Adriana Lima's parents are Nelson Torres, a carpenter, and Maria das Graças Lima, a social worker. Her father left the family when she was six months old, and she was raised primarily by her mother in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, a formative experience that deeply shaped her resilience and values.
Profile and Family Background
Adriana Lima, born on 12 June 1981 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, is a 45-year-old model, actress, and television personality as of 2026. She is currently married to Andre Lemmers III and has three children: Valentina, Sienna, and Cyan. Lima's net worth is estimated at $95 million. She is of mixed ethnicity, identifying as Afro-Brazilian, with a heritage that includes African, Portuguese, Native Brazilian, Japanese, Swiss, and West Indian roots.
Her mother, Maria das Graças Lima, raised her in the Castelo Branco neighbourhood of Salvador after her father left. Maria worked as a state social worker to support the family, long before Lima's modelling career took off. Lima has often spoken about her mother's influence, particularly in shaping her confidence and approach to beauty.
Nelson Torres: The Father Who Left
Adriana Lima's father, Nelson Torres, worked as a carpenter in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He left the family home when Lima was only six months old, leaving her mother to raise her as a single parent. Though estranged during much of her childhood and rise to fame, Lima later reconnected with him and spent time with him before he died in 2015.
Maria das Graças Lima: The Mother Who Raised Her
Maria das Graças Lima raised Adriana largely on her own in the Castelo Branco neighbourhood. As a state social worker, she worked hard to support her daughter. In a 2016 Marie Claire interview, Lima said, "And the women who taught me to be a strong, confident person are my grandmother and my mom."
Lima also recalled how her mother influenced her beauty habits from an early age, remembering one detail that stayed with her as she entered the modelling industry: "In fact, my first memory of beauty is my mother's lipstick. She has a simple and casual style, but she always wore a burgundy or red lip colour—and still does… When I became a model, makeup artists told me that accentuating just one feature, like your eyes or lips, prevents your face from looking overdone."
She continued: "We also used to do beauty treatments together when I was growing up in Brazil. I would go with my mom to the nail salon. And once a week, we would make a homemade hair mask by mashing up an avocado.... To this day, she still sends me Brazilian almond oil that I use as body moisturiser."
In a 2016 Allure interview, Lima also credited her mother with teaching her that true beauty is about more than appearance, saying: "My mother taught me at a very young age that beauty comes from within. A happy and smiling girl is the most beautiful girl in the room. Makeup is there to enhance the inner beauty that you exude."
Siblings and Family Dynamics
Adriana Lima does not have any full siblings and was raised as an only child by her mother. However, she does have paternal half-brothers from her estranged father's later marriage.
Adriana Lima's parents had very different roles in her childhood. Her father left when she was just six months old, while her mother raised her alone in Salvador, Brazil. That experience became an important part of Lima's early life as she grew from a child raised by a single mother into one of the world's most successful supermodels.
