Celebs who renounced fame for spirituality

Former Bigg Boss contestant and model Sofia Hayat is in news again. The British national, who was once known for posting her nude photos on the internet, recently announced she has become a nun and is known as Gaia Sofia Mother. While this has shocked many, she is not the only celebrity who went through a spiritual transformation. We bring you a list of celebs who left fame to walk on a spiritual path in the past few years...

Barkha Madan
Barkha competed with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sushmita Sen in the Miss India beauty pageant in 1994.Later, she made her debut with Khiladiyon ka Khiladi followed by a few more films. In 2012, she joined a Buddhist monastery to become a nun. In an interview, she said, “When I was 10, my parents took me on a trip to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. And, I remember asking my parents to go back and leave me behind. As an actress, I used to visit monasteries to escape from the world of demands and desperation of glitz and glamour only to seek peace and calmness. I decided to renounce worldly desires and dedicate my life to the benefit of other people.”

Olalla Oliveros
She was earlier seen on countless billboards across Spain, but model and actress Olalla Oliveros walked away from her glamourous lifestyle in order to become a nun. She found her calling when she visited a shrine in Fatima, Portugal. She then joined the Order of Saint Michael and changed her name to Sister Olalla del Sí de María. Talking about her transformation, she said, “I grew tired of being a model of superficiality, appearances, falsity, hypocrisy and deception. A world that exalts riches, pleasure, sexual immorality and fraud. I want to be a model that promotes the true dignity of women.”
Andrea Jaeger
Known as the world number two tennis player from the United States, she reached the Wimbledon finals in 1983. Her worldview changed dramatically after a major shoulder injury. At the hospital, she felt that a divine power had different plans for her. Andrea made headlines in 2006 when she decided to become a nun and joined Anglican Order of Preachers to help children with cancer. In an interview, she said “When people ask if I miss tennis, my answer has always been, no I don’t. God wanted me to do something else, and it happened to be helping children with cancer.”
Amada Rosa Pérez
Amada Rosa Pérez enjoyed fame and success as one of Colombia’s top models before she disappeared from the public gaze in 2009 when she learned that she had been diagnosed with a disease that left her with only 60 per cent of hearing in her left ear.