Victoria Verberg: a short biography of the first wife of Maxim Vitorgan

Victoria Verberg: biography, childhood and youth

Born on June 10, 1963 in Moscow. She comes from a respected and wealthy family. Victoria's father was a successful businessman. But nothing is known about the mother’s profession. Our heroine grew up as an active and inquisitive child. She had many friends in the yard and school. Vika danced and attended the sports section.

In high school, she became seriously interested in theater. After graduating from school, the girl submitted documents to GITIS. She managed to enter this prestigious university the first time. Vika was enrolled in a course with A. Efros. She was a diligent and efficient student. In 1986, the girl received a diploma from a higher educational institution.

Professional activity

Already in her school years, Victoria realized that her future profession would be acting. After receiving a certificate of secondary education, the girl did not immediately manage to fulfill her dream and enter the capital’s theater university. Only in the third year did Victoria successfully pass the entrance exams to the theater.

She entered three renowned creative educational institutions in Moscow at once. The girl chose to study acting at the Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS). Victoria studied acting skills in the workshop of the legendary Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1976) Anatoly Vasilyevich Efos, from which she graduated in 1986.

From 1988 to the present day, Victoria has been an actress at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators. Among the numerous performances in which the artist participated, the following productions can be highlighted: “Ivanov and Others” (Sara), “The Thunderstorm” (Varvara), “Jacques Offenbach” (Bulotta), “Roberto Zucco” (Mother), “The Black Monk” (Tanya Pesotskaya), “Don’t part with your loved ones” (judge) and “It’s all over” (nurse).

The first full-length film in which Victoria starred was the melodrama directed by Yuri Shvyrev “The Coming of the Moon” (1987), where the young actress got the role of Stepanida’s niece named Lyudmila.

The actress's filmography currently includes more than 30 film projects. Vivid works in Victoria’s film career include participation in the films “Against the Tide”, “Circus Princess”, “School”, “Method” and “Sklifosovsky” (season 4). Between 2021 and 2019, eight films were released with Victoria’s participation. Among them, the most famous films are: the comedy “Year of Culture” (the role of Tamara), the melodrama “Great Expectations” (the role of Khavchik’s mother) and the detective series “The Code” (the role of Larisa Plekhanova).

In February-March 2021, the premiere of three films took place, in which the charismatic actress plays. These are the projects “Intercessors” (Zoya Umanskaya), “Magomaev” (Nosov’s chief accountant) and “Ice-2” (head teacher).

Big love

In 1988, Victoria Verberg got a job at the Moscow Youth Theater. On the stage of this institution, she participated in various productions, including “Good-bye America!”, “Black Monk”, “Green Bird” and others. It was within the walls of the Youth Theater that Vika met her first great love. We are talking about Maxim Vitorgan. In 1993, he graduated from GITIS and was accepted into the Youth Theater troupe. A romance began between the actors.

Divorce

Victoria Verberg was in a civil marriage with Maxim Vitorgan for 10 years. Over time, they realized that they had become strangers to each other. Vika and Maxim quietly and peacefully separated. The actor promised to provide financial support to his daughter and son. And he continues to do so.

After some time, Maxim Vitorgan married for the second time. His new chosen one was a young girl, Natalya (a marketer by profession). This marriage did not last long. The actor's current wife is the notorious TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak. As for our heroine, she never got married again. The woman devoted herself to raising her son and daughter.

Personal life

The performer makes no secret of her personal life, talking about it in interviews. It is known that Maxim Vitorgan became Verberg’s chosen one. Despite the fact that the young man was 9 years younger than the actress, this age difference did not bother the spouses living in a civil marriage. The couple met in the early 90s, when Victoria and Maxim worked together at the Moscow Youth Theater.

At that time, a woman started renovations in her apartment and needed a man to do the construction work. Vitorgan Jr. offered his help, and so the conversation began. And soon the actors began to live together. The lady was passionately in love with “a tall, handsome man with green eyes,” as she herself described her husband. When it became known that the artist was expecting a child, Verberg was sure that the first would be a boy.

Victoria Verberg and Maxim Vitorgan with their son Daniil / Instagram

The singer even chose the name Philip for her first-born. When a girl was born in July 1996, Victoria remembered how the little son of her friends, even before the actress’s pregnancy, asked to give birth to a bride named Polina. This is how the name for my daughter was chosen. In September 2000, there was an addition to the family - the actors became Daniel’s parents.

Over time, the passion left the couple's relationship, and they decided to separate. After the divorce, Maxim and Victoria remained on good terms and tried to ensure that the children were not traumatized by the events taking place. Vitorgan Jr. has a new family, but his first wife chose to remain free.

Film career

When did Victoria Verberg first appear on the big screen? This happened in 1987. The aspiring actress played Lisa in the melodrama “Moonfall.” The director enjoyed working with her. This was followed by filming in two film-performances. After a creative break, the actress returned to cinema in 2003. She got the role of Kopylova in the series “The Return of Mukhtar-1”. Below are other film works of Victoria Verberg for the period from 2006 to 2015:

• “More important than love” (2006) - director of a toy factory.
• “Circus Princess” (2007-2008) – Svetlana.
• “Gift of Fate” (2009) – assistant surgeon.
• "Cherkizona. Disposable people" (2010) - merchant Valka.
• “The Ideal Man” (2014) – the owner of a funeral home.
• “Method” (2015) - Tsvetkov’s mother.

In 2002, our heroine was awarded the title Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.

Children

In July 2021, Polina turned 20 years old. Victoria Verberg is glad that her eldest daughter decided to follow in her and Maxim’s footsteps. She studies at one of the theater universities in Moscow. What about the son Daniel? In 2014, the boy entered a prestigious educational institution - Worth School, located in the suburbs of London.

This became possible thanks to the financial support of his father and grandfather (Emmanuel Vitorgan). Daniel's year of study in England costs $16,000, not including food, clothing and accommodation. Maxim’s children from his first marriage often visit both him and his famous grandfather. My father’s current wife (Ksenia Sobchak) managed to find a common language with Polina and Daniil. They even went on vacation to Jurmala together in the summer.

Vitorgan's daughter suffered because of his marriage to Sobchak!

Maxim's ex-wife Victoria Verberg gave her first interview

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Maxim's ex-wife gave her first interview

Nine months ago, Ksenia SOBCHAK unexpectedly married Maxim VITORGAN. Thanks to this, attention to Max has grown incredibly. Journalists also began to besiege actress Victoria VERBERG, his first wife and mother of his two children. But she categorically refused to give an interview. And only now I made an exception for our readers.

— Victoria, you have been serving at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators for a quarter of a century...

- After graduating from GITIS, and I studied on the course of the brilliant
Anatoly Efros , I was invited to join him at the Taganka Theater (Efros was appointed chief director instead of Yuri Lyubimov . - Ya. G. ). But Anatoly Vasilyevich was persecuted so much, literally killed, that he died before I had time to form a member of the troupe. When I learned about the master’s passing, I thought with horror that the world had collapsed. Where to go now, to whom? In order to at least occupy herself with something, she helped show her classmates to theaters. At that time I was not at all interested in the children's scene. I thought: “I am a heroine, and not some birch tree, fox or bunny.” Therefore, Henrietta Yanovskaya (leading director of the Moscow Youth Theater, wife of artistic director Kama Ginkas - Ya. G. ) was initially skeptical about the offer to work with them. - And what changed your opinion? — I was friends with Efros’s wife, art critic Natalya Krymova . It was she who convinced me. It turned out that the performances of the Theater for Young Spectators, for example “Heart of a Dog” staged by Yanovskaya, then thundered throughout the capital. Henrietta Naumovna was going to stage Volodin’s “The Idealist” and offered me a role. From the first second of rehearsal, I realized that this was my director, capable of brilliant solutions to scenes.

Mother's surname

— The play “Don’t Part With Your Loved Ones” recently premiered, where you play the role of a judge. Perhaps the audience involuntarily compares the production with the film where Abdulov and Alferova shone?

— Of course, but theater and cinema are different things. My heroine judges people, she has to spend every day on the human crap that is thrown at her, but she understands: if you take all the stories to heart, you can go crazy. I myself once encountered the domestic judicial system. My dad spent eight years in prison for currency transactions. At that time, I dealt with judges, prosecutors, and investigators. By and large, these are indifferent and cruel people. After the premiere of “Don’t Part With Your Loved Ones,” one young actress came up to me and said: “My sister was at the performance, she’s sure that you really don’t have children.” This is a huge compliment for me. The audience has no idea that when I was screaming mercilessly on stage on behalf of the childless judge, at that moment I was worried about the two dozen failures in mathematics that my son had scored.

— It’s worth explaining to readers that you gave birth to your son Danila (he’s now 13 years old) and daughter Polina (she’s 17) from Maxim Vitorgan. Did the fact that Max is nine years younger than you bother you a lot?

- No, although at the beginning of our relationship I thought: “Why is all this necessary?”
But I quickly realized: there’s no need to worry. By the way, we never registered. Everything started to go wrong for us when I was doing renovations in my apartment, and Vitorgan Jr. , this tall, handsome man with green eyes, who then served in the Youth Theater, volunteered to help. Once we stayed overnight and lived like that for ten years. Love has arrived. I always thought that we would have a boy first, but Polina was born. I hate it when someone wears my things or takes my tights, which is what my daughter is actually doing now. Moreover, I even came up with a name for the boy - Philip. But when Danka was born, I realized that if I named him the same as Kirkorov , there would be trouble. And the name for Polina was invented by the child of our friends Max. One day, lying in a hammock at our dacha, he asked: “Wouldn’t you give me a bride and call her Polina?” I wasn’t even pregnant then.

— Haven’t you ever dreamed of having a luxurious wedding?

“At first I didn’t want to, then I just didn’t have time.
And now there is no feeling of regret: all these cars with a doll on the hood, noisy guests are not for me. I remember when we already had two kids, Vitorgan and I laughed that we should organize at least some kind of holiday for our friends, but it didn’t work out. But when we broke up, there were no problems with the papers. My children and I stayed in our large apartment, which I own thanks to my dad. — Did your parents have anything to do with art? — Mom, Galina Georgievna, worked all her life in the production of military equipment for space, my late father, Arnold Yakovlevich, was once a pilot, and later went into business, not only in Russia, but also in Poland. He was a kind of Ostap Bender, a wonderful adventurer. It was a terrible time back then: I understood that with the surname Verberg I was unlikely to get into college. By the way, for the same reason Maxim once thought about becoming Balter Vitorgan . But it’s like trading an awl for soap. But I could take my mother’s last name and be Kazakova . But the combination Victoria Arnoldovna Kazakova seemed complete nonsense, and I left everything as it was.

- And we enrolled in a course with Efros!

Oleg Efremov also took me to the Moscow Art Theater School. But I settled on GITIS. True, such luck smiled only in the third year of admission. The family is shocked: she succeeded! But I, being stubborn, felt in my soul that I would be an actress. The years were just difficult for us: we lived on one mother’s salary. Me, grandmother, great-grandmother. And then, working in the theater, I was glad that I was doing what I loved.

Family conflict

— When you were expecting your second child, Maxim’s mother, the magnificent actress Alla Balter, passed away...

— Allochka passed away in July, and two months later I gave birth to Danka. My mother-in-law and I were close friends. I loved her very much, and I dare say she loved me too. Amazing woman, learned so much from her! The Queen's appearance - on the one hand, on the other - when there was no washing machine yet, she washed two men's jeans with her beautiful hands. She left this life with great dignity and fought against cancer. I remember only one moment of her weakness. When Maxim and I realized that I was expecting a second one, we came to his parents. Alla was already sick, but the illness had not yet gone far. Hearing the news, she suddenly began to sob terribly and left the room. It seemed such an incongruity to me. But she soon returned, apologized and said she was happy for us. Then I realized: she had a presentiment that she might not see her grandson. And so it happened.

— Polina remembers her grandmother?

- Yes. And I'm very happy because of this. Already lying in the oncology center on Kashirka, Allochka was reading Field of a Fairy Tale to the four-year-old on the phone. She asked her friends to bring her children's books. When Maxim’s mother passed away, I told my daughter: “Allochka is in heaven now, she will always look at you, see your actions, you remember this and comply.” And little Polya often went to a corner at the dacha, looked up somewhere and talked with her grandmother. I’m sure her connection with Allochka has not been lost to this day. Yes, and Dani, imagine, too. My son confessed to me: “I know her from somewhere, I often think about Allochka, I have seen a woman who looks like her.” This is a genetic mix, for her grandchildren she is not a grandmother, but Allochka. And grandfather Emmanuil Gedeonovich is simply Emmochka. Just like my mother, Galochka.

— Are you friends with Irina Mlodik, the current wife of Vitorgan Sr.? She's practically the same age as you.

— Our relationship with Ira went through different stages.
There was a moment when we didn’t communicate. Then, being next to Maxim, I took his side in a family conflict. By and large, I had no right to express emotions about the choice of Emmanuel Vitorgan’s life partner - it’s none of my business. But, like a decent wife, I supported Max. Over time, a lot has changed, and one day I apologized to Ira. For the past. We're close now. — Some time after breaking up with you, Maxim married marketing specialist Natalya. Have you talked to her? — We met only sometimes in common companies. At a certain point, Maxim became like my closest relative. We are united by children, in whom we must invest love, set an example of the relationship between a man and a woman, regardless of whether they sleep in the same bed or not. It’s worth a lot when Polina and Danya smile: “It’s so cool that we have you like that!” I can’t say that Max and I parted without pain and resentment. But the task was that the pain needed to be pushed aside and the arrows needed to be moved to something else. This helped us a lot to have the relationships we have now.

— The news about the wedding of Maxim and Ksenia Sobchak was initially perceived by many as a practical joke. And you?

“My daughter and I found out about this before anyone else.
We were aware of when their relationship was just beginning. Although I never followed Ksyusha’s personal life or saw her TV shows, Polina was interested. Now we communicate well with Sobchak, she and Maxim come to visit us, we spend time playing different games. Ksenia helped Polina choose a dress for her school prom. In the summer, the children and I, Maxim and Ksenia, rested in Jurmala, in the house of Emmanuel Gedeonovich and Irina. — Has Maxim changed after marrying Ksyusha? - Don't think. I know him deeper and more than many others. Max remains a decent person who loves our children very much and treats me well. The only thing that has changed is that they started writing about him more often, calling him “Sobchak’s husband.” But only superficial people take the bait this way. Watch films and performances with his participation. Max is constantly growing creatively. Alla Balter predicted to her son: “Your time will come after forty” - and she turned out to be right.

Not romantic, but useful

— You haven’t lived with Maxim Vitorgan for ten years, during this time has someone taken your heart?

- No, it's free.
Of course, something happened, but first of all I remained a support for the children. Taking care of the country house takes a lot of time; my dad built it and I remodeled it. — Are you an emotional person? Do you cry often? “I cried the other day when I counted how many bad grades my son had.” Danya is a happy guy and an unsinkable person. Ksenia calls him “Danya vital”, from the word “vita” - life. My mother recently called her grandson: “Well, you abandoned your studies, and I wanted to invite you to the film “Stalingrad.” Danya, without blinking, answered: “Galya, I have my own Stalingrad here.” - This year your daughter entered the theater... - At the RATI, on a course with Alexei Borodin, and in the budget department. I couldn’t stop her from choosing an acting profession. I think that my son will follow in Maxim’s and my footsteps, although for now he says that he will be a cook. My children know all the ins and outs of this world. How you are removed from a role in the theater after you give birth to a child. They remember how they begged: “Don’t go!” - when mom needs to rush to the performance. How their grandmother Alla Balter suffered when she was not filmed... Polina went on tours to all theater universities. Somewhere it was successful, somewhere it was cut short. In Shchuka they told her in plain text: “What is your last name? Vitorgan! So, you and Sobchak too! The family will not become poor if you go to a paid department.” I felt that there was no need to go to such a place. It was shocking that a creative university could come to this.

— Wouldn’t Emmanuel Vitorgan help Polina if something happened?

“It’s a disservice to push a child into a university, where they will then laugh at her.”
Once upon a time, Maxim was also worried, proving that he had the right to be in this profession with a famous surname. It is much better to achieve it yourself, to go your own way. By the way, Maxim and Polina auditioned together for the new film “Marriage Dances” for Valeria Gai Germanika . Polina was taken, but dad was not. So soon she will help us, and not we will help her. — You recently had an anniversary. How did you cope? - At home, like a family. Ira, Emmanuel Gedeonovich’s wife, suggested that I celebrate at their Cultural Center, but I refused. A year before, Ira and her twin sister also celebrated their 50th birthday there. They called the evening “100 for two.” A huge number of guests, speeches, toasts. I didn't want this. And it’s not that I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve turned half a century old. I don't feel my age. I just wanted to celebrate with only my closest friends. It turned out very fun, warm, tasty. Lots of vodka and gifts. — What did Maxim present? — He always gives something useful.
And this time - perfume and money. I recently bought a car on credit, and Max presented me with cash to pay it off faster. Not romantic, but useful. #43/2013 Ksenia Sobchak