Paulina Porizkova hasn’t stopped dissecting her long and complicated relationship with the late Ric Ocasek. The 59-year-old model took to Instagram this week with a candid post about their marriage, describing it as both a “perfect fit” and a union shaped by scars neither fully healed.
“I wanted to help him. I wanted to mend him. I wanted to heal the little scared boy in his heart,” Porizkova wrote, recalling the ways she tried to reach past Ocasek’s armor. She admitted she hoped to make him a better parent, while suggesting the Cars frontman was more interested in being “adored by someone of public value.”
The couple’s dynamic, she explained, was one of mutual need: her desire to fix, his desire to be admired. Still, she closed her reflection with gratitude: “Today, I will be grateful for all the years we embraced in a perfect fit — whatever the reasons.”
Porizkova married Ocasek in 1989, and the pair had two sons, Jonathan and Oliver. They separated in 2017, made the split public in 2018, and a year later, Ocasek died of heart disease at 75. Porizkova, who had been caring for him after surgery, found him unresponsive one morning at their New York home.
The aftermath was bitter. Despite decades together, she was cut out of his will on the grounds that she had “abandoned” him. She later called the move “traumatic” and said she was still coming to terms with the decision years later. By October 2021, she reached a settlement with his estate.
The marriage itself was rarely simple. Porizkova has said Ocasek often restricted her movements, opinions, even her wardrobe. In her words, she became his “soul emotional provider.” Their separation, she once explained, was like ditching a bicycle that no longer pedaled in sync — though the “family car” of herself, Ocasek, and their children remained intact.
Since his death, Porizkova has been outspoken about love, aging, and betrayal. After a short-lived romance with Aaron Sorkin, she began dating screenwriter Jeff Greenstein in 2023. The two got engaged this summer.
For Porizkova, the Instagram post was less about settling scores than about owning the paradox of a marriage that gave her both family and lasting wounds. The gratitude, like the jab, was sharp.
Last modified: September 18, 2025
