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My friend Annalise Braakensiek's secret heartbreak

RIP my beautiful friend Annalise - by Jacqui Lang
  • 07 Jan 2019

This week, popular blogger-model-actress Annalise Braakensiek was found dead at her Sydney home. She was 46 years old.

Jacqui Lang writes about the friend she’d known for more than 20 years.

My friend Annalise Braakensiek's secret heartbreak
Supplied

Whenever I think of Bondi Beach, I think of Annalise Braakensiek, the sunny ‘bikini babe’ who was so much more.

 

Yes, she was beautiful, but Bondi, where she lived for much of her adult life, was full of striking models. What made her stand out was her kind wit, compassion for others, and her charisma.

Her close friends knew she suffered from dark depression at times, something she later shared publicly.

Even so, with her focus on health, fitness, and meditation, and her huge circle of friends, she seemed like a woman who would always remain afloat.

annalisewithlove View Profile
824 likes - View Post on Instagram
Meow 😻 . . . 📷 @beccafitzgerald_photo 💄 @the_travelling_artist Hair: @yadgiahair Styled by @cmstylists #annalisejewellery #gata #handmade #turquoise #mydesigns #designer #bohostyle #jewelry #sale #australian hit link in bio for 25% off ALL my jewellery designs with the code "mylovelies " ❤️

I met Annalise in the late 90s, soon after she’d split from her rock musician boyfriend Phil Ceberano.

I interviewed her for a magazine at her Bondi apartment one morning and I left her home that afternoon, not just with a story but with a new friend.

“Let’s do the Bondi to Bronte walk one day,” she’d suggested.

Walk it we did, and over time I grew to really enjoy many outings together.  (And I got used to the heads swivelling her way for the entire hour.)  I’d hear about the tribulations of the modelling world and Annalise’s efforts to do more TV work. She loved acting in SBS comedy Fat Pizza. She’d also talk about her love for animals, family, and the man she married in 2002, businessman Danny Goldberg. 

Raised in rural northern New South Wales, Annalise didn’t know her biological father for the first 20 years of her life.

“I felt a dark void for many years. I knew so little about dad. Just that he was Norwegian, his name was Odd and he loved sailing.”

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Missing days like these..... #malibu pre fires only a few short weeks ago. My heart still aches for all the animals hurt and killed and people's homes lost and the destruction of the beautiful landscapes I was so lucky to hike in for @hikecaribbean Isn't it incredible how life has such variable highs and lows, and insane contrasts. I don't know about you all, but I'm super sensitive to everything and everyone including the planetary alignments... and when Mercury is in retrograde I just want to bury myself in the sand or sit on the sand like a mermaid 🧜‍♀️ like I was here instead of dealing with all this craziness.... But I know what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Its all for a reason. To grow. To learn. To push boundaries and break them with infinite finesse for our higher selves and more.... Here's to being Vikings and Vikingesses my lovelies! Mercury in retrograde who? Broken down everything what? Ha ha 🙄😳☠️ #wegotthis #love #strength #la #losangeles #usa #world #planet #earth #motherearth #mercuryinretrograde #mongrel #sheesh #notgoingtogiveup #fire #ruok #lovemybro 📷 @whoissamsugar

Her luck changed after she won a modelling contest in her early 20s. The prize was a trip to LA, and there, she met an Australian yachtsman. “I asked him if he knew a man called Odd.” He didn’t - but knew someone who did.

A few days later, Annalise found a call on her answer machine. “Hello Annalise. I believe I’m your father. I might add that I’m as nervous as a schoolboy on his first date.”

They arranged to meet at a local yacht club: “I didn’t have a photo of him, but one look and I knew. We just knew straight away that we were family,” Annalise told me, aged 27, as she sat with Odd, 47 years her senior, at a Bondi cafe.

Her cooking was legendary. She managed to turn simple healthy ingredients into a sumptuous feast. “I’ve been known to send Danny across Sydney to purchase the freshest produce or some special Asian paste for me,” she told me once.

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The answer is blowing in the wind...... Hanging in there by the hair on my chiny chin chin.... 😜 Sheesh it's been a challenging year for so many of us, am I right?!?! My biggest challenge was not having my own home (for a year now)!!!!?!! As you know I L❤️VE to cook organic meat free @annalisewithlovelunch creations and I can not wait to get back into my own kitchen again in just a few weeks!!! 🚀 🌿 🌶 I am uber grateful for all the legends who have taken me under their wings this past year, and into their hearts and homes @gina_b21 and family especially. 🙏🏼💙 The rest you know who you are. I love you. Beyond. Including my bestie in heaven. A day doesn't go by when I don't think about you 😓 I don't know what I'd do without you all 🙏🏼 And I promise as soon as I move into my new abode I'll be back to cooking, sharing my new jewellery designs and being a general all round mega Vikingess! 💪 🦄🌈 In the meantime for all of you who have asked....as of next Wednesday I will be able to fulfill my signature jewellery design orders again!!!!!! #yay!!!! Just in time for Christmas 🎄 DM me re new designs not yet shown or up on my site and check out my jewellery gallery at link in bio and use my F&F code "mylovelies" for 25% discount .... sharing the love 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙 And love the team who shot this campaign and can't wait to shoot my new collection soon! 🙌🌈 📷 my talented sister @beccafitzgerald_photo Cruelty free @ereperezcosmetics 💄 by the magical @the_travelling_artist Hair: @originalmineral natural colour styled by the insanely fab @yadgiahair Brows by the best: @parlourb Vegan facial by the amazing @dermaglow_medi_spa and styled by the most divine and talented @stephmalizisstylist for @cmstylists . .magical day your way my lovelies 🙌💫🌙✨⚡️🔥 . . #annalisebraakensiek #jewellery #designer #jewelry #model #vegetarian #cook #jewellerydesigner #boholuxe #bohostyle #ecofriendly #handmade #madewithlove #mydesigns #lovelunch #2018 #bringon2019 #wegotthis #love #strength #support

So many loved her meals that she began cooking as well as modelling. She’d send her friends out an email once a week, telling us what was on the menu, charging us all so little that she barely made a profit. She and I fantasised about making a TV cooking show together – I could see her become a bit of an Aussie Nigella - but we both travelled too much to ever sit down, nut it out and make it a reality.

Some models hitting middle age fade out of the limelight. Not Annalise. Using social media, Annalise managed to win over umpteen new followers, combining her love of travel, health and jewellery design.

Though maintaining her bikini bod, she relished having so many interests other than modelling.

“One day I sat down and listed all the things I love the most: art and design, painting, yoga and dancing and poetry and languages. And cooking,” she told me. So her life was full of these things.

xx
Getty

On the surface, it all looked picture perfect. But of course, nobody’s life ever really is. Her marriage to Danny ended last year. She moved out of her beloved Bondi. Change wasn’t always easy.

And now comes the terrible news that she has left us.

Annalise, who spoke five or six languages, was accomplished at so much. Despite her millions of social media followers, I don’t think this woman with the kindest of hearts realised just how much she was genuinely loved and valued by so many.

For me, Bondi Beach, the place where we conducted our entire friendship, just lost a little of its sparkle.  Goodbye, dear Annalise.

Need help? Call Lifeline on 131 114, visit www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/get-help-home, or call beyondblue on 1300 224 636.

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