‘I'm Calm and Confident'

Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, is at the forefront of her country’s fight

- By Kim Abrahams

IT’S not a job she would ever have chosen. In fact, just three years ago Olena Zelenska was totally overwhelmed by the prospect of becoming Ukraine’s first lady.

The man she’d married was a comedian and entertainer, not a politician, and to make matters worse he hadn’t even bothered to inform his wife he was entering the presidential race – she found out about it on social media.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Olena, a scriptwriter and trained architect, asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy (both 44).

“Oh, I forgot,” came the response. Now she’s been thrust into the global limelight in a way she could never have predicted when she first voiced reservations about her husband’s political plans.

In an interview with Vogue Ukraine shortly after Volodymyr’s victory, Olena admitted that at first she was “not too happy” about his decision to run for president.

“I realised how everything would change, and what difficulties we’d have to face,” she said.

But the difficulties she envisaged were run-of-the-mill ones that most presidential couples have to deal with: the loss of privacy and the pressure of constantly living in the spotlight.