While appearing on a recent episode of Facebook Watch's “Red Table Talk,” supermodel Paulina Porizkova received a sweet, encouraging message from her sons Jonathan and Oliver Ocasek.
The Swedish model stopped by Jada Pinkett Smith’s talk show on Wednesday, Nov. 16, to discuss her new memoir, “No Filter: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful," where she opens up about her lifelong struggle with anxiety, aging in the spotlight and her marriage to Cars frontman Ric Ocasek.
During the sit-down, Pinkett Smith (along with her daughter, Willow Smith, and her mother, Adrienne “Gammy” Banfield-Norris), surprised Porizkova with a very special recorded video message.
“Your boys sent a little ‘Red Table Talk’ surprise,” Pinkett Smith said as the 57-year-old model looked shocked and turned to see her sons’ faces on a screen.
Jonathan Ocasek, 29, and Oliver Ocasek, 24, then appeared in a video, gushing about how their mother has motivated and inspired them.
Her younger son went first and said, “One of the most important things that my mom taught me over the years is that it is actually possible to reinvent yourself.
“It’s a long road between being some hot chick on the cover of a magazine and being an intellectual who is actually talking about some of the real problems behind aging," he continued. "And just the fact that she has managed to do that is astounding to me.”
His brother chimed in and revealed that the most important advice he has received from his mom is to always reach his full potential.
“She puts her heart and soul into everything she does,” the 29-year-old said. “In terms of this book, I learned a lot about my mother, who was dealing with this great tragedy internally. And how she was trying to heal from this terrible time and to see a path forward.”
Jonathan added that seeing his mother overcome her struggles has inspired him.
The two brothers embraced each other before the clip ended.
Porizkova wiped a few tears away from her eyes and said, “I guess I couldn’t have told you any better how fantastic my sons are, right? I’m totally bawling here.”
As the proud mom she is, Porizkova then shared her son’s recent engagement news.
“Jonathan got engaged in London a couple of months ago to his longtime girlfriend. They’ve been together for almost eight years, and as of today, she just passed the bar in New York City,” Porizkova shared as the co-hosts applauded and celebrated the couple.
She told the “Red Table Talk” ladies that all of her sons are close (Porizkova also has four stepsons), and they recently took a trip to Cancun with her brother.
Porizkova said, “It’s like we are a tight-knit family. And I did that. I’m taking credit for that because that was not my husband.”
The model married Ric Ocasek after meeting him on the set of his band’s music video. They married in 1989 and later separated in 2018. The pair lived together in New York City as their divorce was finalized.
A year after their separation, the rocker underwent surgery for cancer and was sent home to recover. The Cars co-founder was later found dead in their Manhattan townhouse at the age of 75.
Speaking about his death in her book, Porizkova wrote, “The world around me ceased to exist as I knew it.”
She then discovered that her former spouse left her out of his will with the abrupt message: “I will make no provisions for my wife because she abandoned me.”
Porizkova addressed his sudden passing and the aftermath in a recent interview with TODAY on Nov. 14.
“After my husband’s death, I found myself not only having lost probably the most important person in my life, but also very quickly plunged into financial issues. I had to sell my house immediately because I didn’t have the money to hold onto it,” she said.
The model shared the shock and sadness she felt as she had to confront her grief and trust issues after reading her ex-husband’s message.
“(It was) these physical losses that accompanied the emotional loss of him being gone. And then betrayal trauma was that the person I loved, wanted me to be in that situation. Like, that was his intention,” she said.
Three years later, Porizkova said therapy has helped her work toward forgiveness.
“I think I was able to let go and forgive my husband," she told TODAY, "so there is some sense of people in being able to forgive him.”