An interview with Jonna for the Iltalehti newspaper

"Jonna Nygren, 25, has a strong handshake. Her glance is straight and eyes amazingly green like emeralds. Her fiance s eyes are the same, with a hint of Aegean ocean s blue in them. Abroad people often think that HIM s frontman and his model fiancee, 173cm and 50kg, are siblings. Even their mothers agree that they look suprisingly alike."
Jonna has some Gypsy blood running through her veins.
- That s why I ve had a very strict upbringing. My grandpa made sure that everyone had good table manners. Parents have to be respected. You have to be honest, Jonna explains. Jonna s mother was 17 when she got married to the blue-eyed white man. Jonna was born first, then her little brother. Jonna s father now has three sons with his new wife, the youngest is only one and a half years old. Jonna s mother on the other hand has a seven-year-old daughter.
- I love my little sister and brothers very much. Mom and Dad have always been my real parents. But because they are so young, we re probably more like friends than what average children and parents are.

Jonna says that she and Ville want to have children too. But they are in no hurry; Ville s only 28 after all.
- I suffer from a terrible fear of giving birth, though. I wonder how I could get rid of that? Maybe it fades once you get pregnant. Surely they ll get the baby out somehow! Jonna doesn t think that getting married is absolutely necessary, even if they d like to have children.
- Oh, the children would be bastards, she laughs.

Eventhough Jonna s been the host for music programs on MoonTV and SubTV and worked as a model for Paparazzi, she is somewhat of a stranger to the major public, except as Ville s girlfriend and now fiancee. The reason probably is that she lived mainly abroad for three years. She lived in Manhattan with some models she knew, until she rented a 20 square [meter] flat for herself. In summer she used to come to Finland to work at restaurants, and the winters she spent in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Apart from English I also speak some Bahasa Indonesia, because I used to live in small fishing villages, away from tourism. Altough there were some surfers there every now and then. I don t surf myself, because I don t like the water. I can t stand it when I can t see the bottom of the sea. I suffer from a mild fear of closed-in places.
- But I like the Asian culture. Eventhough Europeans would think that they re lives are in very bad condition, they can still be happy.
One of Jonna s Finnish-English friends has founded a Children s home in Nepal. Jonna is planning on going there to work and help out someday, for longer than just a few days. - My dream is to study to become a child therapist when I m older. I d like to be able to help the abused little ones. Many have to suffer a lot of damage because of their parents substance misuse problems or sexual abuse, for example.
Jonna s mother works as a therapist.
- Mother Amma and her messages to the world are important to me. When I read her books, it makes me want to care about people the same way, without demanding anything from anyone.

Soon it s been two years since Jonna started going out with a man that many girls and boys would like more than just HIM s music from.
- In Finland we basically just hang out. Watch dvds at home and meet friends in safe circles. Ville is the cook in our family. He cooks lovely Eastern food.
Jonna can t get Ville to join her at the public swimming pool where she goes to exercise and do water walking.
- At our friends summer places we can then relax naked. I fell asleep in the sun a couple weeks ago, so now I definitely don t have any sun lines, she smiles.
The love for Ville Valo was the final reason for Jonna to return to Finland in November two years ago.
- The other reason was Finland s cheap medical care. In New York I had to spend hundreds of dollars a week to a doctor. The pollution and the air-conditioning indoors made my asthma so bad, that I had to breath with the help of an apparatus.
Jonna s health has gotten better in Finland. But still she never leaves home without her inhaler.
- I had to quit smoking because my asthma got worse. Nowadays I smoke whenever I m at a bar. I simply like to have a smoke when I m drinking. Of course it s not wise - it wasn t wise when I did ballet and show dance and modern dance either.
And of course smoking doesn t fit a person who goes to the gym in winter to run on a treadmill and goes jogging for an hour every summer morning.
- No, I don t have poles with me. I can go fast enough without them, she laughs at my question.

She hasn t got her singer-songwriter excited about extra sports.
- I never think of Ville as the Ville Valo from HIM who s already, before the age of 30, earned so much money with his music that he d never have to work again to live a normal life.
- I consider Ville to be normal guy. All the fans and stuff seem really weird for me! The magazines reported earlier that Ville and Jonna got engaged at Ruisrock and got theirselves Dilligaf tattoos that stand for Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck.
- Actually we ve been engaged for a long time already. We got our engagement tattoos at Ruisrock though, but they re not Dilligaf, Jonna says and shows me her left ring finger that has a beautiful V on it. Ville has a J on his.
- I have eleven tattoos. They are just pieces of flesh. Also Ville s V on my finger is a piece of flesh, just like we re a piece of each other s lives. If we break up someday, that part of our lives will be over.
Jonna doesn t wish that to happen, though. That s why she doesn t want to get a permanent job even in television, although she is fascinated by it. That s why she is working as a waitress and a model.
- I don t want to be clinging to Ville at every gig he does. But I want to be able to go with him when we both feel like it."
Credit: Province

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