Michelle Mary Teresa Rocca (born 1961) is an Irish former model, television presenter, and beauty queen who, in 1980, won the

Miss Ireland Miss World Ireland is a national Beauty pageant in Ireland. Winners of the competition represent Ireland at Miss World. Among the winners are Rosanna Davison, who went on to win Miss World 2003, and Pamela Uba, who in 2021 became the first ...

title. The following year, she married footballer John Devine. Two years after their divorce in 1990 she met and later married, Northern Irish singer

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

. She is the daughter of Paddy and Maureen Rocca, and granddaughter of Italian immigrant Egidio Rocca who founded the successful business, Rocca Tiles.

Career

Rocca grew up in a large family with two brothers and three sisters. Rocca attended

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

studying

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Roman Civilization The history of Rome includes the history of the Rome, city of Rome as well as the Ancient Rome, civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman la ...

and Italian and French

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. She is fluent in several languages and has earned an MA degree from

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in Dublin and also a degree from

Bristol University , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. She was named

in 1980Rogan, No Surrender, p. 407 and was the number 3 finalist in the

Miss International 1981 Miss International 1981, the 21st Miss International pageant, was held on 6 September 1981 in Kobe, Japan. It was won by Jenny Annette Derek from Australia. Results Placements Contestants * - Jenny Derek * - Barbara Reimund * - Dominique ...

pageant. She worked in the family business and also modelled until she joined

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

in 1987 as a television presenter. In 1988, she co-hosted the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

with

Pat Kenny Patrick Kenny (born 29 January 1948) is an Irish broadcaster, who currently hosts the daily radio show ''The Pat Kenny Show'' on Newstalk and the current affairs show ''Pat Kenny Tonight'' on Virgin Media One. Prior to this, Kenny had a 41-yea ...

in front of a worldwide audience of 600 million viewers. She continued to model, with occasional presenting jobs, such as the

Miss World 1990 Miss World 1990, the 40th anniversary of the Miss World pageant, was held on 8 November 1990 at the London Palladium in London, United Kingdom. The winner was Gina Tolleson representing United States. She was crowned by Miss World 1989, Aneta Be ...

contest in London. Rocca is now a psychology and motivational teacher with a master's degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Personal life

She began dating

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

International

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

John Devine when she was 17 and they were married in 1981 and lived in England. The couple had two daughters, Danielle and Natasha, but separated in 1987 and she returned to Dublin with the children. They divorced in 1990. She was engaged to Cathal Ryan, son of multi-millionaire

Tony Ryan Thomas Anthony Ryan (2 February 1936 – 3 October 2007) was an Irish billionaire, philanthropist and businessman who co-founded the Ryanair airline. Through his establishment of Guinness Peat Aviation in 1975 he began a course of events which ...

who co-founded

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...

and owned

Guinness Peat Aviation Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA) was a Commercial Aircraft Sales and Leasing company set up in 1975 by Aer Lingus, the Guinness Peat Group (a London-based financial services company) and Tony Ryan, then an Aer Lingus executive. History GPA was ...

. After living together for two years, they separated when Michelle was expecting their child, Claudia, who was born in April 1991. Upon Cathal Ryan's death in December 2007 of cancer, Rocca was quoted as saying, "He was a wonderful father to Claudia; he and I had a very good relationship over the past number of years and he will be greatly missed by all of us." Rocca met Northern Irish singer-songwriter

in the summer of 1992. They married in the mid-1990s and divorced on 24 March 2018. They have two children, Aibhe and Fionn Ivan. She was the second woman to appear on one of Morrison's album covers—1995's '' Days Like This''. (The first was Morrison's first wife Janet "Planet" Rigsbee, who appeared on the cover of 1971's ''

Tupelo Honey ''Tupelo Honey'' is the fifth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in October 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. Morrison had written all of the songs on the album in Woodstock, New York, before his move ...

''.) Rocca also appeared on the cover of the October 1994 tribute album, '' No Prima Donna: The Songs of Van Morrison''. Rocca has five children. She also has a granddaughter, who was born in February 2001.

References

Sources

* Rogan, Johnny (2006): ''Van Morrison : No Surrender'', London:Vintage Books
Where Are They Now?
''Irish Examiner'', 30 August 1999

External links

Michelle Rocca @ IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocca, Michelle 1961 births Living people Television personalities from Dublin (city) Irish socialites Irish people of Italian descent Van Morrison Miss Ireland winners Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of the University of Bristol Miss World 1980 delegates Miss International 1981 delegates RTÉ television presenters Beauty pageant contestants from Ireland Association footballers' wives and girlfriends

Career

Personal life

See also

References

Sources

External links