Model Annalise Braakensiek found dead in Sydney
Model Annalise Braakensiek, who was found dead in her Sydney apartment yesterday, had the wind “punched out of her sails” after splitting from her husband of 16 years, a friend has said.
Friends have paid tribute to Annalise Braakensiek after the model was found dead in her Sydney apartment after battling depression.
The 46-year-old’s body was found by emergency services in her Potts Point unit about 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon, called to the unit when friends and family raised concerns after not hearing from her for a number of days.
The death is not being treated as suspicious.
“Everybody saw her as this absolutely gorgeous soul, still modelling bikinis until recently,” Studio 10 celebrity commentator Craig Bennett said.
“Very much like Charlotte Dawson, there was an other side to Annalise and it was just a sadness.”
Australia’s Next Top Model judge Dawson died by suicide in 2014.
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Braakensiek split from stockbroker husband of 16 years, Danny Goldberg, last April and shared her troubles on social media, telling fans of a “turbulent year” and that “everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment”.
“She really took that very hard and she felt that she had failed,” Bennett explained, having known Braakensiek since the early 1990s.
“When you have that dynamic when somebody is very frail and vulnerable deep down inside and then to have something as important to her as a marriage collapse it really knocked her for a spin. It kind of punched the wind out of her sails and plunged her into a dark place, all of which is evidenced in her social media threads.”
Eastern suburbs real estate agent Victoria Morish said: “So very sad — can’t believe it.”
Braakensiek bought the Victoria Street, Potts Point, apartment in November.
“I am losing my mind with how tragic this is,” event organiser Alex Zabatto-Bentley said.
Actor Nicole Fantl caught up with Braakensiek in Europe last year.
“Stop please is this true?” she asked. “I just saw her a couple of months ago in Spain.”
Braakensiek made a name for herself first as a model but later as an actor, a health ambassador, jewellery and lingerie designer, and vegan blogger.
She fought a highly publicised battle with depression in recent years, working as an ambassador for RUOK? Day.
She spoke of her dark days in a 2017 interview on The Daily Edition.
“It was the … negative reaction people had to me being depressed and falling under the dark cloud. In many ways my life is wonderful, for which I’m extremely grateful and there’s no doubting that, but when you’re suffering these kinds of things for people to say how dare you — you’re a model, you’re a millionaire, you’re round the world,” she said. “That’s got nothing to do with this.”
The suicide prevention organisation would not comment on the circumstances of Braakensiek’s death out of respect for her family and loved ones.
“We are still processing the news we have heard today. Annalise has been a huge voice for suicide prevention in Australia,” R U Ok? chief executive Brendan Maher said.
“Nothing we have ever asked of Annalise was too much, she has stepped up time and time again to share our message, even when she was going through her own tough times.
We couldn’t have asked for a more genuine, kind and sincere spokesman.”
There was no activity around Braakensiek’s Potts Point apartment building the day after her body was found in her top-floor unit.
It is understood that the normally vibrant and bubbly model had become reclusive in the days leading up to her death.
Braakensiek previously told The Daily Telegraph in November 2017 that she had never really wanted to be a model.
“I fought against it for a long time and then I thought it’s so lucrative, so I deferred from uni thinking I’d do it for a year and 25 years later, I’m still doing it. But at times I would think what am I doing just standing here?” she said.
A report is being prepared for the Coroner.
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