At the Cannes Film Festival, not only are films showcased, but also exclusive parties are organized where magical situations occur, like the one in May 2014. Antonio Banderas (65) attended as a guest at a luxurious event organized by the jewelry firm De Grisogono, where he met an attractive woman named Barbara Kimpel. Shortly after, her twin sister, Nicole, appeared, causing a spark in the heart of the man from Malaga.
Years later, the muse of Almodóvar explained: "We both knew where we stood. I was still a married man, although things were heading towards what came later. Once the divorce papers were finalized, that's when we started getting to know each other, and a relationship blossomed."
A few days ago, the Kimpel sisters celebrated their 45th birthday in Marbella in the company of their respective partners, attending the Starlite Occident in Marbella to see Zucchero. They then had dinner at a restaurant where they blew out the candles. Barbara has been in love for a few years with the French singer Fréderic Lerner.
After more than a decade together with our most international actor, Nicole remains a practically unknown woman to the general public as she rarely speaks to the press. She prefers to remain unnoticed and usually stays in the shadow of Antonio at professional events.
Born in Stuttgart, but of Dutch descent, in private, the businesswoman is polite, friendly, and approachable. However, she has always been clear that she is not the protagonist since her field is finance.
Barbara (l) and Nicole Kimpel.Gtres
After studying International Relations, she worked in some of the most important companies in the sector, as she did in Switzerland with Merrill Lynch - investment management, financial advisory, and brokerage - and in the United States for the banking group Lombard Odier. With an insatiable hunger to keep learning, she ventured into the luxury real estate arena with her sister, advising millionaires in search of their ideal mansion.
Nicole also took on the challenge of Antonio Banderas as a designer by studying at the prestigious design and fashion school Central Saint Martin, where graduates include Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, or John Galliano, who will be the central theme of next year's Met Gala.
Before meeting Banderas, the twins also dared to work as presenters for Success Chanel, where they narrated the experiences of various millionaires on their path to success. In the program, they were known as Nicole and Barbara Pearl (The Pearls).
Nicole and Barbara have had a very itinerant life due to their father's work, Klaus Kimpel, an engineer and former business manager in the chemical industry for an American multinational, which led them to move frequently during their childhood. By the age of eight, they had already lived in seven different cities and eventually resided in about thirty. This posed a challenge for the Kimpel sisters in making and maintaining friendships.
Thanks to this itinerant life, Nicole fluently speaks Dutch,English,French, and German, as well as Spanish,Italian, and Arabic, albeit with more difficulty. Her mother, Frederika, has always been a constant support.
Rumors of Antonio and Nicole getting married surface from time to time, but as she told LOC last year when she attended a fashion show in Madrid, "it is not necessary for us to get married. We are happy as we are."
In January 2017, they experienced the scare of their lives when Banderas suffered a heart attack at their London home.
On The Jimmy Kimmel Show, the actor confessed that his girlfriend had saved his life: "I started experiencing heart attack symptoms and knew exactly what was happening. Nicole gave me one of those aspirins [she had bought them the day before because she had a headache] and that saved my life." He was taken to the hospital where three blocked arteries were detected, and three stents were placed.