According to Kim, there is a lot that other people don’t know about her. That her father’s great-grandparents were stateless, for example. Or how she was bullied, blackmailed and belittled in high school when she went from high school to high school. But also what she experienced in Paris and Milan when she had her own modeling agencies there.
“Pushing men, stalkers, powerful gentlemen who think they have a right to you; I once escaped assault,” she recalls. “I escaped in a service elevator just in time.”
In the interview Kim also talks about her Twente modesty, which led to the fact that writing the book brought her ‘a lot of red cheeks’: “I have been through a lot, it took me a long time to find myself. [Kim en co-auteur Eddy van der Ley, red.] have gone deep, every conversation felt like I was sitting with the psychologist. I’m off-laughing. Then I tell about something difficult and then make a relative joke. (…) Fear and uncertainty, it’s in our DNA.”
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Kim takes it for granted that her experience with transgressive behavior is highlighted in the press through this book. “Because this, and all of it, has made me the woman I am today. There are also chapters in it that can help other people.” By talking about difficult topics, she wants to help others. Even if it means telling her about her sexual assault, or about her IVF treatments to get pregnant.
“Jaap and I were one of the first media couples to talk about their IVF journey. When I was pregnant for the first time, I asked my doctor: ‘How can I ever thank you?’ He said a thank you was not necessary, but if there ever came a time when I could do something to make IVF less of a shambles, he would be grateful to me, so I talk about it in interviews and in my book. IVF. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
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With the arrival of son Ted, Kim and Jaap’s family is complete. The overjoyed parents tell how they and the baby are doing.
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You can read the entire interview with Kim Kötter in the latest edition of Beautiful world. Her book Not the prettiest girl in class will be available in (online) bookstores from the summer and can already be pre-ordered.
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