One day Tigran Keosayan wrote to Margarita Simonyan on Facebook: “Hello, Margarita! This is Tigran Keosayan. I have long liked you as a journalist and fellow tribesman. Now I was driving in the car and listening to how you were being bullied on the radio, I couldn’t stand it, I decided to support and write.”
Margarita Simonyan at first did not believe that it was really Keosayan. She saw him on TV in a cooking show where he was cooking scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Margarita answered him, exchanged phone numbers, met, had lunch. Apparently, we had lunch so deliciously that we wanted to have more lunch. Yes, and have dinner. Gradually overgrown general topics, interests, friends, some projects.
« And suddenly it turned out that it’s impossible to live without each other - that you need to see each other every day, correspond every minute, hold hands even when you’re not around"recalls Simonyan.
« In general, all the most beautiful things in my life literally fall from the sky. But what I work on long and hard either doesn’t happen at all, or happens when it’s no longer necessary.", the journalist adds. Her career is the position of chief editor of an international television channel and chief news agency country - also developed unexpectedly. She never aspired to become a big boss, quite the contrary. I have always wanted to write books, from childhood, as long as I can remember.
Tigran Keosayan taught Margarita to write scripts. Now, in traffic jams and at night, she writes scripts for films and TV series - sometimes under her own name, sometimes under a pseudonym. This is how Simonyan relaxes. " Not to mention the fact that it pays very well - definitely more than my salary at Russia Today", clarifies Keosayan's chosen one.
She writes not only for Tigran. Together they made three TV series and just made a movie. Their comedy “The Sea. Mountains. Expanded clay" was successfully broadcast on Channel One. This December on NTV there will be a premiere of the psychological thriller “Actress”, another work that they created together with Tigran and Alena Khmelnitskaya.
Margarita wrote the script, Tigran directed, and Alena played one of the main female roles. The whole group watched their trio with caution and admiration - how people manage to maintain good relationships.
Margarita was born in Krasnodar, which in the eighties was an abandoned province. The family lived between the station and the market; they had a shack without any amenities. " My parents are purebred Armenians, while we have absolutely Russian family. Father was born and raised in Sverdlovsk, and mother in Sochi"says Simonyan. Most of Her relatives still live in Adler.
Simonyan never dreamed of television. She was going to write beautiful articles for various magazines. In 1998, Margarita graduated from her first year, and she published a collection of poems; the Krasnodar television company also took her on as an internship. Leaving for Chechnya to the front line in the bloody and crazy December 1999, when Grozny was just being surrounded, for the first time in her life Simonyan deceived her parents.
After Chechnya, Margarita was noticed in Moscow. She became a freelance correspondent for several federal TV channels. Her father bought her a shabby Oka, which was already ten years old, and he and the operator drove around in this car all over the south of Russia, Crimea, Abkhazia, Kalmykia and Ossetia, getting their reports.
In her third year, when Simonyan was not yet twenty-one years old, the RTR channel - now called “Russia” - entrusted her with heading its news desk. " I was twenty-two when Dobrodeev, the general director of the Rossiya TV channel, called and asked: “Choose, will you go to New York or Moscow?” Of course, I chose Moscow. I immediately got into the presidential pool - it was a real “dream come true”"recalls Simonyan.
At twenty-five, Margarita was appointed editor-in-chief of Russia Today, which did not exist then: she had to launch from scratch the first Russian international 24-hour news channel on English language. Your first New Year in this capacity she celebrated at work.
Simonyan, in general, from her early youth actually lived only by work. She never wanted to get married; she put off thoughts about children until after she was thirty. " When romances happened, I immediately honestly told my boyfriend that it wasn’t serious and most likely not for long - I just didn’t have time", the journalist recalls.
« It seemed to me that married woman- an unhappy and downtrodden creature: she was “blessed” with a white veil so that she would clean, wash, cook and endure her husband’s infidelities. However, by the time I was thirty I had already had long and quite family relationships- with a common life, ficus and plans for the future, but I didn’t plan to get married even then", adds Margarita.
Then a tsunami named Keosayan burst into her “understandable life.” " Tigran and I tried many times to stop everything - no one wanted to hurt loved ones. But it didn't work out. The first time we separated “forever” was for a whole day, the last time was for twenty minutes." says Margarita.
Simonyan lived in a small cozy house, bought with a mortgage, in a wonderful village that had only one drawback - it was located sixty-three kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road. " When Tigran arrived for the first time, he asked why I didn’t have curtains. Margarita remembers. - She answered: “Because I haven’t saved up for the ones I want yet.”" Keosayan was shocked. In his mind, the head of a major international media outlet could not have such problems. He moved to live with her in this house without curtains.
« Why do you say that you live near Moscow? You live near Volokolamsk!” - Tigran joked, making his way to Margarita’s house in his luxurious Maserati. He, of course, left the mansion in Barvikha to Alena and their common children. Having already moved to Simonyan, he stopped there every morning before work to have breakfast with his youngest daughter Ksyusha, and only then went to Mosfilm. Margarita categorically supported this. She even insisted if he was tired and wanted to sleep longer.
Tigran stopped going to Barvikha every morning only when Alena got a new common law husband, Sasha. So as not to create awkwardness. Ksyusha spends weekends with them; she is friends with Margarita’s children. Tigran took only his father's portraits and books from his house. And after the divorce Alena remains true friend and a loved one, and to his daughters - a loving father.
« When I found out that I was pregnant, I was in shock and cried for three months. Motherhood happened despite precautions, but there was an almost one hundred percent threat of miscarriage. The doctors said: “If you want to carry it out, go to bed for conservation, we will inject hormones.”"says Simonyan.
Margarita decided that she would not fight either for or against her pregnancy: as God willed, so it would happen. As a result, Maryasha settled down. Five months after her first birth, Simonyan became pregnant with Bagrat. This time I wasn’t worried, I was happy. " Pregnancy was very easy for me, both times I felt better than when I was not pregnant: I slept little, worked hard and vigorously, not a day of toxicosis, gave birth the first time in two and a half hours, the second in one and a half hours. However, motherhood is still the hardest thing I've ever done.", admitted Margarita.
I spent a month on maternity leave with Maryasha Simonyan, but still sorted everything out by phone and mail. I didn’t sit with Bagrat at all. After leaving the maternity hospital, the journalist took her son home and went to work - she was just undergoing an audit by the Accounts Chamber.
In general, the famous journalist is also an anxious mother, but she tries not to show this to her children. Several times a day he always calls his grandmothers at home. Although he knows his children’s schedule every minute, and theirs is spartan: swimming, languages, yoga, drawing by the hour, Maryasha has dancing, Bagrat has Thai boxing. And their diet is spartan, they still haven’t tried sweets and cakes, so they are absolutely indifferent to sweets and happily nibble on celery. Any cakes can be on the table - children are not drawn to them because they do not perceive them as food, rather as decoration. They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, cereals, meat, and seafood.
Tigran is a much stricter parent than Margarita. Raises children immediately as adults, especially only son. And he is three years old, he still doesn’t understand when dad says that “I need to apologize for throwing an apple on the floor,” he looks at dad with surprised eyes and smiles. However, Tigran, in Margarita’s opinion, is also strict with his daughters. But he also fools around with them, sings funny songs that he makes up himself, and tells tall tales.
Simonyan says she is a fan preschool education and got infected with it from Tatyana Yumasheva, Yeltsin’s daughter. Maryasha and Bagrat speak five languages: Russian, Armenian, English, French and Chinese. Teachers who are native speakers come to them every day. For children it's just a game, they don't even know that they are learning. They sculpt, draw, walk, sing, watch cartoons - it all just happens on different languages.
« I would not want my children to study abroad. For selfish reasons. They will already master languages by the first grade, and living with them in different countries I’m not ready for them to grow up as carriers of a culture that is foreign to me. I am not a person of the world, I am very attached to my native places and I want my children to be nearby too. We have seen many families where parents are perplexed as to why their child grew up strange, incomprehensible, some kind of arrogant English aristocrat or an equally arrogant Swiss socialist. And the heir was sent to London to college at the age of twelve - how should he grow up?", says Margarita.
Tigran did not object eldest daughter, when she wanted to study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, but had a terrible time all these years. By the end, he and Alena were already very angry with themselves for having sent their daughter to the other side of the world with their own hands. Luckily for them, she didn’t stay there. I received my diploma and returned. Now the smart and beautiful Sasha works with her father, she was the second director on his new film, the plot of which unfolds against the backdrop of the construction of the Crimean Bridge.
The summer before last, at Ksyusha’s birthday—she was turning six—Margarita met Alena. A few days before the holiday, Tigran said: “ Alena invites us to come all together. -Of course, take the children and go with them. - You did not understand. She wants to see you too».
Margarita thought that Tigran, in his directorial absent-mindedness, had misunderstood something. I asked him for Alenin’s number and wrote to her: “ Alena, hello! Tigran said that you are waiting for us all together. This is true? I don’t want to put anyone in an awkward position, especially on children's party
" Alena replied: “ C'mon! Come! There won't be any problems. Let's have great fun».
About forty guests gathered. It was just wonderful. Margarita and Alena both took a glass when the children had already been taken away and sat together until the morning. Tigran could not stand it, fell asleep on the lawn, periodically woke up and whined: “ Girls, maybe that's enough? Oh please! I want to go home!»
At the holiday Margarita and Alena made joint photo and posted it on the Internet with the caption “ High relationship». « She is charming, very kind, smart, open - not to mention a phenomenal beauty. We have nothing to share: Alena is happy, I am happy, Tigran is happy. And thank God", Margarita admits.
Margarita and Tigran do not hang out and rarely go to premieres or events. And they hardly go to visit - they receive friends at home. On Sundays they often serve tables of fifteen courses, Margarita loves it very much. Of course, both mothers and their au pair help her. Maryasha is already helping to cook too. I learned how to cut cucumbers with a small child’s knife, and I’m terribly proud of it.
« Looking at my children, I am convinced that people are born with a certain set of traits. Maryana is as ambitious as I was. At four years old, she cries for half a day if she fails to read a word or recite a poem by heart. A three year old son It doesn't bother me at all. They sit down at the table, Maryasha shouts: “I am the first, because I was born first!” - Okay, I'm second.", Bagrat smiles.
On the first of January, Keosayan and Simonyan always have “khash” open doors" All night long, Margarita and her mother and mother-in-law cook this famous Armenian anti-hangover dish from boiled beef hooves. To be honest, the khash mostly cooks itself, but they keep an eye on it. All friends know that they can come to them without special invitation, starting at one o'clock in the afternoon. This is how it was in the house of Margarita’s parents, this is how it was in the house of Tigran’s parents, and now this is how it is with them.
Tigran, of course, pampers his wife, accustoming her to expensive things and five-star hotels. When they met, Margarita was already over thirty, she had long been a big boss with a good salary, but everything was scattered into mortgages, loans, and numerous relatives.
« I will never forget his first gift. I liked the bag famous brand, not prohibitively expensive, but still wastefully expensive for me. Passing by the boutique, I admired her in the window. One day Tigran caught my eye: “Do you like this bag?”", says the journalist.
Tigran bought it on the sly and gave it to his wife. " So, like a child, I slept with her for several days - I laid her on the pillow, I could not take my eyes off her. I still wear it", recalls Margarita.
Keosayan and Simonyan have not yet registered their relationship; they simply don’t get around to it. " We were recently joking about this topic at home Margarita tells the “Caravan of Stories” - decided that we would probably get married when the children grew up, so that we could sit down at a common table with our parents and have a drink homemade wine from the grapes planted by my grandfather, eat dolma according to Tigran’s mother’s recipe and say: “What great fellows you are, ancestors, for once deciding on all this!»
Maryasha and Bagrat already speak five languages, but I wouldn’t want them to study abroad and grow up as carriers of a culture that is foreign to me Photo: Pavel Shchelkantsev
I lived in a small cozy house, bought with a mortgage, in a wonderful village that had only one drawback - it was located sixty-three kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road.
When Tigran arrived for the first time, he asked why I didn’t have curtains. She answered: “Because I haven’t saved up for the ones I want yet.” Keosayan was shocked. In his mind, the head of a major international media outlet could not have such problems. He moved to live with me in this house without curtains.
“Why do you say that you live near Moscow? You live near Volokolamsk!” - Tigran joked, making his way into my hole in his luxurious Maserati.
He, of course, left the mansion in Barvikha to Alena and their common children. Having already moved in with me, he went there every morning before work to have breakfast with his youngest daughter Ksyusha, and only then went to Mosfilm. I categorically supported this. She even insisted if he was tired and wanted to sleep longer.
Tigran stopped going to Barvikha every morning only when Alena had a new common-law husband, Sasha. So as not to create awkwardness. Well, imagine, he wakes up, goes into the kitchen, and at the table is Alenin ex-husband. Ksyusha spends weekends with us, she is friends with my children, and we all encourage this.
In the Krasnodar of my youth, the following lines were scrawled on the wall of our little Arbat: “Love has no guarantees, this is very bad, brothers. When leaving, leave the light on - this is more than staying.”
It is difficult to demand from a partner eternal love. Whether a person remains a person is another matter. Tigran took only his father's portraits and books from his house. And after the divorce, Alena remains a faithful friend and family member, and a loving father to his daughters.
When I found out that I was pregnant, I was in shock and cried for three months. Motherhood happened despite precautions, but there was an almost one hundred percent threat of miscarriage. The doctors said: “If you want to carry it out, go to bed for conservation, we will inject hormones.”
I decided that I would not fight either for or against my pregnancy: as God wills, so it will happen. As a result, Maryasha took root, although at some point she almost left me, miraculously she “stuck” back, my little shrimp. At first she slept in a crib, taking a shrimp pose.
Five months after my first birth, I became pregnant with Bagrat. This time I wasn’t worried, I was happy. Pregnancy was very easy for me, both times I felt better than when I was not pregnant: I slept little, worked hard and vigorously, not a day of toxicosis, gave birth the first time in two and a half hours, the second in one and a half hours. However, motherhood is still the most difficult thing I have ever done.
I spent a month on maternity leave with Maryasha - if you can call it that, since I still sorted everything out by phone and mail. I didn’t sit with Bagrat at all. After leaving the maternity hospital, I took my son home and went to work - I was just undergoing an audit by the Accounts Chamber.
In general, I am an anxious mother, but I try not to show this to my children. Several times a day I make sure to call my grandmothers at home. Although I know my children’s schedule every minute, and theirs is spartan: swimming, languages, yoga, drawing by the hour, Maryasha has dancing, Bagrat has Thai boxing. And their diet is spartan, they still haven’t tried sweets and cakes, so they are absolutely indifferent to sweets and happily nibble on celery. Any cakes can be on the table - children are not drawn to them because they do not perceive them as food, rather as decoration. They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, cereals, meat, and seafood. Every morning begins with Bagrat’s question:
Mom, when are we going to eat crayfish?
No, not crayfish, but mussels! - Maryasha answers.
Tigran is a much stricter parent than me. Raises children immediately as adults, especially her only son. And he is three years old, he still does not understand the concept of “you need to apologize for throwing an apple on the floor,” he looks at his dad with surprised eyes and smiles. However, in my opinion, Tigran is also strict with his daughters. But he also fools around with them, sings funny songs that he makes up himself, and tells tall tales.
Margarita Simonyan - Russian journalist, Chief Editor Russia Today TV channel, the international news agency "Russia Today" and the Sputnik news agency.
Having started her career as an ordinary correspondent for a provincial television studio, she managed to occupy one of the leading positions in Russian television journalism. Today Simonyan is among the top hundred most influential women world according to Forbes.
Childhood and youth
Margarita Simonyan was born on April 6, 1980 in the Russian city of Krasnodar. The girl and her sister Alice grew up in poor family. Father Simon, an Armenian by nationality, made a living by repairing refrigerators, and mother Zinaida sold flowers at the market.
As the journalist later wrote from the pages of LiveJournal and "Instagram", the girl and her parents lived in an old house on Gogol Street, where rats were constantly running around, there was no gas, running water or sewerage. Difficult living conditions only strengthened the girl’s desire to escape poverty and achieve comfortable conditions life. When Margarita was about 10 years old, the Simonyan family was given an apartment in a new microdistrict of the city.
IN kindergarten the future journalist quickly learned to read, so their teacher often left Rita with a book to entertain other children: the girl read fairy tales out loud. Later Simonyan went to a Krasnodar school specializing in the study foreign languages, where I studied with straight A's and went to the Olympiads. In 9th grade, Simonyan had the chance to go study abroad under an exchange program. The girl came to the USA: she lived with a family, which she still treats with warmth and gratitude, and studied in the 12th grade of school. At one time I wanted to stay and live in a distant country, but love for my homeland forced me to return to Russia.
Margarita Simonyan in her youth After graduating from school with a gold medal, Margarita entered Kubansky State University at the Faculty of Journalism. The girl also studied at the new “School of Theater Arts” under the guidance of Russian TV presenter and a journalist in Moscow.
Journalism and career
In 1999, Simonyan began working as a correspondent for the Krasnodar television and radio channel. She managed to get this job thanks to a collection of poems of her own composition, which Margarita published a year earlier. The TV channel decided to film a story about talented girl. While communicating with the film crew, Simonyan mentioned that she wanted to work as a journalist, and she was offered an internship at the TV channel. The choice of the first job determined the future professional biography Margaritas.
Margarita Simonyan has been working on television for a long time At the age of 19, the girl went to film a story in Chechnya. Her miniature figure (her height was 160 cm) did not prevent her from showing masculinity and strength of character. Margarita told her parents that she was going to the war zone only upon her return, 10 days later. A series of reports in one of the hot spots of the world brought Margarita Simonyan fame and a number of journalistic awards: “For professional courage”, first prize All-Russian competition regional television and radio companies and the Russian Order of Friendship.
In 2000, Simonyan became the editor-in-chief of the Krasnodar TV channel, and a year later she became a correspondent for the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company in Rostov-on-Don. She continued her career as a war journalist, visiting Abkhazia, covering the clash between militants and state army in the Kodori Gorge.
In 2002, Margarita Simonyan was invited to Moscow as a correspondent for the Vesti television program. The journalist accompanied the President of Russia, being among the presidential pool of journalists. In September 2004, she traveled to Beslan to cover the school hostage crisis. The tragedy influenced Margarita’s worldview and views; in an interview, she does not advise young journalists to start a career as war correspondents.
In 2005, the Russia Today TV channel was created, which broadcast in English and was designed to reflect Russia’s position regarding international events. Margarita Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief of the Russia Today TV channel.
The appointment of such a young person to such a position was argued by the founders of RIA Novosti with the position that the project should have been led by a person who had not seen Soviet news and had his own ideas about how to show Russian news foreign viewers. Later, Margarita also began to oversee the Arabic and Spanish versions of the TV channel.
In 2011, the girl became a TV presenter of the news project “What’s Going On?” on the REN-TV channel. During the program, she discussed the most significant events of the week, which for some reason were not adequately covered on federal channels. Margarita talked with direct participants in the events and spectators.
In 2013, Simonyan became the TV presenter of the political show “Iron Ladies” on the NTV channel. Together with a colleague in live the journalist asked questions that were not always convenient, but current issues famous politicians and businessmen. That same year, the channel's management decided to close the show.
At the end of 2013, Margarita Simonyan was appointed to the position of editor-in-chief of the international news agency Rossiya Segodnya.
Margarita with early childhood I dreamed of becoming a writer and doing print journalism. At the age of 18, she published a collection of her own poems. In 2010 she published the book “To Moscow”. Due to her active journalistic and editorial activities, writing the book took about 10 years. This novel tells about the generation of the 90s and difficult destinies, unfulfilled dreams. In 2011, thanks to the novel, Simonyan became a prize winner for best book journalist.
In 2012, Margarita published an excerpt from her new story “Train” on the pages of the Russian Pioneer magazine. The girl also writes culinary articles for this magazine.
Personal life
Little is known about Simonyan’s personal life. In an interview in 2012, she mentioned that she had been in a civil marriage with journalist Andrei Blagodyrenko for 6 years. The woman claimed that she was not at all attracted to official marriage and wedding preparations; she was quite happy with this state of affairs.
Back in an interview in 2012, Simonyan said that together with family members she was opening the restaurant “Zharko!” at a resort in Sochi. At the same time, the girl began to be noticed more and more often in the company of the famous director and actor, who at that time was still officially married to.
According to information that later appeared in the article “ Komsomolskaya Pravda“, the romance between the journalist and the director began on Tigran’s initiative. He wrote a message to the girl on a social network "Facebook", where he expressed support for Margarita: at that time there was persecution against her on the radio. Initially, Simonyan did not pay attention to the letter, because she did not believe that the famous director would be interested in her person. But the correspondence ended with a joint dinner at a restaurant. Soon a relationship began between the journalist and the filmmaker, which grew into civil marriage.
In September 2014, Margarita had a son, Bagrat. At the same time, on the page of one of the social networks, Keosayan confirmed that he had become a father. Later it turned out that this was the couple’s second child - in August 2013, Margarita gave birth to her husband’s daughter Maryana. As the journalist said in an interview, she remembers with gratitude the time when she was pregnant. Each time Margarita experienced a surge of strength and never suffered from toxicosis, despite the fact that with Maryana she survived the threat of miscarriage.
Pregnant Margarita Simonyan Simonyan is a supporter of early childhood education. IN game form Teachers-linguists work with Maryana and Bagrat, so already in this early age kids speak five languages - Russian, Armenian, English, French and Chinese.
I wonder what's between ex-wife Tigran Keosayan - Alena Khmelnitskaya and Margarita Simonyan established friendly relations. Women of steel best friends, and even together with the director they created a project - the psychological thriller “Actress”. Margarita participated in the creation of the film, which was successfully broadcast on the NTV channel, as a screenwriter.
Margarita Simonyan now
Margarita supports the policies of the existing political system in Russia. In 2018, she became a confidant of Vladimir Putin during the election campaign. presidential campaign. At the same time, the journalist published a post on Telegram about her friend’s renunciation of US citizenship. According to the editor-in-chief of RT, the girl supported the opposition and immigrated to the United States in 2013, but after 4 years she decided to regain her Russian citizenship. The TV journalist duplicated the information in
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