How can a man successfully date the model Kate Moss?
That is the question that the rumored new man in her life—28-year-old photographer and teutonic aristocrat Nikolai von Bismarck, the great-great-grandson of Prince Otto Von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of the German Empire—should be asking himself today.
It would be understandable, however, if he is too busy pinching himself to make sure he is not dreaming for such practical considerations to enter his head.
If the secret to a successful relationship is extensive prior knowledge of your partner, then these two are off to a good start.
They certainly know each other well—after all, Kate, 41 (she is 13 years older than her new squeeze) is a good friend of Nikolai’s mother, the Countess Debonnaire “Debbie” von Bismarck, 56. Kate may not quite have dandled a young Nikolai on her knee, but she certainly would have known him as a kid.
Debbie—described by Kate as ‘one-off’—is said to be relaxed about her son’s new hook-up.
Still, you have to wonder how easy it is for any man to slot into the role of “Kate Moss’s New Boyfriend”. Kate has been out with a stunningly eclectic range of men since she was discovered by Storm Model agent Sarah Doukas wandering through JFK airport, and ‘heroin chic’ was born.
Her first high-profile boyfriend was Johnny Depp (Jason Donovan overdosed at a party he threw for her 21st at the Viper Room in LA), and she also dated the Libertine’s Pete Doherty.
She is reputed to have had a three-way love affair with Sadie Frost and her husband, Jude Law. She has a kid with I-d magazine’s Jefferson Hack, and her coke-fuelled 30th birthday party at Claridges, which turned into fashion’s most celebrated orgy, remains the stuff of legend.
Kate is married to Jamie Hince from rock band The Kills, but hasn’t been photographed with Hince since April, amidst swirling rumors of “blazing rows over Hince’s friendships with other women.” The Sun meanwhile reports that Nikolai has “been spending a lot of time with Kate in the Cotswolds and in London.”
The ongoing complicated life of Kate Moss comes as little surprise to those in the fashion industry who have followed her life. In her book Champagne Supernova, Maureen Callahan wrote that “Kate often slept with her friends’ boyfriends,” and said that at one stage she was “the supermodel who’d attend a party and station herself outside the bathroom door yelling, ‘Anyone want a fuck?’”
Kate herself has wisely resisted the temptation to comment, ever, on her personal life (it was Depp who introduced her to the mantra of ‘never complain, never explain’) although she did bow to public pressure and apologize after photos of her cutting up lines of cocaine with Pete Doherty appeared on the front page of British tabloid, the Mirror, in 2005.
Her entourage refer to time spent with Kate on a bender as ‘getting Mossed.’
Callahan told The Daily Beast today that “nobody had cracked it” when it came to the fine art of dating Kate Moss: “She out-partied Johnny Depp, ditched Pete Doherty when he threatened her career, is more rock ’n’ roll than her husband, who’s an actual rock star ... not even this 28-year-old likely has the stamina.
“I think Keith Richards would have been her ideal mate. There’s no-one else who can keep up with her, let alone outpace her.”
In 2013, Nikolai staged an exhibition of pictures he had captured in Ethiopia. Of the time spent in the country he said: “For three weeks I drank cow’s blood for breakfast, washed in the river and slept in a tent that was guarded by kids with AK-47s. I took a lot of photographs, I painted with them, drank ouzo with them, fired guns with them—I became one of them.”
He is friends with Britain’s royal set as well, and hiked the Inca Trail in Peru with Princess Beatrice while she was on her gap year.
But will he be able to keep up with Kate? Let the no-doubt wild times roll.