Getting through Immigration can be stressful. Former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Paulina Porizkova found getting through Immigration at Juan Santamaria Airport last week completely overwhelming. Her meltdown was so intense, that she was put in a wheelchair and taken right back to the airplane that brought her. Porizkova’s challenge was that she attempted to enter Costa Rica with an expired passport.

Porizkova (55) was born in Czechoslovakia, but holds US/Swedish citizenship. She and her two sons were traveling on American passports. Porizkova was the first woman from Central Europe to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition (1984). Harper’s Bizarre named her one of its ten most beautiful women in 1992.
In 1989, Porizkova married Ric Ocaskek (75), lead singer of the rock band The Cars. They had two sons. The couple separated in 2017, but continued living together. Ocaskek suffered from hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and Porizkova returned home one day and found him dead. The will he left cut her out completely (along with children of his first marriage), accusing Paulina of having abandoned him.

Porizkova claims that the cause of her Costa Rican meltdown was her difficulty adjusting to being single again. She said, “Turns out after sharing 32 years with another person, I had learned the art of sharing to perfection – but not the art of being alone.” She and her sons had visited Costa Rica just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and she considered it her “Happy Place.”
Porizkova is contesting the will left by her husband, and unless the courts can prove abandonment, she will be entitled to one third of Ocaskek’s assets. That amounts to $5 million in copyright royalties, $100,000 in personal property, and $15,000 in cash. That could mean many return trips to Costa Rica.

Paulina told airport officials that she was suffering from post-divorce depression. She described how she felt, “This feeling of incredible physical heaviness, lack of energy, and constant tears – is, by the way, as much physical as it’s emotional. I feel like my bones are made of lead pipes.”

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