Who is Roberto Cavalli’s grieving girlfriend Sandra Nilsson? The Swedish Playboy model, 38, spent a decade next to her ‘favourite designer’, 83, who bought her a private island – and once said she couldn’t care less about a man’s looks

The fashion world has been rocked by the death of design icon Roberto Cavalli, who died on Friday aged 83.

Yesterday, a host of celebrity mourners turned out to remember the legendary designer as he was laid to rest in his home city of Florence.

Among them was his longtime girlfriend and Swedish former model Sandra Nilsson.

Sandra, 38, was photographed appearing bereaved at the funeral, with one image showing her leaning against the hearse with her partner.

The pair, who had a 45-year age gap, had been in a relationship for more than 10 years, after getting together in 2014 – although some reports say Sandra had been seen by Roberto’s side as early as 2010 when he divorced his second wife.

Roberto, who had been divorced twice before his relationship with the former model, had six children.

The couple shared one child, a son born in March 2023, who was named Giorgio, in honor of Roberto’s father.

While many know Sandra as Roberto’s partner, she enjoyed her own success working in the fashion industry.

Sandra was born in Sjöbo in southern Sweden, a small town she has described as ‘beautiful’ with a population of around 7,000 people.

She was discovered by a modeling agent aged 13 during a family holiday in Paris.

An agency called Clic asked her to model for them, but her parents said she was too young.

But according to Sandra, she started when she was 15.

Her parents wanted her to wait until she finished high school to enter the industry, but instead she started after studying nursing at school while working as a personal assistant.

Among her career highlights, she was a competitor on Scandinavia’s Top Model and won several beauty pageants, including Sweden’s Miss Hawaiian Tropic.

Her first win came when she was crowned Miss Salming before competing in Miss Siren, Miss EU, Miss World Bikini Model and Miss Hawaiian.

In 2006 Sandra was voted ‘the seventh sexiest woman in Sweden’ and in 2008 she became Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Month for January.

According to Sandra, her family supported her appearance in the publication and ‘(she) looked amazing’ in the pictures.

In a interview that year, while at New York Fashion Week, the then-model shared some details about herself.

She said: ‘When I’m in New York I look for food and fashion – fashion is wonderful in New York, especially now it’s Fashion Week.’

Sandra revealed that she ‘loved seeing all the new collections’, as well as ‘all (her) friends who are in town’ for the event.

She described herself as a vegetarian and joked during the interview that although she doesn’t eat fish, she loves Swedish Fish chewy sweets.

According to Sandra, the things she loved most about modeling were traveling and meeting people, as well as the clothes.

She described her own personal style as ‘sweet and sexy’ and revealed that Roberto Cavalli was her favorite designer.

However, in one interview several months earlier, she said she was single at the time, but shared what she was looking for in a man.

She said: ‘I don’t think what he looks like matters as long as he has a good personality.’

She added her hang-ups in a man, mentioning “if he smells bad and only talks about himself”.

During the chat, the model also showed that she has both brains and looks, revealing that she speaks three languages, although she only shared two of them – Swedish and English.

Despite her success as a glamor model in the late noughties, Sandra’s modeling career seemed to be on the wane when she and Roberto started dating.

Because of the age difference between the two, it has been reported that the couple faced criticism when it was discovered that they were together.

Around that time, Sandra’s parents are reported to have told Swedish media that their daughter was splitting her time between New York and Italy, where she ‘works for Roberto Cavalli’.

Sandra was accused by some of wanting to exploit the relationship for her own fame, but the couple proved doubters wrong thanks to their longevity.

In addition, the criticism appeared to have little or no effect on the couple, who shared photos of their life together on social media.

Sandra and Roberto enjoyed an extremely lavish lifestyle, with the designer believed to be worth around $400 million.

Among his extravagant gestures, the designer bought Sandra a private island i Sweden in 2015.

He used £2.22 million on Stora Rullingen, off the coast of Strängnäs, about 80 miles east of Stockholm.

‘She has always dreamed of her own island’, her father Jan-Ove Nilsson told Katrineholm’s Kuriren.

‘She wants something in Sweden to fall back on’.

The 81.5 hectare island comes complete with a four-bedroom villa, hunting lodge, pool and the remains of a Viking hill fort, as well as its own small golf course. It also boasts both a jacuzzi and a swimming pool built into the mountain.

It is not yet officially known what will happen to the designer’s fortune, although some reports have speculated that his assets will be split between Sandra and his six children.

Roberto died at his home in Florence last week after a long illness.

His fashion house reported his death and released an official statement saying: ‘It is with deep regret and great sadness that the Roberto Cavalli Maison attends the death of its founder Roberto Cavalli. From humble beginnings in Florence, Mr. Cavalli to become a globally recognized name loved and respected by all.

‘He was a natural artist and believed that everyone can discover the artist within themselves. Roberto Cavalli’s legacy will live on through his art, his creativity, his love for nature, animals and through his family, whom he loved.’