Behati Prinsloo

Behati Prinsloo is a Namibian model who spent most of her career inside the Victoria's Secret system: a Pink contract in 2008, Angel wings in 2009, and twelve runway shows between 2007 and 2025. She was born on May 16, 1988, in Grootfontein, in what was then South West Africa, and she was found by a scout while on holiday in Cape Town.

Prada first, lingerie second

Her early bookings came from the high-fashion side. She started as a Prada and Miu Miu exclusive, shot her first advertising campaign for Marc by Marc Jacobs with Juergen Teller, and was photographed by Mario Testino and Paolo Roversi for British Vogue. That editorial start is typical of the Angels of her generation: Victoria's Secret tended to recruit women who already had a runway record in Paris and Milan.

Inside the Victoria's Secret machine

Prinsloo first walked the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2007. In 2008 she signed with Pink, the company's younger line, and in 2009 she moved up to a full Angel contract. She walked every show from 2007 to 2015.

Opening the 2014 and 2015 shows

The opening spot in the show was a statement of rank, and Prinsloo held it twice in a row, in 2014 at Earls Court in London and in 2015 in New York. She also worked on product. In 2010 she designed "Behati Loves Pink", a swimsuit capsule for the brand, one of the small design credits Victoria's Secret handed to its Angels in those years.

The hiatus and the 2018 return

She skipped the 2016 and 2017 shows and came back for the 2018 edition in New York. That turned out to be the last of the network-television era: the company cancelled the 2019 show amid falling ratings and criticism of its marketing chief, Ed Razek.

Savage X Fenty and the comeback

The cancellation left room for a rival format. In 2021 Prinsloo appeared in lingerie in Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 3, filmed at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles and released on Prime Video. For an Angel to cross over to the brand that had been built as Victoria's Secret's opposite was a sign of how far the market had moved.

Then the original show returned. Victoria's Secret staged its comeback runway in New York on October 15, 2024, and Prinsloo was back in the lineup, walking again in 2025. Her twelve shows run from 2007 to 2015, plus 2018, 2024 and 2025, a span of almost two decades that few models in the brand's history can match.

Last updated October 7, 2026