Wife of Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Olena Selenska: How she understands her role as First Lady – and skillfully uses it
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska
© Mohammad Javad Abjoushak / Picture Alliance
While her husband Volodymyr Zelenskyy is defending his country, his wife, Olena Zelenska, is staying in a secret place in Ukraine with their two children. The trained architect uses the influence she has as First Lady.
“According to our information, the enemy has made me Target #1, my family Target #2,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media video shortly after the Russian army invaded his country. For good reason, Selenskyj did not reveal where his family was.
Volodymyr Zelenskyj’s wife is Olena Zelenska
The politician has been married to Olena Selenska since 2003, the couple have two children together. Although they attended the same school, the two only met when she was studying architecture at Kryvyi Rih National University. They were a couple for eight years before getting married in September 2003. Like her husband, Selenska turned to the entertainment industry instead of architecture. She is a screenwriter and producer, writing for Quarter 95, a studio founded by her husband.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a famous comedian and actor in Ukraine. Among other things, he won the Ukrainian version of “Let’s Dance” and gave his voice to the bear “Paddington”.
She doesn’t like being in public
Olena Selenska reportedly didn’t think it was a particularly good idea for her husband to run for president at first. “I’m a private person. But the new realities require their own rules and I try to abide by them,” she once said in an interview with Vogue magazine. While her husband is the one who feels comfortable on the big stages, she prefers to work in the background. “I’ve found reasons for myself to do public relations. One of them is the opportunity to draw people’s attention to important societal issues,” she explained.
Even after Selenskyj was elected President, Selenska remained true to her profession. “I write the scripts like I used to,” the first lady told Vogue. “But now you have to split your day between the President’s office and the Quarters and stick to the schedule,” she explained in the portrait. Together with her team, she defined her own topics: “Children’s health, equal opportunities for all Ukrainians and cultural diplomacy”, which the First Lady has been campaigning for for some time.
The First Lady’s Influence
Although she knows that as the President’s wife her skills are representative, she fulfills her role with responsibility. “The President’s wife has an opportunity to communicate with those closest to power. Officials’ doors do not close on the First Lady. I am not a politician and I have no right to get involved in the President’s work but to be an intermediary between the people and the officials so that the latter hear the first, I can do that and I’m really willing to do that,” she told Vogue.
A few days ago she posted on her Instagram channel: “And today I will not panic and tear. I will be calm and confident. My children look up to me.”
swell: “Vogue” / “NBC News”