening and closing one of the major international film events.
Federico Roberto Antonelli, director of the Italian Cultural Institute in China, said: "everyone dreams of Malèna Monica Bellucci". In 2021, Vogue France ranked Bellucci fourth in its list of the "most beautiful Italian actresses of all time". Media consider Bellucci an Italian sex symbol. Rolling Stone Italy included Bellucci in its list of "10 greatest sex symbols of the 1990s". She takes a "peaceful" attitude towards ageing and mainly believes in pasta, wine, and a little pilates for her "beauty regime", and is not addicted to exercise and dieting. In 2023, Bellucci said having been "objectified" during her film career did not bother her and that she was aware she had made the most of her body for specific roles. Elisabeth Vincentelli wrote for The New York Times in 2023 that Bellucci has achieved a "reputation as a symbol of European glamour and sophistication" that is "firmly established".
Bellucci has developed her acting career by alternating low-budget arthouse and auteur films with big-budget films in the Italian, French and American industries.
Social Network
Although detailed information about her social media presence is not provided, Monica Bellucci is active in the public eye, often appearing at high-profile events and promoting the brands she represents.
Bellucci starred with Samuel Le Bihan and Vincent Cassel in Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf, a 2001 French period drama film that is based on historical events involving the beast of Gévaudan that decimated the population of Lozère in 18th-century France. The Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter found the film's stylistic approach too dense, obscuring Bellucci's "fabulous natural asset"; she played an "underused" role as a courtesan–papist spy. The film received positive responses from other critics. Brotherhood of the Wolf was a box-office success in France, where it attracted five million viewers and grossed US$70 million worldwide, including $11 million in the US, against a budget of about €32 million. The film earned Bellucci a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2002 Saturn Awards. The filming of Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002), in which Bellucci starred with Jamel Debbouze, which, with its light-hearted, comic atmosphere, was one of Bellucci's favourite cinematographic experiences. She portrayed the "prickly" Cleopatra, the queen of Ancient Egypt, in the comedy film, which was directed by Alain Chabat. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote Bellucci was "certainly talented enough ... to merit getting the role of Cleopatra in some serious treatment", but before then, she had to perform in a "funny mainstream commercial" French production. The film was a success, selling 14 million tickets in France at the time of its release and grossing more than $128 million worldwide.
Bellucci starred opposite Paul Giamatti and Clive Owen in Michael Davis' action thriller Shoot 'Em Up, which was released in the US in September 2007. Bellucci portrayed Donna Quintano, who teams up with Owen's character Mr Smith to protect a baby during a bloody fight. Bellucci's character is another prostitute with a different approach than that of her character in How Much Do You Love Me?; Bellucci said she felt empathy for female sex workers, who she believes retain "faith in humanity". She was fond of this sort of paradox and tried to highlight this virtue in her portrayals of characters of all types but noted she could explore the opposite spectrum. Richard James Havis of the South China Morning Post wrote: "It's the latest in a slew of extreme roles". Bellucci dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of Shoot 'Em Up, saying it was a frequent practice for her to accomplish each film three times.
In 2010, Bellucci portrayed Laura Leviani in Larysa Kondracki's biopic drama thriller The Whistleblower, which was primarily filmed in Romania and depicts a vast human trafficking network that was discovered in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. Hélène Delye of Le Monde described Bellucci's character as a "grizzled, stubborn, insensitive civil servant". The Whistleblower received a mixed critical reception. Bellucci made three films in seven months; these were Giovanni Veronesi's The Ages of Love, Philippe Garrel's A Burning Hot Summer, and Bahman Ghobadi's Rhino Season. In the third segment of the comedy anthology film film The Ages of Love (2011), Bellucci starred opposite Robert De Niro, who played a divorced American art-history professor living in Rome who falls in love with Bellucci's character Viola. De Niro was delighted to work with Bellucci, saying she had "worked her magic" on him and that he had accepted the role because he wanted to act alongside her. It was filmed two months after the birth of Bellucci's second child. An improvised scene shows De Niro performing a striptease in front of Bellucci, which echoes in reverse a sequence in the 1963 film Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, in which Sophia Loren stripteased for Marcello Mastroianni. For her role in Rhino Season (2012), Bellucci learnt to speak Persian. Journalist Helen Barlow of SBS Australia said Bellucci "brought her natural poise and grace" to the character and "surprises with a stoic minimalist performance".
Christophe Narbonne of Première magazine wrote: "Behind the advertising muse, the image of the (re)incarnated Italian diva and the globalised sexual icon, we sometimes forget Monica Bellucci the out-of-norm actress, collector of a pile of international cult auteurs". De Morgen wrote: "most roles fit Bellucci like a glove", while Christophe Carrière of L'Express said others of "variable geometry" compose her filmography. In 2018, Bellucci was included in Forbes Italy's list of "Successful women: the 100 winning Italian women". The press call Bellucci a style icon. Bellucci is associated with the wearing of high-value jewellery and an "unwavering commitment" to Cartier, Boucheron and Chopard; Naomi Pike of British Vogue referred to her as "A Modern Day Liz Taylor", and said when dressed in diamonds, "few contemporary Hollywood stars can rival Italian actor Monica Bellucci".
On 10 April 2016, the agency Karin Models, which represented Bellucci, opened an official Instagram account for her. Instagram censored a photograph Fred Meylan imaged in 2016 showing Bellucci swimming on her back in a pool, and body parts were hidden in yellow pixels.
In 2011, Bellucci was ranked fourth in Los Angeles Times Magazine's list of the "50 most beautiful women in film". She was voted number one on NRJ 12's list of "100 sexiest stars of 2011", which was based on a nationwide survey conducted in France that included American and French actresses, models, singers, female athletes and television presenters. In 2012, Bellucci said she had never undergone cosmetic procedures, saying: "I don't like the idea of having my face retouched and, frankly, I think it's quite dangerous for an actress. ... Compared to a plastic face, I prefer wrinkles."
In 2018, French tax authorities investigated Bellucci for non-declaration of a safe and bank accounts in Switzerland that were linked to an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The French authorities tried to recover French taxes for the tax years 2011 to 2013 because they suspected tax evasion; Bellucci's lawyer stated she lived in the UK and not Paris. In September 2021, Bellucci said being "up to date with my tax obligations both in France and abroad". The results of the investigation into her Swiss bank accounts remain undisclosed. Following the investigation, Bellucci was named in the Pandora Papers, a massive data leak from offshore entities of high-profile figures, that was published in October 2021.
Education
Before her full-time career in modeling and acting, Bellucci worked at the University of Perugia's faculty of law after initially studying law there. However, she did not pursue a career in law, instead focusing on modeling and later acting.
Monica Bellucci's enduring success as both an actress and model, combined with her business acumen, has solidified her position as one of the most respected figures in the entertainment industry. Her net worth and influential status continue to grow, reflecting her timeless appeal and versatility in the world of cinema and fashion.
Bellucci's work as a model for Elite required her to travel so she decided to leave university; she later said being a lawyer would not have suited her. She appeared in numerous international advertising campaigns, and Dolce & Gabbana recruited her as their muse. Bellucci's physical attributes aligned with the image the founders of Dolce & Gabbana wanted to portray. In 1989, Bellucci lived in New York and was already a millionaire. As a model, Bellucci was represented by Elite, and she worked in Milan, Paris, and New York.
Bellucci is widely regarded as "the most beautiful woman in the world" and has been cited as a sex symbol. In 2001, Bellucci was pictured nude with caviar on her breasts on the cover of Esquire's Desire issue. In their reviews of Malèna (2000), Thomas wrote in Los Angeles Times Bellucci "has the impact of the great Italian stars", and Paul Tatara of CNN International called her a "world-class bombshell". In 2002, AskMen named her number one on the "Top 99 Most Desirable Women". Bellucci was included in Empire's list of "Sexiest Women". In 2003, Chris Campion of The Daily Telegraph stated: La Bellucci' is Italy's national sweetheart and an icon of European cinema". Bellucci was named the "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" in 2004 and 2007 in an Ipsos survey of 1,002 people in France that was commissioned by TF1.
