If you type "the most beautiful Yugoslav woman of all time" in Google, you will get a name, several black and white photos and a story of a sad fate. Nikica Marinovic's beauty has become a legend.

Nikica Marinovic became known as the first representative of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the Miss World pageant. At the same time the most successful. In 1966, the beautiful woman from Dubrovnik won the second place in that competition and became the first companion of the Indian Reita Faria.

The video of her gracefully walking the runway with the Yugoslavia tape can also be found on YouTube, and Google, by typing her name, gives you some photos from the match in London, on which Nikica poses with other world beauties.

However, only from the rare photos that occasionally appear on social networks, one can feel how beautiful, natural and charming she was. Nikica Marinovic and why today she is considered the most beautiful Yugoslav woman of all time.

"For me, beauty has never been just physical. "One has to have something in it, some spiritual value, something to radiate," she explained in a 1970 interview.

11.11.2008. - Umrla Nikica Marinović, first of the SFRJ (Rijeka Dubrovačka, 1947 - Belgrade, 11) pic.twitter.com/m80IG9zvYF

- SFR Yugoslavia (@ SFRJ_1943) November 11, 2013

She then stated that she was not happy that people were making "fame" of her because she just wanted "her own peace and normal life".

Nikica was born in 1947 in Dubrovnik, in a poor family of Draga Pepa and Perica Marinovic. Her father was a fisherman, her mother a housewife. Even before she took part in the Miss pageant, legends about her beauty were "knitted" Nikica - it was said that such a beauty with a pearl complexion and golden curls could be born only in sea foam and that her father pulled her out of the sea with a net one stormy night…

17.11.1966. determined to be the 16th Miss World meeting in London. Young, leading Dubrovcana, Nikica Marinovic (this is right) as the first representative of Yugoslavia, won a sensational second place and sent to the first Indian Indian Farije. 🌹 pic.twitter.com/zms7ihL6Pb

- mi (@MilipMiss) November 17, 2018

However, her fate was not so fairytale.

After the success of the Miss World pageant, Nikica moved to Belgrade. She posed for magazines and shared fashion and beauty advice, and reportedly turned down a career opportunity in Hollywood on the pretext that she had no acting talent.

Beautiful in Yugoslavia

Nikica Marinović! pic.twitter.com/3K2zCg3cfp

- Prim. Dr Евгенија ♒☦️ UN 1244🇷🇸 (@Delaevgenija) September 18, 2015

Her heart won the Belgrade writer and director Vuk Vucho, with whom she had a son George. That marriage lasted less than five years, and the second time Nikica she said "yes" to the director Hi Shotra. She had a son with him Mark. That marriage lasted a little longer, but that love ended in 1980.

And then, at one point, she lost track. Nikica she withdrew, cut off contact, was rumored to be struggling with depression, attending psychiatric facilities…

Nikica Marinović and water polo player Mirko Sandić in the cafe "Sunce" Dom Omladine Belgrade - date unknown pic.twitter.com/5BQyZPnra2

- Misko Misko (@ todDM53izjASpRe) October 3, 2019

In November 2008, the media again published photos of her, but in order to publish sad news - they informed the public that Nikica Marinovic took a lethal dose of sleeping pills without leaving a farewell letter or message from which she could conclude why she committed suicide. She was 61 years old.