As the World Cup wraps up today, Fox Soccer analyst Zlatan Ibrahimović, a former professional Swedish soccer player, is undeniably a new sports star in the U.S. While he has a world-famous profile, less known is details about his long-term partner, Helena Seger. The couple have been together since the early 2000s, and have two sons, Maximilian and Vincent, both of whom are signed with AC Milan.
Here, everything to know about Zlatan’s long-term girlfriend Helena Seger:
She’s from Sweden.
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Helena at a youth league match in Milan, Italy, September 2024.
Like Zlatan, Helena is Swedish, and they are raising their children in Sweden. “We do not let many people into our circle but those who get the chance to get to know us are shocked when they discover how normal we live our lives,” Zlatan said in 2018 (translated from Swedish).
“We want to have a traditional Swedish family life together. The fact that we are rich and famous doesn’t mean we can’t think, ‘We should have a butler just because we have a lot of money.’ We believe that’s nonsense.”
They met over a parking dispute.
Helena has said that she and Zlatan first met after she confronted him for blocking her Mercedes with his badly parked Ferrari in a Malmö parking lot, an encounter she later recalled in an interview with Elle Sweden in 2010, saying apparently he liked her attitude. “When we met, he had double-parked his Ferrari next to my Merca cab with his big nose and gold watch,” she said (translated from Swedish). “I was in a bad mood and hissed that he should move the car. I think he was triggered by my attitude.” Zlatan later wrote in his autobiography, “That girl… where had she been? She wasn’t just pretty. She had an attitude, like, ‘don’t mess with me,’ and she was older, and it was exciting. I was like, who is she?”
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The couple in 2023.
When they met, Helena was 31 at the time; he was 20. “If she hadn’t been eleven years older than me, she wouldn’t have stayed with me. But she had the patience to stay with me, despite how I was in the beginning,” Zlatan later said. “She also had her own career.”
She prioritizes her independence and privacy.
Despite being together for over two decades, Zlatan and Helena have never married. She added in that same Elle profile (translated from Italian coverage of the Swedish interview), “I think Zlatan likes me because I can stand up to him, I also have an important background and I have built my career with a lot of sacrifice.” Marriage, she said, “could disturb my sense of independence.” She added, “I’m not a football wife who has won a beauty contest. I actually feel frustrated that I haven’t been given credit for what I’ve done.”
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Helena and their sons in 2012.
Zlatan told Voetbal International in 2018, “Helena already had a career when we met. She had a good job and made a lot of money, she didn’t need me for my money or because I was famous. We fell in love for the same reasons other people fall in love. Helena has given her life to me and that is a sign that means everything in our family. I am well aware that it is special when someone does everything for another person.”
He added, “Helena helped me live a little in peace and quiet. She was an important factor for stability in my life. Thanks to her, I found peace at home. She moved with me to Turin and became my support there too, but she prefers to stay in the background… She didn’t want people to see her as a football wife. She told me about her life, to show who she really is.”
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Deputy Digital Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.
