Background
She is the daughter of Adam Karol Czartoryski, who was born in Spain where he grew up with his first cousin, king Juan Carlos I of Spain.
She is the daughter of Adam Karol Czartoryski, who was born in Spain where he grew up with his first cousin, king Juan Carlos I of Spain.
Emerson College.
Her father broke with his family"s aristocratic tradition of leaving childcare entirely to nannies and seeing the children only at first rising and bedtime. Exposed to her father"s playboy lifestyle, she nonetheless remained in awe of him and felt possessive toward him. Rebellious and fond of pranks, she did poorly at the Sacred Heart all girls boarding school in Woldingham, except in drama.
When she was fifteen she attended a tutorial college in Oxford for A-levels, but went horse-riding more often than she studied.
After her father suffered financial reverses when Lloyd"s of London crashed, expensive pastimes such as riding stopped. That, and her mother"s break-up with a stepfather of whom she was fond, left her confused and without direction, she has said.
Having left home in hopes of a career in show jumping, she found herself, at the age of fifteen, earning her keep by cleaning out horse stables, where she sometimes slept. She credits this period with teaching her about the lives of people who lack wealth.
She enrolled at Emerson College in Boston when she was eighteen to take up news media studies, again finding herself socializing with people who worked hard but earned little.
However that did not, by her own account, prompt her to do well at a job as a waitress in a restaurant owned by a relative. Returning to Europe with a reputation as a "society girl" that she felt obliged to live down, her initial foray into modeling proved challenging. But she was pleased at the opportunity to be represented by a reputable fashion agency.
Paternally, Tamara belongs to the Czartoryski family who were nobles in pre-World War I Poland.