Model who swapped the catwalk for the Kalahari desert: Why I ditched life of glamour to live with bushmen - and married a man I'd known for four months!

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

A Norwegian model has revealed why she fled her glamorous life in the fashion industry to live in the African desert after she was robbed at gunpoint as a teenager.
In the first episode of the new series of New Lives in the Wild - airing at 9pm on Thursday - Ben Fogle travelled to Botswana to meet Norwegian former model Aleksandra Orbeck Nilssen, a 34-year-old, also a conservationist and bush guide, and her husband Ralph Bousfield.
Aleksandra, moved to Africa in her late teens after a harrowing near-death experience in New York left her left her yearning for a life outside city confines, and initially lived in Namibia.
She moved to Botswana in early 2025 and had only been living there a number of months when Ben arrived to visit her 'Wisdom Academy' for the indigenous Ju'/hoansi people.
Aleks first abandoned her Nordic roots to move to Africa 20 years ago after a night in New York changed her life forever.
Having been scouted as a model as a teenager, Aleks spent a number of years working in the fashion industry, eventually settling in the Big Apple.
'As a young model I travelled the world in a very short time. I didn't realise it would be so lonely, I was extremely unhappy,' she said, revealing the reason she found herself living in the city.
Recalling the harrowing attack that altered the trajectory of her life, she said: 'I was walking home from a film set late at night. I heard these catcalls, which is quite common in New York, so I just carried on walking.
'Then they grabbed me and wanted to get money from me. While I am digging through my bag looking for something, I suddenly feel something kiss my forehead.
'That was a gun and so I was held at gunpoint. I went from having so much control, then this moment someone takes away all these control.
'When they realised I didn't have anything, they just said 'Move' and left. I went back to my flat and didn't really know what to do.
'It felt like it was a universal b*tch slap. And the fact that he said move, it felt like an instruction.
'I said to myself I'm going to spin the globe and if my finger lands in the ocean I'll go on a gap year. And if it lands on Norway I can spin again. And if it lands on a country I'll go there, unless there's a civil war. And it was Namibia.'
During the first episode of the new series, Ben visited Aleks in Botswana, a vast nation in Southern Africa, 70 per cent of which is thought to belong to desert.
The country has a population of just two million, most of which reside in the cities, with the rural deserts scarcely populated by humans.
'Aleks in originally from Norway and you couldn't get two more contrasting countries,' said Fogle.
At the time of filming, Aleks had only been in Botswana a number of months, but was already well established within the local community where she now works.
After arriving in Botswana, Aleks set up the Wisdom Academy, a new project which aims to teach ancient practices to the younger generation.
She described the academy as a 'sanctuary for knowledge and wisdom' of the local community.
'It is here to guide the future so it's not about preserving to keep it a place a the past. It's not about the past, it's a think tank for the future where we can find ways to merge creativity, innovation, new ideas and mix that with the old, ancient wisdom.'
Many areas of Southern Africa are impacted by new laws that have prohibited indigenous communities from hunting and gathering, restrictions have posed immense difficulties for local communities.
Aleks explained: 'They're not allowed to hunt and gather anymore. But imagine that's your life purpose, then it's taken away. They need a place and a platform where they can actually get paid to be the guardians of nature that they have been for hundreds and thousands of years.'
Aleks divides her time between living and working at the academy, and living with her husband, Ralph Bousfield in his safari lodge, located a 15 minute drive from the main camp. It is within the Ralph's safari grounds that the academy was built.
As well as supplying water to their camp, it also gives food and employment through bush guides visiting tourists.
In February earlier this year, the model arrived in Botswana for a job where she met fellow bush guide, Ralph, who was raised in Botswana.
The two quickly fell in love and married four months later. Aleks fondly described him as 'the most niche husband in the world'.
Ralph lives nearby at 'Jacks camp', where Aleks spends her time when her husband is around. 'But if he's not there, I live with them here.'
Though she insisted that she has never in her life 'moved for anyone', and has created the camp because she has 'a job to do on this planet'.
'I'm on a mission, that doesn't just stop because I fall in love. I told him fairly early on that I'm not the kind of person who grows trees under the canopy of someone else's forest - I like to create adjacent forests and they can feed each other.'
She speaks the local language well. 'But I don't think you can ever be fluent. You know, you go to a new place and you learn new words.'
At the academy, she was filmed working to help build pathways and dragging thorn bushes to shield the community from lions.
During the visit, Ben assisted the tribe in helping to build defences against the elements - including attacks from lions.
'Desert lions are always a bit more feisty because life in the desert is hard, the Kalahari kind of hates you,' Aleks said.
Reflecting on his visit, he said: 'I wasn't expecting to find so many people here. I was just anticipating find a Norwegian woman living in the wilds of Botswana and instead I've found a Norwegian woman and her extended family.'
The academy, where she splits her time, has to travel to access water and currently has no electricity - though they hope to acquire some solar panels in the future.
'I don't think it will change things drastically for me,' the model, who has lived remotely in parts of Africa for a number of years, said.
The academy, where she splits her time, has to travel to access water and currently has no electricity - though they hope to accumulate some solar panels in the future.
Near where Aleks lives in the rural community, there is a tourist camp which helps provide financial support to the indigenous people. 'Tourism should pay for nature,' she said, adding that tourism is a 'renewable energy'.
'This is our classroom,' she told Ben. 'Our main aim is to pass on our knowledge to the younger generation.'
Asked by the presenter why she made it her mission to help people in Botswana, she said: 'I think it's so important to focus on what we can do something about, instead of who is the person who should be allowed to do something about something.
'If every man is for himself, we're not going to have a very sustainable future,' she said.
Before her life in Africa, Aleks began modelled as a teenager, launching a successful career at the mere age of just 13 thanks to her unique Scandinavian beauty.
She initially resisted the career, having been stopped in the street on a number of occasions by scouters, but was eventually persuaded after a friend of hers sent a picture of her to an agency.
'All of a sudden I got this phone call asking me to do Oslo fashion week. At this stage, I was 13 and a half.'
For her next job, she headed to New York where she was part of her first fashion campaign for Ford aged just 14. Despite never having a fascination for the fashion world, Aleks was desperate to do anything to get her 'out of Norway'.
'I was so determined, it was like I had this internal compass,' she said.
Her career enabled her to travel the world 'in a very short space of time', a venture that she found 'lonely'.
Having grown up just outside of Oslo, where she enjoyed a childhood fully immersed in the outdoors, Aleks has always had a taste for adventure.
'I grew up with forest behind my house and parents that dragged us into nature in any free time possible,' she said.
Then, at the age of 18, she few to Namibia to an animal sanctuary where a two week planned trip turned out into a 13-year stay.
From there, she continued to pursue her modelling career, appearing on the cover of countless glossy magazines, including Elle and Style, all the while embracing life in Africa and training as a bush guide alongside.
'I decided to let go of my life in New York and take the bold leap and went all in,' she said.
'Two weeks later I was on the plane. I had a weird feeling like roots were growing out of my feet. When I arrived it was like 'I'm home, but I don't know why'. I was offered a job so I took a bold leap and went all in.
'I met the tribe that I have now been working with for 14 years and realised I had to work with them.'
At 20, she set up an organisation to help support the tribe with whom she lived with in Africa.
The exchange has been mutually beneficial though. Aleks said the indigenous people of Namibia 'completely saved me'.
'They've brought nature to life around me. Could you get a better gift than that?'
Reflecting on her conversation with Aleks, Ben said: 'I've always got this sense that some of us aren't born where we feel we belong. It's that sense of belonging that some people spend their life searching for.
'Few of the lucky ones - in this case Aleks - find it.
'She has had what people think will bring happiness: beauty, mind, money, travel, glitz and glamour. But none have brought her the happiness she has found here in the desert.'
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.