Sylvie Meis: Embracing Imperfection & Celebrating Women

Baden-Baden, Germany – Presenter and entrepreneur Sylvie Meis received the Female Empowerment Award at the GALA Spa Awards this weekend, dedicating the honor to women striving for strength and self-acceptance. Meis, 47, expressed her gratitude for the recognition, emphasizing the importance of embracing imperfections.

“We don’t have to be perfect,” Meis stated, according to reports from Nieuws.nl. The GALA Spa Awards, presented annually by the German magazine GALA, recognize achievements in wellness and lifestyle. The award acknowledges Meis’s work as a presenter and her entrepreneurial ventures.

The recognition comes amidst a period of public scrutiny for Meis. In December 2025, a critical article in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf described her appearance on television as “doodeng” – frightening – following an interview with Antoinnette Scheulderman for the program De Geur van Succes (The Scent of Success). The column, penned by Mark Koster, suggested Meis lacked authenticity and genuine talent, attributing her success largely to her marriage to former footballer Rafael van der Vaart and the financial benefits derived from it.

Koster’s critique focused on the program’s selection of subjects, characterizing them as “egomane BN’ers” (famous Dutch personalities) and questioning the pursuit of a “special success gene” that he found largely absent. He wrote that Meis “presents herself as a businesswoman, while she has mainly been lucky because of her marriage to Rafael van der Vaart.”

Separately, Meis recently ended her relationship with German millionaire Patrick Gruhn, as reported by De Telegraaf and German publication BILD. Details surrounding the split have not been publicly disclosed.