Introduction
Type “Hanne Norgaard” into a search bar and you’ll mostly find one connection: she was married to Idris Elba before he became a global star. That’s how most people find her name, but it undersells who she actually is.
Norgaard, who also goes by Kim Elba professionally, built a multi-decade career as a makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur — largely outside the public eye, by her own choice. That’s part of what makes her hard to research: she’s never given the kind of press interviews or verified biography that would settle the basic facts.
This article lays out what’s actually documented about Hanne Norgaard: her relationship with Idris Elba, her career in makeup and cosmetics, her family life, and — just as important — where the publicly available information conflicts or can’t be verified. If you’re searching for her name, you’ll get a clear, honest picture here instead of recycled, contradictory trivia.
Table of Contents
- Who Is Hanne Norgaard?
- Her Relationship and Marriage to Idris Elba
- Life After the Divorce
- Her Career as a Makeup Artist
- Kim Elba Cosmetics and Her Beauty Business
- Family Life and Daughter Isan Elba
- What We Don’t Know For Sure
- Hanne Norgaard: Quick Facts Table
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
Who Is Hanne Norgaard?
Hanne “Kim” Norgaard is a makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur who is most widely known for being the first wife of English actor Idris Elba. She’s frequently referred to online as Kim Elba, a name she kept after her divorce and still uses in her professional life.
Beyond the marriage, Norgaard has spent the better part of two decades working in makeup and beauty — a career she was building before she met Elba and continued long after the relationship ended. Multiple sources describe her as a working makeup artist for television, film, and fashion projects, though the full list of her professional credits isn’t independently documented on any verifiable industry database.
She’s kept a notably low public profile compared to other former partners of celebrities. There’s no verified official website, confirmed interview archive, or Wikipedia page dedicated to her, which is part of why so much of what circulates about her online is thin, repetitive, or contradictory.
Her Relationship and Marriage to Idris Elba
According to widely repeated accounts, Norgaard and Idris Elba met in London before Elba had achieved major fame, and the couple relocated together to the United States in 1999. Several sources describe them as married around that period, with the relationship ending in divorce in 2003 — putting the marriage at roughly four years.
During this time, Elba was still working toward the breakout roles that would later define his career, including his part in the U.S. crime drama The Wire, which premiered in 2002. Norgaard’s makeup career and Elba’s acting career were developing on parallel, unequal tracks — his eventually reaching international recognition, hers staying largely industry-facing.
A key point of confirmation: the marriage is genuinely documented in mainstream entertainment reporting on Idris Elba, not just fan or biography sites, since it’s tied to the birth of his first child. The precise dates of the marriage itself (as opposed to the relationship and divorce) are less consistently reported.
Life After the Divorce
After the marriage ended in 2003, Norgaard largely stepped back from public attention. Several secondary sources state that she chose not to discuss the marriage publicly and has kept details of the relationship private in the years since — a pattern consistent with her generally low media visibility.
She’s reported to have remarried in 2013, to a man identified in multiple sources as Pastor Andrew L. Friar II, and to currently reside in Georgia in the United States. These details appear consistently across several biography-style sites, though none of them are primary sources (like a public records filing or a direct statement from Norgaard herself), so they should be treated as likely rather than fully confirmed.
Despite the divorce, Norgaard reportedly kept the Elba surname professionally, which is a large part of why she’s still searched under “Kim Elba” as well as her birth name.
Her Career as a Makeup Artist
Multiple sources agree on the broad shape of Norgaard’s career, even where they differ on specifics:
- She trained formally in makeup artistry, though the exact institution is inconsistently reported across sources (claims range from a Washington, D.C.–based makeup school to art academies in Europe — these accounts don’t line up cleanly, so no single training history can be stated with confidence).
- She’s described as having worked across television, film, and fashion, doing makeup for productions and photoshoots.
- She’s associated with a business called Make Up Your Mind, reportedly founded around 2007, offering makeup services including photoshoot styling and makeup education sessions.
- Some accounts describe her involvement in beauty-industry initiatives centered on representation and inclusive beauty standards.
Use case: if you’re researching Norgaard because you’re interested in the beauty industry side of celebrity-adjacent entrepreneurship, her story fits a familiar pattern — a working artist whose visibility increased because of a personal connection to fame, who then built independent business ventures on the back of that attention.
Limitation to note: because there’s no verified portfolio, agency listing, or trade-press profile publicly available for her, specific celebrity clients or named productions attributed to her in various articles can’t be independently confirmed here.
Kim Elba Cosmetics and Her Beauty Business
Several sources reference a cosmetics line under the name Kim Elba Cosmetics, tied to Norgaard’s professional identity as a makeup artist. This appears to be a smaller, entrepreneur-led beauty brand rather than a large, retail-distributed cosmetics company — the kind of business many independent makeup artists build as an extension of their client work.
Compared to celebrity-founded beauty brands with major retail backing, a brand like this typically:
- Operates on a smaller scale, often direct-to-consumer or through personal/social channels
- Trades on the founder’s personal reputation and hands-on expertise rather than mass advertising
- Has a narrower, less publicly documented business footprint — which matches the limited information available online
If you’re specifically trying to shop the brand or verify its current operating status, that’s not something that can be confirmed from the sources available, and it’s worth checking directly rather than relying on secondhand biography sites.
Family Life and Daughter Isan Elba
Hanne Norgaard is the mother of Isan Elba, Idris Elba’s first child, who is reported across multiple entertainment sources to have been born in January 2002 — placing her birth during Norgaard and Elba’s marriage. Isan Elba has had some public visibility of her own, including a widely reported appearance as a Golden Globe Ambassador in 2019, an event tied to her father’s profile rather than her mother’s.
Despite the divorce, various accounts suggest Norgaard and Elba maintained a workable co-parenting relationship, though — consistent with everything else about Norgaard’s public presence — there isn’t a detailed, verified account of exactly how that relationship has looked over the years.
What We Don’t Know For Sure
In the interest of not passing off recycled tabloid content as fact, here’s what’s genuinely unclear or inconsistent across the sources currently available:
- Birth date and year: Several sites list an early April 1977 birth date, but the day varies between sources (April 5 and April 6 both appear), and none point to a primary source.
- Ethnic background: Some accounts describe her as having an African American father and South Korean mother; the consistency of this detail across sites is somewhat higher than other claims, but it still traces back to unverified biography pages rather than a direct statement from Norgaard.
- Education: As noted above, claimed schools contradict each other significantly, to the point where at least one version is very likely inaccurate or fabricated.
- Full client list and screen credits: Names of celebrities she’s reportedly done makeup for appear on low-authority biography sites without corroboration from entertainment trade press.
If a decision or piece of writing depends on getting these specific facts right, they shouldn’t be treated as settled based on what’s publicly searchable today.
Hanne Norgaard: Quick Facts Table
| Detail | What’s Reported | Confidence Level |
|---|---|---|
| Also known as | Kim Elba | High — widely and consistently used |
| Known for | Makeup artist; first wife of Idris Elba | High |
| Marriage to Idris Elba | Circa 1999–2003 | Moderate — dates vary slightly by source |
| Daughter | Isan Elba (born January 2002) | High — corroborated by mainstream entertainment coverage of Idris Elba |
| Business | Kim Elba Cosmetics; Make Up Your Mind | Moderate — consistently mentioned, not independently verified |
| Current status | Remarried in 2013; reportedly lives in Georgia, USA | Low-to-moderate — repeated across sources, no primary confirmation |
| Birth date | Reported as early April 1977 | Low — inconsistent across sources |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hanne Norgaard still married to Idris Elba? No. They divorced in 2003, after a relationship that reportedly began in London and continued after they relocated to the United States in 1999.
What is Hanne Norgaard’s profession? She’s a makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur, reportedly working across film, television, and fashion, and associated with a business called Make Up Your Mind and a cosmetics line called Kim Elba Cosmetics.
Why is she also called Kim Elba? “Kim” appears to be a name she goes by personally, and she reportedly kept the Elba surname professionally after her divorce, which is why “Kim Elba” is commonly used alongside “Hanne Norgaard.”
Does Hanne Norgaard have children with Idris Elba? Yes. She’s the mother of Isan Elba, Idris Elba’s first child, reported to have been born in January 2002.
Is Hanne Norgaard currently married? Multiple sources report she remarried in 2013, to a man identified as Pastor Andrew L. Friar II, though this hasn’t been independently confirmed through a primary source.
Where does Hanne Norgaard live now? She’s reported to currently live in Georgia, in the United States, though again this is based on secondary sources rather than direct confirmation.
Does Hanne Norgaard have a verified Wikipedia page? No. There is no dedicated, verified Wikipedia entry for her at this time, which is part of why information about her varies so much across different websites.
Did Hanne Norgaard appear on any reality TV shows? Some sources mention a brief appearance connected to The Real Housewives of Atlanta, but this isn’t corroborated by a primary or authoritative entertainment source, so it should be treated as unconfirmed.
Is Kim Elba Cosmetics still an active brand? This can’t be confirmed from publicly available information. If you’re looking to purchase from the brand, it’s best to search for current, direct sources rather than relying on older biography articles.
How did Hanne Norgaard and Idris Elba meet? Multiple sources say they met in London before relocating together to the United States in 1999, though the exact circumstances of how they met aren’t documented in detail anywhere reliable.
Conclusion
Hanne Norgaard’s public story is really two things layered on top of each other: a documented, entertainment-press-confirmed fact (she was married to Idris Elba and is the mother of his daughter Isan) and a much fuzzier layer of biography-site content that repeats itself without ever really sourcing itself.
If you’re researching her for a specific reason — journalism, a school project, general curiosity — the safest approach is to treat the marriage and daughter as solid ground, and everything else (birth date, education, exact client history, current living situation) as “reported but unverified.” That’s not a knock on her; it’s simply the natural result of someone who’s chosen to stay largely private despite a very public former connection. Cross-check anything beyond the basics before repeating it as fact.
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