Caitriona Balfe is a former fashion model who featured in advertising campaigns and on runways for the biggest fashion brands. She worked with Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli, Max Mara, Salvatore Ferragamo, Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Bottega Veneta, Oscar de la Renta, and many others.
However, she has since joined the movie industry and is best known for her role as Claire Fraser in the Starz drama series “Outlander”. She’s also won a couple of awards as an actress and has four Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama.
In Hollywood, it would appear that to transition from modelling to acting is a norm, but it doesn’t seem to look as easy as it sounds.
To be honest being very successful in two different fields is by no means a mean feat, and Caitriona Balfe deserves to be celebrated as the queen that she is. But before we delve into her life properly, let’s take a quick look at the top ten things to know about Caitriona Balfe.
10 need to know facts about Caitriona Balfe
- Caitriona Balfe was born in Dublin, Ireland, and had six other siblings (3 boys and 3 girls).
- She started modelling as a teenager, and when she turned 18, a Ford Models scout approached her to work for them.
- Caitriona has worked for almost all the top brands in the world including, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Salvatore Ferragamo, and more.
- Surprisingly, she claimed that she never had a passion for modelling, and it’s why it was getting old and tiring after just ten years.
- Caitriona Balfe’s true passion was acting, and she was studying to become an actress at the Dublin Institute of Technology before opportunities emerged in modelling.
- After leaving modelling, she returned to take acting classes and made her on-screen debut as the protagonist’s mother in “Super 8” (2011).
- She has gone on to feature in many more movies and TV shows, including the one she is most famous for, the television series “Outlander”.
- Balfe is one of the highest-paid women on television and received $100,000 per episode for starring in “Outlander”.
- She is married to band manager and music producer Tony McGill.
- As of 2020, Caitriona had an estimated net worth of about $4 million.
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Early life and family background
Her full name is Caitriona Mary Balfe and she was born on 4 October 1979 in Dublin, Ireland. She grew up with 6 other siblings in the village of Tydavnet, near Monaghan. Caitriona’s father is a retired Garda Sergeant.
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During an interview with Parade, she recalls how Sunday mornings are spent in her house while growing up.
“Sundays always started with my mom bribing us [Balfe, her three brothers and three sisters] to get out of bed. She makes the most incredible homemade brown bread and scones. She’d bring us up tea or coffee and scones and then we would be dragged out of the house to go to Mass,” Balfe said.
She also said it’s usually very noisy because everyone was around in the house. Caitriona claims that the girls not only outnumbered the boys at home but they were also stronger.
Career
Modelling
Caitriona Balfe was formerly an Irish model who turned into a successful Hollywood actress and has equally flourished on both pedestals.
Just as quickly as she became famous and sought after during her 10-year stint in the fashion industry, Caitriona built momentum in the acting industry in little to no time.
She started her modelling career very early on during her teenage years, scouted by an agent while she was raising money for charity at a local shopping centre. And at 18, she piqued the interest of a Ford Models scout after spending a few months in Dublin working as a model.
She was offered an opportunity to work for the agency in Paris, France, which she accepted. Caitriona went on to open and close shows for Chanel, Moschino, Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana, Alberta Ferretti and Louis Vuitton.
Caitriona Balfe bikini photos
Over 10 years in the modeling business comes with different jobs and one of the many jobs Caitriona did was a lingerie and bikini one.
Acting
Before she became a successful international model, Caitriona Balfe was studying acting at Dublin Institute of Technology in the country’s capital city, and after her ten-year career in modelling, she picked up on where she left off.
She moved from New York to Los Angeles and took acting classes for a whole year and half, first at the Warner Loughlin Studios and then at the Sanford Meisner Center and the Judith Weston Studios.
In 2011, she made her on-screen debut as the protagonist’s mother in “Super 8”, and albeit it being a minor role, it was the start of something new. She has since starred in several movies including, “Now You See Me”, “Escape Plan” (alongside Sylvester Stallone) and many more.
Caitriona Balfe is mostly known for her portrayal of the heroine Claire in the fantasy TV series “Outlander” (2014-present).
Outlander
Caitriona’s best-known role to date was the one she played in the Starz fantasy TV series “Outlander”. The show was based on a series of young adult fantasy novels by Diana Gabaldon about a British nurse from the 1940s transported to mid-18th century Scotland where she falls for a young Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser.
Sam Heughan Twitter
Sam Heughan was part of the “Outlander” cast, and he starred as Jamie Fraser in the popular TV series. His role, opposite that of Balfe, has given him fame. Many fans want to know how to connect with their favourite onscreen characters, and Twitter is one platform that allows that. Sam’s Twitter handle is @SamHueghan, and you can follow him. Here are the other cast members from the show:
Outlander season 1 (Cast)
- Caitriona Balfe as Claire Beauchamp Randall/Fraser
- Sam Heughan as James “Jamie” MacKenzie Fraser
- Tobias Menzies as Frank Randall
- Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall
- Graham McTavish as Dougal MacKenzie
- Duncan Lacroix as Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser
- Grant O’Rourke as Rupert MacKenzie
- Stephen Walters as Angus Mhor
- Gary Lewis as Colum MacKenzie
- Lotte Verbeek as Geillis Duncan a.k.a. Gillian Edgars
- Bill Paterson as Edward “Ned” Gowan
- Simon Callow as Clarence Marylebone, Duke of Sandringham
- Laura Donnelly as Janet “Jenny” Fraser Murray
- Douglas Henshall as Taran MacQuarrie
- Steven Cree as Ian Murray
Sam and Cait
While the pair share a romantic relationship on the show, many have wondered if it’s the same situation when the cameras aren’t rolling, and the answer is NO! Sam and Cait are simply just friends when they are not acting.
Caitriona claims they decided to have each other’s backs since day one, even before filming began. She also explained that the characters that she and Sam played are so inspiring and so aspirational that people just really wanted to believe in it. But in reality, it isn’t so.
Following her success in “Outlander,” Caitriona Balfe returned to the big screen in a supporting role in Jodie Foster’s thriller “Money Monster” (2016), starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and she has been in other movies such as a starring role opposite Matt Damon and Christian Bale in the sports drama film “Ford v Ferrari”.
Personal life
Caitriona Balfe has been married for two years and keeps her personal life private. She might have blessed the runway for ten years and adorned our screens for another couple, yet she finds ways to keep her affair under the radar.
Also, as already noted, while she plays a very passionate and romantic part with co-star Sam Heughan, they are not romantically involved. Here is what you should know about the actress husband.
Caitriona Balfe husband
Caitriona Balfe revealed that she and McGill got engaged over the holidays after two years of dating at the 75th Golden Globe Awards. According to People magazine, she said, “It happened over the break. I’m very happy.”
Anthony McGill is a Scottish band manager, and he and Caitriona got married in August 2019 at St. Mary’s Church in Bruton, Somerset. The actress confirmed her marriage to McGill on Twitter in November 2019. She and McGill also made an appearance at the 92nd Academy Awards on 9 February 2020.
The actress and former international model is very active on social media and has a following of over 512.3k followers on her Twitter account. Her handle is @caitrionambalfe, and she occasionally posts to entertain her fans and followers worldwide.
Caitriona Balfe height
One of the requirements of being a runway model, aside from beauty, looks, physique and the likes, is height. Caitriona Balfe stands tall at a height of 5 feet 10 inches (177 cm).
Net worth
She had a modeling career at the international level for over ten years working for top brands including, Victoria Secret, Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Givenchy, among others and is being paid a huge figure for her star role on the “Outlander”.
All of these puts her estimated wealth to around $4 million or more, according to CelebrityNetWorth.
Conclusion
Managing a career at the top in two different industries entirely goes to show how arduos she must have worked. She fulfilled her dream of becoming an actress after enjoying over ten solid years of modeling.
Caitriona Balfe is testament to having one’s cake while still eating it. No doubt, we will be seeing more of the 32-year-old actress in future.
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Ohhhh
Interesting
Best of both worlds