The general producer of the Match TV sub-holding, the owner of a Georgian cuisine restaurant, a participant in the national educational project Smart School, a partner in the development of an elite cottage village, a public figure are not five different women, but one, Tina Kandelaki. She also has the strength to maintain her pages on social networks, meet friends, go to social events. Tina is an athlete and a beauty, which also requires a lot of time. Finally, she is a wise loving mother of two teenagers and a very family person. How to fit all this into one life? Tina provided the necessary guidance.
Tina, in 2010 your divorce from the artist Andrei Kondrakhin was widely discussed in the press. But about your new marriage - with the 29-year-old director of communications and strategic research of the Rostec State Corporation Vasily Brovko - became known only this summer. Why did you hide the new marriage for so long?
I have not advertised my personal life for a long time and do not spread either about the change in my status, or about many other facts that concern only me. It seems to me that people who are interested in my person will first of all want to read about what I do. Whether I'm married or not, it doesn't matter much to them. There are enough fairies who talk about their weddings without me.
Well, yes, I got married - I confirm this officially. By the way, there was no big secret in my marriage, because my husband is a civil servant, and is obliged to publish his income and the income of family members. Accordingly, the fact that I married Vasily was confirmed by his income statement, which is in the public domain.
The refusal to arrange for this interview to photograph your children, Melania and Leonty, is also due to your unwillingness to advertise your personal life?
In one of the interviews, you admitted that with Vasily, whom you have known for many years, you "grew and developed together." Please comment on this sentence.
We both worked hard before we met, and after we started working even harder. Both together and on their own. In addition, both me and Vasily were lucky: we are doing what we love, each in his own field. And when people do what they like, they certainly develop and change for the better. In our life, information is constantly updated, a lot of interesting things happen, and this brings us closer. In addition, he is a very active and passionate person, just like me. So here we have a lot in common.
Junya Watanabe cloak (Nata 4 Tsum), Geoma Jewelry jewelry.
You and Vasily are co-owners of the Apostol Center for Strategic Communications (at least that's what Wikipedia says). You are practically a family business. How has marriage helped you fulfill your potential at work?
Both of us long ago withdrew from the shareholders of Apostol. I am already too old a woman for marriage to help me fulfill myself in something.
It seems to me wonderful when people are in a relationship and “think up” each other a little. Our "halves" seem to us smarter, better, slimmer than they really are, and even in the shortest brunette you can see a stately blue-eyed blond. It’s the same with Vasily and me: during the time that we are together, he came up with me, and I - him. Both of us are doing well with a sense of humor, I hope that self-irony has also been preserved. So we were not too lazy to make efforts to make our fantasies come true. That is, we are dreamers, but not egoists. We are capable of change. Otherwise, why live with a person when you are no longer able to surprise each other with anything.
A friend of mine said that art makes a person happy. That is, real art gives happiness, and that which does not give is not art at all. So it is in the art of marriage. It exists to make people happy.
Compromises?
Yes, of course, any marriage is a compromise, this is a common truth. In our time, people have greatly expanded their choice: you can travel around the world, communicate with completely different people, buy any kind of food, things. The choice of relationships has also become very diverse. People get to know each other and start sharing gigabytes of content. They constantly write SMS, communicate in Viber, WhatsApp and Telegram. But usually, having quickly become close, people are just as quickly disappointed in each other.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: to remain interesting to another person, you must be ruthless with yourself and constantly force yourself to develop. From a certain age, a person begins to think that he has achieved everything he wanted, and freezes, taking on a certain form. It's hard with these people.
I am a constantly doubting person. While there are doubts, there is an incentive for self-development. When people value each other, value relationships, they are always ready for mutual compromise. Even with difficult characters.
Miu Miu shirt and dress, Geoma Jewelry.
Do you manage to get together with the whole family?
I am a normal Georgian woman and I love everything that is connected with family comfort and color. All this is in my life. It always amazes me when I hear questions: “You are so busy, when do you have time to take care of children?” Yes, if a person wants something, he will always find time for it. For example, I spend time only on what interests me, and therefore I have time for everything. I'm also a producer, don't forget that. If I can't produce my own life, how can I produce anything else?
I have a rule: for study and work - weekdays, and weekends - for the family. On the weekends, I always cook something, we all get together: cottage, wine, good mood. I am just like any other working woman. I love gifts, attention. Thinking in terms of "Office Romance" has long been out of fashion. Moreover, in the film, the woman still defeated the female boss.
And how did you achieve such perfection in the art of time management? What did you have to give up, what habits did you acquire?
Do not overpraise me, otherwise I will become proud, and people still have to live with me. There is nothing difficult in this. It can be mastered by anyone who is able to make a choice. You need to clearly understand what you want to do and what you have to sacrifice. I probably don't spend much time with friends, I don't travel much, I didn't learn Italian and French and I sincerely envy those who know these languages. I could live one more life, only in China, and one more in India, but this is not feasible, which is a pity.
Miu Miu cloak, Geoma Jewelry.
Please tell us about your mother and how she raised you.
Elvira Georgievna is a classic Caucasian woman, the head of the family. At one time, she was the best graduate of the Yerevan Medical Institute, a medalist, an excellent student. She has always worked hard and that has been a good example for me. My mother “invested” a huge amount of time and effort into my education. She told me: “Study, Tinochka, and a person will turn out of you!”
I hope I become a man, because I studied very hard. And not only because my mother was strict with me. I myself realized early on that only constant self-education gives us the opportunity to move forward.
Do you use mother's principles in raising your children?
The world has changed a lot since my childhood. I was a Soviet child, but my children are already completely different, and the methods of my Soviet Georgian childhood of the late 80s will not suit them.
As for the basic values, everything is unchanged here, our traditions are passed down from generation to generation: respect for elders, mutual assistance in the family, help to loved ones, love for relatives - these are the basics of a Caucasian family. After all, it cannot be that my mother and I recognize Caucasian values, but Melania and Leonty do not. Of course, all this is important for them too. But in other things, I give them more freedom, because I think: with today's amount of information, it makes no sense to raise children in the spirit of dogmas and prohibitions. This does not work.
Children learn a lot not from us thanks to the development of information technology. We do not have the ability to control everything, we can only comment and discuss. And their perception also depends on this. Today they have access to any information, both valuable and harmful. Therefore, I believe that prohibitions are not a method, but communication with children has an excellent educational effect. You need to talk with them from childhood, and do it as often as possible. Only personal communication helps them feel loved.
Kids today are very lonely. In the Soviet system, you immediately got into the team from childhood. Now the collective has been destroyed, and the individual has not been raised. There is no enthusiasm for the fact that the modern student is more individual than the Soviet one. There is more loneliness.
By what criteria did you select schools for them? Do you think about foreign education for children?
We chose a school together, went and chose. If children want to change schools, they need to be transferred to where they will study. It should be their choice (my personal opinion). This year they are graduating from a Russian school and will continue to study here too. I have hired many people and I am convinced that Western education is good for the West. If you're going to work here, then you need to study here. Of course, you need to go for an internship. But the first three or four courses must be studied in one's own country.
Your daughter Melania is now 16 years old. At this age, girls in Georgia are not so rare to get married. You are not afraid of such, perhaps an ambulance, the prospect? What advice would you give to all young girls
I hope that the experience of my mother and my own stands before Melania's eyes, and she perfectly understands that in this life a woman needs to constantly develop herself. The modern institution of marriage does not guarantee that a woman will be provided for the rest of her life. To respect yourself, to be self-confident, you need to educate yourself. All girls, especially in our country, doubt and grow into the same insecure women. Cultivate confidence in yourself - then everything will work out for you. If there is no will, there will be no victory. Beauty and femininity alone is not enough in the modern world to become happy. I hope Melania understands this.
How did you solve the problem of raising a son after the divorce?
I never tried to replace my father Leonty, but, like any thinking mother, I do everything so that he has the qualities necessary for a man, a worthy man. He chooses many things himself, whether it is the FSO class in which he studies, or boxing. He is a boy with a strong character who knows well what he needs in life. It's genes, character or my upbringing - it seems to me that it doesn't really matter. Most importantly, at a very young age, he learned to make choices and take responsibility for them.
Dior dress, Geoma Jewelry.
Your children are now at a very difficult age (Melania is 16, Leontiy is 15). Even when there is only one teenager at home, this is life on a volcano, and you have two of them. How do you get out of conflicts?
I will not say that we do not have conflicts. In a Caucasian family, talking not in raised tones is not talking at all. But we have a very close relationship. I tell them: "Children, no matter what difficulties we encounter, everything can be discussed." If we talk, we will understand each other and deal with any situation.
Conflicts arise solely from the lack of attention, which is very necessary for children at this age. I do everything so that the children do not feel deprived of my attention. And I try to extinguish the conflict in the bud. Firstly, I am older, and secondly, more experienced. And I still don't have such memory problems that I don't remember myself at the age of 16. My children are just as overly emotional and, moreover, they are maximalists: for them there is white or black, one way or another, “I will do it today or I will never do it.” How to be in such a situation? Just support the child, tell him: "Okay, let's do as you want." And even if he is wrong, there is nothing wrong with that. It's important to be around. You and I make mistakes even at 40, but what do you want from 16-year-olds? The main thing is that the mistake leads to gaining experience, and not to injury.
TV presenter, businesswoman, mother of two children Tina Kandelaki in an interview with Vadim Vernik for OK!
Photo: Natalie Arefieva
Office in the center of Moscow. Head office. We go. The owner of the company, Tina Kandelaki, sits down at her desk. “For me,” he says, “it’s more convenient to communicate that way.” Her drive, energy and enthusiasm are off the charts. Soon I felt: Tina is so self-sufficient that she could interview herself, photograph herself, and so on. However, this is a misleading impression. She needs dialogue, dialogue is important to her. It's just that she's so fast that few people keep up with her. I tried to "jog" with Tina without leaving the office. And then we did a photo shoot, already at Tina's house
Tina, I first heard about you from my older brother Slava. He worked for Radio Rocks and told me with inspiration that they had a bright, emotional, creative presenter. Did you bring this “baggage” with you from Tbilisi?
Yes, I have been working as a radio host in Tbilisi since I was sixteen, and I came to Moscow with five years of experience.
I mean, rather, that inner energy pressure with which you came to Moscow, to a completely different world, where there are laws, rhythms.
This is common to all passionaries. In addition, there are some national features. ( Smiling.) I have always been very purposeful, I knew well what I wanted. Before myself, I set specific goals related to the opportunity to express myself. Each person at a certain age believes: I know how to make it memorable, outline the area of application of my forces, find my point on the map. Probably, this trait of mine is connected primarily with upbringing and education. My mother was the chief doctor of the district, a very businesslike woman with an active life position. Her example has always been before my eyes.
That is, at school you studied perfectly and were always a leader, right?
There were different periods, but I'm a living person. Some worked, some didn't. When I had not very good grades, I had to study extra. With leadership, the same story: sometimes they gathered around me, sometimes they “sorted it out”.
As for "going to" is understandable. But why "understood"?
Because, probably, my style of behavior was sometimes annoying. I practically did not participate in that part of school life that was not aimed at achieving a specific result. My classmates wandered around the city after school, and I went home. Or at school, she specifically stayed to work out extra.
In my coordinate system, there was no such thing as just doing nothing. If there is no result, then you lost time. And life is not rubber.
In this position, Tina, there is something of a robot. As if they started the mechanism - and let's go.
Creative people may see this as something from robotics, but my business friends have no questions, for them this is an absolutely understandable lifestyle. In addition, as we know, the creative process is five percent talent and ninety-five percent discipline and perseverance.
Look, you probably have girlfriends and aren't workaholics like you...
They keep telling me that I'm doing the wrong thing. I have a very close friend, Linda, with whom we constantly argue about this. She is a bright, temperamental woman, she has her own business, however, she devotes a lot of time to personal relationships. I tell her, “Listen, how can you talk so much about this?” She replies: “Do you think that when we get older they will give you a medal for working so hard?” She is a successful businesswoman but has no ambition to build an intercontinental corporation.
Do you have such ambitions?
I want my company - the Apostol Center for Strategic Communications - to enter the global market and become a competitor to such players as Pelham Bell Pottinger or Brunswick. Our company with Vasily Brovko deals with communications in a broad sense, from branding to TV production.
Clearly, business is a priority for you today.
Yes. Not everyone understands when I refuse to work on television. This season, I was offered several entertainment projects - to sit on the jury and be the host. But I honestly don't have time for that.
Nevertheless, you agreed to become, along with Margarita Simonyan, the host of the Iron Ladies talk show on NTV.
The contract was for six months, no one expected that this project would be for a long time. I agreed because political television is the only thing that interests me now.
Tell me, do you like being called the iron lady?
You know, it seems to me that thanks to the profession of a TV presenter, I have already outgrown the period when epithets aroused my ego. No, I'm not an iron lady. Rather, I am a woman who knows how to be responsible for her words and take on obligations and responsibilities. I know how to be strong, although this does not mean that I am iron. However... What does it mean to "be strong"? This understanding comes to the end of life, and I will only be thirty-eight. No one knows how my life will turn out in the next ten to twenty years.
But you're not going to put an end to your television career, are you?
In our country, almost every TV presenter dreams of becoming Oprah Winfrey. I'm more interested in Maria Bartiromo, a very cool American TV presenter, her area of \u200b\u200binterest is politics and economics. By the way, she could be seen in the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" with Michael Douglas in the title role. In general, recently in American cinema there have been many images of women who make decisions. For example, the series "Scandal", the idea of which is based on the life and career of Judy Smith, the former head of the press center of US President George W. Bush.
This breed of women is close to me, they are understandable and interesting to me. These are women who are not only interested in politics and economics, but also understand this, feel on an equal footing with men. While I have not yet reached such a degree of competence, but thanks to my business, I have the opportunity to learn. Yes, today there is no such niche on our television, but who is stopping you from creating it?
It's right. On the issue of politics. Comment on the rumors that you can take the post of prime minister in the new government of Georgia.
Listen, they have been writing about what posts I can take in the government of Georgia over the past five years! Under Saakashvili, many positions in the Georgian government were given to beautiful girls who made a good impression on Mikhail Nikolayevich with their careers, multiplied by external data. Or maybe there were no quarries - history is silent about this. I have a successful business, a successful television career, I am engaged in communications, the establishment of which, in my opinion, is vital for today's Georgia. So it seems quite logical that such thoughts could arise in someone's head. Of course, I have many comrades who are in the entourage of the current Prime Minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili. They repeatedly said that it would be nice to apply my experience in Georgia. But I cannot discuss abstract things: if a specific task is set, I can find a solution.
I understand the logic of those who started these rumors, successful and beautiful Tina. By the way, when did you start to feel beautiful?
You know, Vadik, I have never felt like this. I just always understood that there are certain stereotypes of perception of female beauty. I have people in my company who are engaged in my appearance, they do everything so that the audience perceives me as a beautiful woman. I don't flirt! I know I look good now. In Tbilisi, I was different: a short brunette in a city full of tall girls, many of whom are blondes.
In general, there are many beautiful women in Georgia, so it is very difficult to feel more beautiful than others. Yes, and my mother taught me from childhood that beauty is a relative concept, depending on many factors: how a woman lives, how she develops, what she does.
Did you have your girlish complexes?
I had a complex because I was not thin. I have always had to put in much more effort than others to be slimmer. And to this day, to keep fit, I need to do fitness every day for one and a half to two hours, and many other women do not need to do this.
Well, what kind of willpower you need to have in order to play sports for two hours every day! I recently saw a photo of you in the gym with boxing gloves on. Not the most feminine sport.
I do Thai boxing and fitness every morning, from 8 to 10. And if I go somewhere, I order personal training. Boxing is a very good load for burning fat. But I'm not a professional boxer, I'm not Klitschko or Povetkin. The story from the movie "Million Dollar Baby" is not about me.
If you are already at the gym at 8 am, when do you sleep?
I go to bed at 11 pm, at 12 I already sleep. This is a matter of choice: if you want to be successful in business, you need to be in good shape in the morning - both mentally and physically. Thai boxing is also good because it teaches you to concentrate, not to miss a blow. There is no other way, we live in a country where it is cold, where it gets dark early. You know, Odgers Berndtson, a large recruiting company, tested our employees, including me. A number of very funny things came up. For example, it turned out that I am antisocial and not focused on actively expressing myself in public. That is, I want to extrapolate the results of my activities to the maximum number of people, but for this I do not have to be on stage. In addition, by conducting tests, the specialists helped me understand why I became a TV presenter.
It turns out that I have an amazing ability to find the simplest and most effective way out of the most difficult situations. I mean, I have a very practical mind. Back in Georgia, I realized that the profession of a TV presenter is the fastest social elevator.
But at first you were going to become a plastic surgeon.
Yes, this is a popular profession in Georgia. But, being a first-year student, I passed the casting of TV presenters, and six months later I was taken to television. The dean said that I was committing a huge stupidity, that he was ready to give me at least three marks in my certificate, if only I would come to my senses and not lose my profession.
I didn’t come to my senses, I lost that profession, but I don’t regret it. By the way, during the testing I was talking about, it also turned out that I am well trained, and this is true: I am constantly learning something. I study foreign languages for two hours a day - English and Spanish.
Wait, do you have time for kids?
In the morning I walk them to school, and in the evening I am with the children until they go to bed. I return from work around nine, and before that they are with my mother - we live together. We are very close to her. I also trusted my father a lot. If he hadn’t told me shortly before his death that I should finally decide whether to continue living with my husband or leave, maybe we would still be together, although our relationship has long exhausted itself.
Heard that you have a new serious relationship. Congratulations! And your chosen one suits your mother?
They are not familiar. For what? Parents and children are introduced when they decide to live together. We are not at that stage of relations yet, we have been together for six months. Acquaintance with parents is usually important for young girls, they want to quickly “tie” a man, get married. And I have adult children, moving in with someone for me means a radical change not only in my life, but also in the life of my mother, my children. I'm not in a hurry, for today what I have is enough for me.
If you are so close with your mother, then maybe you should listen to her opinion on this matter?
Of course, if my mother says for a long time that this is not the relationship that I need, they are not destined to take place - this understanding came with experience. And it's not that I blindly obey my mother. You know, there is a good joke: "Only a Jewish mother can be worse than an Arab terrorist." But I want to add that there is also an Armenian mother who is not inferior to either one or the other. Mom is a strong woman who has her own opinion, and I am her only beloved daughter.
Is your chosen one a businessman?
It is possible to say so. There are a lot of rumors around me, a lot of nonsense is being spread about me. So, he is not the one about whom they write on the Internet. He is not married, he has no children. Is this the person I need in life? How can you answer this question after six months of relationship? Vadim, that's all I'm ready to tell you for now.
Tina, recently at the premiere of "Stalingrad" you were wearing a really "impudent" pink coat, which absolutely does not meet Moscow standards. Bold outfit!
Yes, it was picked up by Anya Yatsko - a professional specialist who deals with my style. I completely trust her. In general, I think: why pay professionals if they have to say only what you want to hear from them? You need to be able to delegate decision-making to people in what they know and can do better than you.
I don't have very good taste, I don't know how to dress, moreover, I have no desire to go shopping. For the last four years I have not been in stores, everything is brought home to me.
Listen, a rare woman can say to herself: "I don't have very good taste."
Well, I don't want to be an ordinary woman! I want to work in the field in which only unusual women succeed. I like European style in clothes. Yes, you can go to Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, dress there from head to toe, but it's boring. And I ask my assistant to find interesting things, not commonplace. And it should not be, as the Americans say, something wildly expensive.
Yes, I see that now you have earrings in the form of samovars, and your bag has a handle in the form of a monkey. It really isn't trivial at all.
Anya always gives me options - five to seven, from which I choose the one that I like the most. She brings the outfits, hangs them in the dressing room, and in the morning I put on the one that suits me. And the earrings were made for me by a very talented Russian jeweler Pyotr Aksenov. In daily jewelry, simplicity and at the same time originality are important. Petya manages to create such things.
I wonder when was the last time you dressed yourself without a stylist?
Three or four years ago. I have always been annoyed by the need to sit and be tormented by questions about whether this skirt fits this sweater or not. It’s better for me to read something at this time, find out, look. When I worked on the daily broadcast of the "Details" program, they picked up a wardrobe for me, so there was no such headache. I already realized that it was convenient. Well, in life I dressed very simply.
At home, do you dress as you want, or is the stylist also deciding everything?
When I get home from work, I change into a tracksuit. Home should be comfortable, and in clothes, too. If they don’t pull me out of the house, I won’t get out of my tracksuits, I will have many and different ones.
Do you also choose a wardrobe with a stylist for your children?
They dress themselves, already big: Leonty is twelve years old, and Melania will be fourteen in January. My daughter orders a lot of things on the Internet, she has a specific taste. She prefers the grunge style - she does not wear brands, she chooses discreet, modest things. My son loves jeans and Converse sneakers.
Let's touch on another topic. You could become a specialist in plastic surgery, you probably know a lot about her. And although you are still young, admit it, did you have to resort to the services of a plastic surgeon?
No, where do I go! Although some come to the beautician at twenty-eight. It all depends on the structure of the skin and lifestyle, no mesotherapy can replace this. As for Botox, as you know, it paralyzes the muscles, it does not look very nice. If you start going to bed at 11 p.m., you will notice changes after the first week.
I’m talking to you now, and so I wanted to start leading a healthy lifestyle!
The main thing is to remember that nothing just happens. You have to pay for everything, well, how do people not understand this? I will turn thirty-eight in November, I would really like to look at least ten years younger. And I understand that by and large I succeed. I especially like the reaction of people abroad when they see me with my children, and then they find out that this girl with no makeup is the mother of these teenagers. But there are no miracles! As a child, I was very fond of the amazing film with Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko “The Recipe for Her Youth”. Apparently, even as a child, I understood that this topic would excite me greatly. I want to keep the beauty as long as possible. You see, Vadim, in order to evoke the right reaction from partners in business, it is very important to look healthy. This cannot be achieved with injections, pills, health cannot be altered by a plastic surgeon.
If you, like me, eat steamed white fish, yolk-free eggs, and green vegetables, and go to bed at 11 or 11 at night, you won't need any shots. But I repeat: it is very difficult. The main problems that make people look not very good are nocturnal lifestyle, poor diet and alcohol.
I'll try to use your advice.
I think, Vadik, you will like it. But keep in mind: once you enter this story, you can't get out of it. Once you understand that it suits you, you, like me, will begin to involve people in a healthy lifestyle.
Yes, what 100 years! Take at least the Renaissance in Georgia with Queen Tamara, at least Cleopatra, at least Hatshepsut. A person or a leader, or not. What does it matter if he's a man or a woman? There are legends about the Amazons, how they removed one of their breasts back in those ancient times so that they could better shoot a bow and fight. And all the men dreamed of having such an army in their composition.
It's all marketing. Any society is cynical, any organization requires money, that is, a budget. That is, someone pays for it. Someone finances this organization, and then uses it for political purposes. There were a lot of prerequisites. The world was developing technically and technologically, and, accordingly, additional hands were needed - and already during the wars in the 20th century, no one thought about female or male hands.
Yes, women began to vote not so long ago, but men and women are still elected to the presidency in a 50/50 ratio. Well, for example, Indira Gandhi to this day remains in India an example of a great woman from a great family. The President of Croatia, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Theresa May - what is not an example for you that a woman knows how to rule a big country? It didn't work out in America, but it's just a matter of the next step, because Donald Trump created all the conditions for Hillary Clinton.
Queen Tamara was, is and will be the greatest queen for Georgia. But the problem today is not who will rule the country - a man or a woman. The problem is this: a modern leader in a modern country faces a huge number of tasks.
1. Terrorist threat;
2. Permanent migration;
3. The constant threat of nuclear weapons from countries where they seem to be jokingly, but dangerously playing with the red button.
In the world at the same time there is a huge number of processes that are very difficult to trace and, most importantly, to prepare for them. Therefore, the question is not what gender the president will be in the Russian Federation or in the United States, but who will provide security to a huge number of citizens.
They often say to me: would you like to be nominated somewhere, to be elected? I laugh and say that Napoleon would be better off learning how to cook. People, do you even understand what kind of threat every big country faces? At least terrorist! There are also threats within the country. You've all heard the news from the Perm school And it's not just Perm. How many students are armed? And how many students have a full clearance for drugs? And how many students are left to their own devices in social networks? Are they preparing various actions, at least with the aim of scaring, and as a maximum, beautifully leaving life and dragging a couple of classmates or teachers with them? This is a huge threat inside the country. And the person who says: “I can lead the country” must understand how many problems he will have to face. And it must be an outstanding person.
