Long before she became the sun‑bleached fantasy racing down a beach in 10, Bo Derek was Mary Cathleen Collins, a horse‑obsessed California girl who preferred stables to soundstages. Fame arrived fast and unforgiving: a controversial relationship with director John Derek, a string of sensual films, and a media glare that rarely blinked. When John died in 1998, the woman who had been packaged as a perfect “10” was suddenly a widow, shattered and certain she’d never love again. Rather than chase roles that no longer fit, she quietly turned her back on the machine that made her.
Away from the cameras, her first love reclaimed her: animals. Bo poured herself into equine welfare and broader animal advocacy, then into work honoring U.S. veterans, lending her name and time instead of her image alone. Years later, love found her in the most ordinary, human way—through friendship with actor John Corbett. After more than 20 years together, they married in a small, private ceremony, no red carpet, no paparazzi. Today, Bo Derek lives on a ranch, surrounded by horses, dogs, and open sky—a woman who traded being everyone’s fantasy for a life that finally feels like her own.