Gladys Portugues Bio, Daughter, Age, Ethnicity, Spouse, Son

Publish date: 2024-06-16

Gladys Portugues is a professional bodybuilder and actress who made the top 10 in the Ms. Olympia contest. Although she rose to prominence through this, she is probably most popular as the wife of Belgian-born actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. Although the relationship between the two lasted a long time, their ups and downs led to separations, divorces and remarriages.

Gladys Portugues Biography, Ethnicity and Age

The actress and bodybuilder was born on September 30, 1957, in Manhattan, New York in the United States of America. By ethnicity, although her name might suggest she is Portuguese, she is American and was born and raised in the States.

When she was done with high school, Gladystudied English at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. It was in college that she watched Rachel McLish win one of her two Ms. Olympia titles. This immediately interested her in bodybuilding. Inspired by this, she not only tried to stay in shape, but also entered the business when she started a bodybuilding and bodybuilding program.

Besides just being a bodybuilder, GladysPortugues has also embraced fitness modeling. She has participated in several Ms. Olympia competitions and twice finished in the top ten. One of the most famous bodybuilders of the 1980s, she graced the cover of numerous fitness magazines, including Muscle & Fitness, Bodybuilding & Beauty, Hard Body, and Muscle Mag.

In 1985, Gladys appeared in the documentary, Pumping Iron II: The Women which is about female bodybuilders watching how they prepared for the 1983 Caesars World Cup. The following year, Portugues landed the role of a bodybuilder in The Morning After, then in 1987 she appeared as a waitress in C’est Alive III: Isle of the Living. Since then, Gladys Portugues has not appeared in any film.

In 2011, she was on the British reality show Jean-Claude Van Damme: Behind Closed Doors. Apart from being a bodybuilder and an actress, Gladys is also an author. She published her first book, Hard Bodies in 1986 with Joyce L. Vedral. The two co-authored another book, Body Hard Express in 1988.

wife, son and daughter

Gladys Portugues had quite an interestinglove story with her wife, Jean-Claude Van Damme. She is older than Van Damme who was born in 1960 with 3 years old, the two always seem to be drawn to staying together.

While the actor is the only person Portugues has been married to, Jean-Claude has been married to three different women over the years, with the bodybuilder as his fourth.

The first woman Van Damme married was Maria Rodriguez whom he married for only 4 years, from 1980 to 1984, then Cynthia Derderian, just a year before the union ended in 1986. This is after this marriage he got married and married Gladys. Van married in 1987 and for the first time the actor married her husband for more than 4 years before falling apart again in 1992 when he began his affair with Darcy LaPier, with whom he is dating. married in 1994. The marriage only lasted until 1997 before ending.

Two years after (1999) her last divorce, VanDamme and Gladys Portugues got married for a second time. This time around, the two seemed set to stay together forever, although they split shortly in 2015 and even filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. They found their way back and have been together ever since. Portugues and Van Damme have two children together: a daughter, Bianca Bree, born in 1990 and a son, Kristopher Van Varenberg, born in 1987.

Like his parents, Kris is also an actor who appeared in Universal Soldier (1992), The Quest (1996), Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) and Soldiers (2010). More than an actor, he is also a producer, writer and director. Unsurprisingly, Bianca also followed her family’s path of becoming an actress. she appeared in Assassination Games (2011) and Welcome to the Jungle (2013). In both cases, she appeared alongside her father and brother.

Although they are Gladys’ only children, Van Damme has another son, Nicolas Van Varenberg, born to him by his fourth wife Darcy LaPier in 1995.

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