Marlene Knaus is a former model best known as the first wife of Austrian Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda. They married in 1976, had two sons, Lukas and Mathias Lauda, and divorced in 1991. She was publicly present during some of the most consequential years of Lauda’s racing career but later lived largely outside the spotlight.
Reliable records of Knaus’s own life are much thinner than the many biographies published about her online. Her work as a model, her marriage and family chronology, her connection with actor Curd Jürgens, and her later appearances in material about Lauda are documented. Her exact birth date, birthplace, nationality, education, current residence and personal wealth are not firmly established.
Key takeaways
- Knaus was described in contemporary material as a model or photomodel.
- She was documented as actor Curd Jürgens’s companion in 1974 before becoming involved with Niki Lauda.
- Knaus and Lauda married in 1976, had sons Lukas and Mathias, and divorced in 1991.
- Alexandra Maria Lara portrayed her in the 2013 film Rush.
- The latest substantive family-linked reporting found, from February 2024, described Knaus as living a very private life.
Marlene Knaus profile summary
| Detail | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Public name | Marlene Knaus |
| Historical married names | Marlene Lauda; Marlene Knaus Lauda |
| Occupation | Model / photomodel |
| Former spouse | Niki Lauda |
| Marriage | 1976-1991 |
| Children | Lukas Lauda and Mathias Lauda |
| Screen portrayal | Alexandra Maria Lara in Rush |
Before Niki Lauda
One of the clearest records of Knaus before her marriage comes from a Getty Images archive photograph dated December 17, 1974. Its caption identifies her as the companion of actor Curd Jürgens at his chalet in Gruben, Switzerland.
That evidence is important because it gives Knaus a documented public history before she became associated with Formula 1. Later accounts, including The Guardian’s history of Lauda’s personal life, also place her with Jürgens before her relationship with Lauda.
Her professional background is more modestly documented. A retrospective based on a 1976 issue of Motor describes Knaus as a model at the time of her wedding, while other contemporary material calls her a photomodel. That supports describing her as a former model, but not the more elaborate claims sometimes attached to her online.
There is no strong evidence in the established record for a substantial career as an interior designer or photographer, nor for specific major campaigns, fashion houses or magazine covers. Those details should not be treated as part of her verified biography.
Relationship and marriage with Niki Lauda
The Guardian’s obituary of Niki Lauda reports that Lauda met Knaus in 1975 while she was in a relationship with Jürgens. The same account says Lauda left his then-partner, Mariella Reininghaus, for Knaus.
The relationship moved quickly into marriage. Knaus and Lauda married in 1976 in a civil ceremony in Wiener Neustadt. Contemporary archival reports give March 11, 1976, as the wedding date, although the precise civil record was not independently established in the available documentation. The year and location are more securely supported by an archival account drawing on Motor‘s 1976 coverage.
The timing corrects a common error in some later biographies. Knaus and Lauda were already married before Lauda’s near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring on August 1, 1976.
Life alongside Formula 1
The marriage began during one of the most famous seasons in Formula 1 history. Lauda entered 1976 as the reigning world champion and became the central figure in a dramatic title fight with James Hunt.
After his crash at the German Grand Prix, Lauda suffered severe burns and other injuries but returned to racing within weeks. The season became one of the defining chapters of his career and later inspired Ron Howard’s film Rush. Formula 1 itself revisited the story in a 50th-anniversary retrospective on the 1976 season in January 2026.
Knaus was visibly part of Lauda’s public life during this period. Getty archives identify her alongside him at the Belgian Grand Prix in May 1976, and another photograph from September 1977 identifies her as “Marlene Knaus Lauda, Niki Lauda’s wife.”
Those photographs establish her presence at Formula 1 events, but not a formal professional role in Lauda’s racing career. The distinction matters: she was part of the public family story surrounding him without being a motorsport figure in her own right.
Family life and children
Knaus and Lauda had two sons, Lukas and Mathias. The family lived for a period in Ibiza before moving to Hof, near Salzburg.
Mathias, born in Salzburg in 1981, later became a racing driver. In an interview recalling his childhood, he described himself as the second son of Niki and Marlene and remembered living in Ibiza when he was young before the family moved to Austria.
His account gives one of the more personal but still attributable glimpses into Knaus’s family life. Rather than relying on later celebrity biographies, it places the family in specific locations through the recollection of someone who lived there.
Lukas, the older son, has also remained part of the wider Lauda family story, although significantly less verified public detail about his life is relevant to a profile of Knaus.
Divorce and a quieter public life
Knaus and Lauda divorced in 1991. That date is supported by stronger mainstream reporting, including The Guardian, despite some lower-quality biography sites giving 1996.
The reason for the divorce is not established strongly enough to reduce it to a single cause. Later online accounts sometimes attribute it to specific private events, but the reliable record supports the divorce itself more clearly than explanations for it.
After the marriage ended, Knaus became substantially less visible in public. Her later appearances were occasional and usually tied to Lauda or the family.
Editorial photography documents her attendance at Niki Lauda’s funeral in Vienna on May 29, 2019. That is evidence that she was present, but it should not be used to infer the private nature of their relationship after the divorce.
Her portrayal in Rush and documentary appearances
The 2013 film Rush introduced a dramatized version of Knaus to audiences who knew the Lauda-Hunt rivalry primarily through cinema. An ORF program listing identifies Alexandra Maria Lara as Marlene Lauda.
The film focuses on the rivalry between Lauda and Hunt rather than providing a standalone biography of Knaus. Its depiction of her should therefore be understood as dramatic interpretation rather than a complete historical record.
Knaus also contributed to nonfiction material about Lauda. She was identified as an interviewee in Hannes Schalle’s 2015 documentary Lauda: The Untold Story, which incorporated interviews with members of Lauda’s family.
A review of the documentary reports Knaus saying she had been “married to three different Nikki’s,” reflecting how dramatically Lauda’s life changed over time. Because the wording survives through a review rather than a directly verified transcript of the footage, it is safest to treat it as a reported quotation.
What is firmly known — and what is not
The central facts of Knaus’s public biography are consistent: she worked as a model, was associated with Curd Jürgens before meeting Lauda, married Lauda in 1976, had two sons with him and divorced him in 1991.
Other frequently repeated details are far less secure.
Her exact birth date and birth year are not established by reliable documentation. Some later sources give 1956, while historical references to her age point to different possible years. Those conflicts make a precise age unsafe to state as fact.
Her birthplace, nationality and ancestry are also inconsistent across online biographies, which variously describe her as Austrian, Chilean, Venezuelan or American-born. No sufficiently strong record resolves those claims.
The same problem affects assertions that Knaus later worked professionally as a photographer or interior designer. Without reliable credits or primary documentation, the defensible career description remains model or photomodel.
There is also no credible basis for a personal net-worth figure. Estimates circulating online are not supported by the kind of asset, debt, settlement or financial documentation needed to calculate private wealth.
Current status
Knaus has maintained a low public profile for many years. The most substantive recent family-linked reporting located dates from February 2024, when her son Mathias spoke about her in an interview with Kronen Zeitung. A BUNTE report on those comments says he described his mother as having become more withdrawn after Niki Lauda’s death and as living very privately.
An older interview with Mathias, conducted around 2021, associated his mother with Ibiza and said she lived near him there. That information is useful as historical context but does not establish Knaus’s exact residence in 2026.
As of August 25, 2026, there is no newer direct public statement from Knaus in the established record. Her exact residence, current relationship status and day-to-day activities remain private.
Conclusion
Marlene Knaus is closely connected to one of Formula 1’s most celebrated stories, but her own public record is considerably narrower than Lauda’s. The strongest evidence shows a model who entered the public eye before her marriage, became part of Lauda’s life during his defining racing years, raised two sons with him and later stepped back from public attention.
That limited visibility is part of the biography rather than a gap that needs to be filled. Knaus’s documented place in the Lauda story is clear; the unsupported details often added around it are not.
