Before I start, I must say that when talking about her childhood, not all Victoria Bonya shares might not be 100% true. Not everything she tells matches with her earlier claims and some people think that she just tries to make up a “from rags to riches” kind of story. The following story is a mix of what Bonya herself has said and pieces from other sources.
Victoria Bonya was born on 27th November, 1979 in a town of Krasnokamensk, Russia. This rather small town is located very near to Chinese and Mongolian border, very far from Moscow and Monaco, where Bonya now resides. Victoria was born into the family of Anatoly and Galina Bonya. Many people think that “Bonya” is just a name, she made up for herself, but it is far from the truth. However, Victoria has revealed in an interview that Anatoly was only the biological father of her older sister Angelina, and remained pretty mysterious about her own real father. Nevertheless, all four of them lived together for some time. Bonya also had a younger brother, who unfortunately fell out of the window and died.
When Victoria was 2 years old, her father left the family. However, the divorce didn’t make their family super poor. Anatoly was the head of local uranium mine and this position was very highly paid that time and even after the divorce he paid child support to his ex-wife for both of the girls, because in Soviet time there was no option not to pay. Victoria’s mother owned a fur coat business and worked on the market.
Victoria Bonya has said that she has always been a black sheep, who was either loved or hated – nothing in between. In childhood Victoria had many complexes and took all the criticism to her heart. She was bullied a lot for her appearance – she had big lips, which wasn’t so common nor super–desirable back then, and she was skinny and tanned, the exact opposite of other children. Victoria didn’t wear any skirts for two years, because somebody told her that her legs are too skinny and asked, if they are not going to break…
In her early teen years, Victoria was not a soft girly girl. It was the complete opposite. With her friend, they often ran away from their homes to taste the freedom, visit nightclubs and spend time people, who could be called “bad influence”. Victoria did judo for three years and was a horrible fighter mostly outside of the gym. Her reputation was already something mentionable and there were some younger children, who asked her and her friend to protect them from other bullies, which they gladly did. When Victoria was in the seventh grade, she started hanging out with pickpocketers and sometimes even when they were “on business”. It wasn’t a long lasting period, because Victoria realized quickly, how embarrassing it actually is and she is fully responsible of her actions.
When Victoria was 16 years old, their family moved to Moscow. Victoria’s aunt lived in Moscow and according to some sources, Bonya lived with her. There is a version that the Bonyas didn’t move to Moscow, because they lived horribly in Krasnokamensk, but they just wanted live even better. Life in Moscow was and still is much more expensive than in the middle of nowhere, so of course, this decision didn’t come overnight and they had to have some funds to do such a move in the first place. Still, the first years in Moscow were horrible. The family was poor and Victoria remembers that they only ate cheap pasta, bread and margarine, because they didn’t have money for anything else. They even had only one pair of winter boots that they had to share. Victoria realized that she had to find a job quickly and work hard to achieve her dreams.
To be continued…
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