In the mid-'80s, he was the biggest star in Hollywood. And she, a very tall rising Danish model. The attraction was instant. But the relationship would be short-lived, even when they went down the aisle
When the model and actress -in 1985, at the age of 21- discovered that Sylvester Stallone -at 39- was staying at a hotel in Manhattan, she wasted no time. She slipped one of her photos, signed by herself, with a message that left no room for doubt: “My name is Brigitte Nielsen. I would really like to meet you. Here's my number". The actor, at the height of his fame, responded immediately. On the other side of the tube -the time of the landline telephone-, he only said three words: "I have to meet you."
That call, short and early, would change the lives of both
Born as Gite Nielsen in Denmark in 1963, she dropped out at the age of 16, tired of being bullied because of her height (1.85), and moved to Paris where she began to shine as a model: Armani, Versace, Gianfranco Ferré, and Jean Paul Gaultier were some of them from the prominent fashion houses that could not pass up the opportunity to feature it in their catalogs.
The film producer Dino de Laurentiis understood that Nielsen was the ideal one to embody Arnold Schwarzenegger's partner in the film that was brewing: Red Sonja. Apart from the resounding failure, both from the public and from specialized critics, the film was the kickoff for her arrival on the big screen, with a torrid and expressive romance with the protagonist of the film included.
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, born in 1946 in the United States, came to work as an actor to be able to pay for his studies at drama school, where he understood his future to be. After some minor participation in various films -including Bananas, by Woody Allen- and series -such as Kojak- he began to write scripts.
After witnessing a Muhammad Ali fight in 1975, he knew there was a story to tell. In just three days he had a script prepared that he presented to various production companies with one condition: he would also be the main actor. The rejection of some would arrive concerning the text, of others, due to the clause that determined that Stallone had to be the protagonist. He still remembers an offer they made him: double his earnings as a screenwriter on the condition that the lead role be given to someone else. The proposition was tempting: Sylvester was broke, to the point that he couldn't even take care of his own dog. But he answered no.
All offers were rejected until a study took on the risk and Rocky saw the light: a resounding worldwide success, creator of the film that would win the Oscar for Best Picture in 1977, the year in which Stallone would also be nominated for the statuette in the categories for best actor and best screenplay.
The Rocky Machine was running, and the story that concerns us takes place in 1985 when the fourth installment of the saga was being developed, which would ultimately be the highest-grossing, the one that shows the boxer about to retire from professionalism after recovering the title in Rocky III until the latest boxing revelation appears from the Soviet Union: Iván Drago becomes the candidate with the greatest chance of shaking his legacy.
The day Brigitte Nielsen and Sylvester Stallone met for the first time, she was recently divorced from Danish musician Kasper Winding, who was also the father of her son Julian, and whom she had married just a year earlier. He, for his part, claimed to be having a bad marriage with photographer Sasha Czack, married since 1974 and parents of two children, Sage and Seargeoh.
“He was very beautiful. most delicious man he had ever seen. And he was in the city, she was determined to meet him ”, Brigitte would recall in her memories (You only get one life) about the need to leave that photo with that message under the door. “I must have sounded like a crazed fan. She was excited, but she knew he was too dumb. I slid a photograph of the portfolio that he used to get a job in the agencies ”.
Regarding that first meeting in which he would pick her up, Nielsen recalls: “He arrived on time and I tried to be as casual as possible. He seemed like a true gentleman, sweet, down to earth. We saw each other a few times, with him always trying to persuade me to go to bed. Finally, he called me back and asked me to stay with him at his house on Broad Beach in Malibu. When I arrived we spent a relaxing afternoon and that night we were together for the first time. It had finally happened."
“We started seeing each other regularly, and within a few weeks, he offered me a role in Rocky IV.” Nielsen would play Ludmilla Drago, the wife of her Russian boxing nemesis. “Then she asked me to marry him, for which she divorced her. At the wedding, the guest list numbered 300 of whom she personally knew a total of five: my parents, my brother, my personal assistant Kelly, and my good gay friend and hairstylist Bruce.” The marriage started on the wrong foot from the honeymoon in Hawaii: “Sly brought about 15 people with us: agents, lawyers, a whole entourage. She was devastated."
Shortly after the release of Rocky IV, Nielsen, and Stallone began working together on another film that would not be critically and critically acclaimed: Cobra. The action-packed crime drama also featured Sly as the main character and writer and was based on the novel Fair Play by Paula Gosling. Nielsen played Ingrid, the struggling model that Stallone's character takes under her protective care. Cobra aspired to be a homage to movies like Dirty Harry, where the lawman is challenged more than the offender.
Inside, the relationship was not prospering and even Nielsen herself questioned having accepted a marriage proposal so soon after they met. Stallone was completely surrendered at his feet and it was not long before life-size sculptures with the figure of the Danish woman began to appear in the garden of his mansion. The first seemed like an unexpected compliment, but when they began to multiply, the impression changed and Brigitte would begin to rethink many things.
Nielsen was trying to boost her professional career as an actress at the same time, when she was also part of Beverly Hills Cop II (A Detective on the Loose in Hollywood II), although the critics would not recognize her greater merit, as that column in People magazine would recall. : “A job I almost certainly wouldn't have gotten if I were still Mrs. Winding, wife of a Copenhagen musician.” What's more, in the same publication, the one who refers in harsh terms is a person close to Stallone, of whom no further details are given, who stated: “Nielsen is a true conspirator. She publicly embarrassed him. She used it. She became a springboard for her career."
But that would not be all. Weeks later, rumors began to circulate that Brigitte was secretly having a relationship with her own secretary, Kelly Sahnger. The accounts prompted Stallone's spokesman to issue a statement laden with bias and discrimination: “I am totally outraged by the fictitious allegations made in a London newspaper about my beautiful wife. She is a totally feminine woman.”
In case one more character was missing in this story, the one who joined was Sylvester's mother, who from the beginning of the relationship did not look favorably on his daughter-in-law. Mrs. Jackie Stallone once referred to her as “the poorest example of a woman I have ever met. I asked Sylvester not to marry her because she was not going to last longer than the next eclipse, and he would file for divorce." Time later, Nielsen, herself would affirm that her mother-in-law was the main cause of the separation. Although Jackie would not remain silent, and she clarified that her psychic abilities predicted the failure of the marriage.
Considering how the relationship was coming, it was clear that everything would culminate at some point, sooner rather than later. What began with the marriage on December 15, 1985, at the Beverly Hills home of the film producer and friend of Stallone, Irwin Winkler, ended in July 1987. Official press announcements indicated that it was the actor who filed for divorce. , citing “irreconcilable differences.” Meanwhile, Nielsen continues to claim that she was the one who dumped him.
“Sylvester and I signed a prenup, which means neither of us can say much about the marriage. All I can say is that one early morning in 1987 I took my clothes and jewelry and left her home forever”, Brigitte would write in her memoirs, although the passing of the years and various subsequent interviews would shed more detail on what she had experienced.
When Stallone's mother died in 2020, aged 98, Nielsen paid tribute to her in an emotional Instagram post: "Extremely strong, full of energy and a unique woman in so many ways, to the very end."
In addition, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the actress highlighted: "The biggest mistake while I was with Sylvester was the fact that everyone thought I married him for money. They didn't understand that he begged me to get married, begged me, and I remember having thought: 'This is too soon, that is not right'. Don't you want to marry Rocky? If I went back in time, I shouldn't have married him and he shouldn't have married me."
And in a chat with Larry King, he also chose to leave a compliment: “You can say a lot of good things about Sylvester. He is a horrible husband, at least he was with me. But as a writer, as a producer, as a director, my hat is off to him. He really knows how to put things on paper and from paper put them on the screen”.
