Famous Czech novelist Milan Kundera whose novel became a Hollywood film was married to Věra Hrabánková and fathered two daughters. Let’s meet his family; partner and kids.
Milan Kundera was a Czech-born French writer. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979 but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.
On July 2023, the world learned about his death. Czech author Milan Kundera died in Paris at 94 after “a long illness,” according to French publishing house Gallimard and other outlets.
Kundera’s death is a significant loss for the literary world. He was a brilliant writer, and people will continue to read and study his work for many years.
In the wake of his death, many are searching for his family. But, was he married and did he have any children? Read on for more about his family.
Who was Milan Kundera married to?
Kundera was born on April 1, 1929, in Královo Pole, a quarter of Brno, Czechoslovakia, to a middle-class family. His father, Ludvík Kundera, was an important Czech musicologist and pianist who served as the head of the Janáček Music Academy in Brno from 1948 to 1961. His mother was Milada Kunderová who worked as a teacher.
Sadly, Milan’s parents passed away in the 1970s. Ludvík passed away in 1971, followed by Milada in 1975.
These losses deeply affected Milan, and he found solace in expressing his emotions through his writing, particularly in his novel “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.”
The influence of Milan Kundera’s parents on his life was profound. They cultivated his love for music and literature, fostering his growth and encouraging him to pursue his dreams.
In his parents’ death, he also had companionship with his wife as he was married before his death and had children, as well.
So, who was Milan Kundera’s wife? Milan was married twice in his entire life and his partner at the time of his death was Věra Hrabánková who he married in 1967.
He had married his first wife Olga Haasová-Smrčková. On Dec. 11, 2022 operetta singer and actress Olga Haasová-Smrčková died in Brno at the age of 85.
Who is Věra Hrabánková, Milan Kundera’s wife?
Kundera and Věra Hrabánková tied the knot in 1967. They lived in Czechoslovakia until 1975 when they moved to France because of political pressure.
As the life partner of Kundera, Hrabánková shared a profound connection with him, and his departure left her in a state of grief and sorrow.
Even in France, Kundera kept writing and publishing, and Hrabánková helped him as his editor and translator.
Vera, Kundera’s wife, played a vital role in his life. She translated his work, managed his social interactions, and protected him from the outside world.
She even helped him build a friendship with Roth by acting as their language intermediary. A 1985 profile of the couple mentioned that she answered his phone calls and dealt with the various demands of being a famous author.
Image Source: Getty
Did Milan Kundera have any children?
In his decades of marriage to Věra Hrabánková, the couple had two daughters together, per TvShowStars.
The details of his children, including their names, ages, and profession are unknown.
Milan Kundera was an outstanding author with an impressive career.
The novelist is most known for his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which was published in 1984 and developed into the 1988 film of the same name starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche.
The film was nominated for two Oscars and scored a BAFTA award for Philip Kaufman and Jean-Claude Carrière for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Wrap noted that Kundera, who appeared to be highly private in his personal life, tended to write about “men behaving badly,” which drew criticism from feminists over the course of his career. He rarely gave any interviews and though his Czech citizenship was revoked after his exile, as the outlet reported, it was restored in 2019.
“Like all great writers, Milan Kundera leaves indelible marks on his readers’ imaginations,” fellow novelist Salman Rushdie told The Guardian. “‘The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.’ Ever since I read this sentence in his The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, it has remained with me, and illuminated my understanding of events all over the world.”
Before taking up writing, the outlet reported that Kundera worked at Prague’s film academy lecturing about world literature in 1952. He grew up studying music with his father and was a “noted pianist.”