Friends tell of model’s pain at losing the two men she loved most
As friends search for answers following actor and model Annalise Braakensiek’s suicide, it has been revealed the Bondi Beach beauty struggled to cope with losing the two men she loved most.
Confidential
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When Annalise Braakensiek was forced to leave her beloved Bondi following the breakdown of her marriage, she left a little piece of her soul behind.
Becoming the quintessential Bondi girl long before the beach suburb was an Instagram hotspot, Braakensiek had built her image on sun, sea, surf — and being able to wear a bikini like few others could.
So when the sudden split from her investment banker husband Danny Goldberg forced her to move to a one-bedroom flat in Potts Point last year, friends say it was a devastating blow from which she never really recovered.
“She was broken,” said photo agency executive Kasey Drayton, who became friends with Braakensiek after first meeting her on a magazine shoot in Sydney 20 years ago.
“She was heartbroken when she and Danny split and there is no denying that.
“The impression I got was that it was leaving Bondi that she really struggled with … being displaced out of her home.
“For her, having that home base, that place that she loved, was so important.
“So leaving, I think, made her feel very lonely.”
A week after her sudden suicide, photographer Ross Hodgson, who became a close confidant over many years working with the model and actress, offered further insight into how Bondi had become an integral part of Braakensiek’s identity.
“Now anyone can publish their own glamorous life with a smart phone and Instagram, but
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Annalise started her news feed into the beautiful life she led when things were still analogue,” Mr Hodgson said.
“She built a brand. Wherever possible she championed charities, she promoted beauty, health, wellness and creativity. She represented beach beauty. She put herself out there and single-handedly did a great deal to represent Bondi, Sydney and Australia internationally.”
But in recent months, Braakensiek’s demeanour had taken a darker turn.
“I think I would feel better not mentioning the conversations we had and how she felt,” Mr Hodgson said.
Found by friends in her new home after suffering an apparent overdose last Sunday, Braakensiek’s death has rocked the Sydney social scene where she and Mr Goldberg were once a regular fixture.
When the couple split in April after 16 years of marriage, Ms Drayton said Braakensiek saw it as a failure.
“For her Danny was always ‘the one’. I remember when she met him … she told me, ‘That’s him, that’s the man I am going to marry’.
“She absolutely adored him and losing him — it broke her.
“But in saying that, even in her darkest times she still managed to put a positive spin on things. She admitted she was going through some rough times but she always seemed to be able to find something good in every bad situation.
“So when I heard of her death I was truly just shocked.
“To me there weren’t any red flags really. She had some issues but overall she seemed like moving forward.”
Divorce was not the only disappointment that Braakensiek had struggled with in recent times. She had long mourned the death of her father Odd Karlsen, who died in 2004 at age 78 after a protracted battle with cancer.
His death, according to another close friend, was particularly hard as she and Karlsen had only become acquainted later in life.
Braakensiek had no knowledge of her father until, at the age of 19, armed with information gleaned from her mother, she began seeking him out.
However, it was a conversation while working as a waitress at the departure lounge of San Francisco’s International Airport in 1992 that eventually brought them together.
“She overheard this Australian guy talking about yachts and approached him,” Sydney yachting veteran Tony Cable said. “She asked him if he knew Odd Karlsen. He said; “Yes, I had a beer with him a couple of days ago’. She apparently said: “He’s my dad.”
“And after that, the wheels were in motion.”
That passenger was Sydney sailing identity Terry Wise, and a year later he organised the father-daughter reunion at a yachting regatta in 1993.
Not surprisingly, the pair instantly hit it off.
“He was this six-foot-something, blonde-haired Norwegian guy who was extremely good-looking,” Mr Cable said.
“And she is obviously very similar. You know, she inherited a lot of her appearance from him. Blonde hair and very attractive. They just clicked.”
Their breathtaking looks aside, Karlsen and Braakensiek shared a lot of other traits. Both were gregarious high-achievers who seemed to draw others into their orbit. And Karlsen, like his daughter, was somewhat of a celebrity. As a Norwegian sailor on board KNS Acanthus, Karlsen hoisted his country’s flag at the German surrender ceremony at Marinholm in Bergen at the end of World War II. Later he would become regarded as one of the finest yachtsmen in Sydney.
“She and Oddy got along like a house on fire,” said a close friend who was among the hundreds of mourners who attended Karlsen’s funeral in Sydney before his ashes were scattered off Sydney Heads on March 28, 2004.
“They were similar in a lot of ways and kind of both had these extraordinary lives.
“So they totally bonded. But he passed away less than 10 years later and she was devastated. She adored him.”
Another friend said that after meeting her father Braakensiek felt like she “had the final puzzle piece” in her life.
Shortly before her death, Braakensiek posted on Instagram about her “bestie in heaven”, a reference some speculated was related to fellow Sydney identity Charlotte Dawson, who committed suicide in 2014.
However, friends of Braakensiek said it was more likely to be a tribute to her father.
Little is known of Braakensiek’s mother, who has remained elusive and is believed to be living in northern NSW.
It is known, however, that prior to her death last week, Braakensiek had remained close to Karlsen’s widow Francis and her step-brother Kristian, both of whom live in Sydney.
Now, those who knew Braakensiek best think it is time for the girl who helped put Bondi on the map to get her only small piece of the famous beach dedicated to her memory.
“I am not alone in thinking a beautiful but subtle memorial should be placed in Bondi overlooking the beach and ocean she loved,” Mr Hodgson said.
Originally published as Friends tell of model’s pain at losing the two men she loved most
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