Catching up with...: Maria Joao JANUARY 16, 1978 SI Covergirl
Publication: Sports Illustrated; Author: Grant Wahl
Date: 02-20-1998

The queen of the Brazilian beach spends her weekends frolicking on the exotic sands along the coast of...Long Island. At least they're exotic for her. Maria Brewster (nee Maria Joao Leal de Sousa) has been living her version of The Great Gatsby since 1990, when she and her family moverd from Rio de Janeiro to New York City adn bought a vacation house in East Hampton, N.Y. "In the summer the beach there is just like the beach in Rio," she says. Then, remembering that New Yorkers don't often wear the kind of bikinis ou see on Brazilian beaches, she adds, "Of course you don't have the same kind of people lying on the sand, but the ocean is just beautiful. I wouldn't survive being away from the ocean I love."

In the two decades since she appeared on our 1978 swimsuit cover, Maria has been swept along by an Atlantic whirlwind--from Rio to London to Rio to New York--with her husband, Alden, and investment banker, and the couple's daughters, Jordana, 17, and Isabella, 15. Maria and Alden met in late 1977, and when they married the following March, Maria contemplated a new life as a wife and mother. At 22, only two months removed from her SI gig, she left the modeling business. "I had been working for five years, which was great fun, but I'd had enough," says the 1976 Vogue model of the year in Brazil. "I was comfortable financially, and I think it's much better when you leave at the top and people ask, 'what happened to her?'"

If Brazilians had access to the magazines that flood U.S. grocery checkout lines, they'd have the answer to that question. Recently, Maria appeared in Soap Opera Digest, which showed her at the publication's awards show accompanying Jordana, who was nominated for outstanding teen performer for her role as Nikki Graves-Munson on As the World Turns. "My daughters are so full of energy. Teenagers keep you busy," says Maria, who fills the rest of her schedule with daily workouts and classes at the New School for Social Research.

Soon, however, Maria will have plenty of time on her hands. Jordana will leave for college next year, and Isabella will follow two years later. Not to worry. Maria and Alden plan to buy a boat and sail to the Mediterranean. "We'll just go from place to place to place," says Maria. "There's a lot of life left to enjoy." And a lot of her beloved Atlantic and other seas left to see. --Grant Wahl