The picture of her wielding a machine gun was one of the most infamous of the seventies, but now it is Patty Hearst’s model daughter who is striking a memorable pose.
Newspaper heiress Patty became notorious after joining the American guerilla group that kidnapped her.
More than three decades later, her 23 year-old daughter has been named the face and body of lingerie designers Myla and appears in a series of provocative poses wearing satin and silk underwear.
She started modeling four years ago and has since worked with leading photographers including Mario Testino and Mark Abrams. In the past year her career has taken off most recently at the “Fashion Oscars”, she was named “Supermodel of the Year”.
Her ascent to stardom is a far cry from her mother’s. In 1974, Patty Hearst, then aged 19, was kidnapped by left-wing US guerrilla group the Symbionese Liberation Army from her family home in California.
Her captors initially demanded for the release of jailed members of their radical group, and later for the Hearst family to distribute food to every poor person in California.
Neither was carried out and Hearst later claimed that she was kept in a cupboard for months. She shocked her family when she eventually joined the group and adopted the name Tania.
The image of her holding the gun caused controversy in the seventies. She was later arrested with other members of the SLA after a bank robbery.
Despite claiming that she was brainwashed, Hearst was sentenced to seven years in jail. President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence after two years and later Bill Clinton eventually bestowed a presidential pardon.
Hearst later married her former bodyguard Bernard Shaw in 1979. The couple are still married and have two grown up daughters.
Initially she tried her hand as an actress but most recently has made her name as a dog-breeder.
The Hearst family name is one of the best known in the US. Her grandfather – press baron William Randolph – built up one of the largest magazine and newspaper businesses in the world.
He was caricatured by Orson Welles in classic film Citizen Kane. Her father Randolph was valued at $1.8 billion shortly before his death in 2001 at the age of 85.
Luxury lingerie brand Myla was founded in 1999 and is now worth in excess of £25 million.
