Leonie Frieda (born 1956) is a Swedish-born former model, translator, and writer, working and living in the United Kingdom.Educated in the UK, France and Germany, Ms. Frieda speaks five languages. Her first book was a biography of Catherine de' Medici for which her exhaustive research led her to Paris and the châteaux of the Loire Valley to examine extensive original sources plus read and document facts and information from thousands of letters there as well as in Florence and Rome.Her book was published in the United Kingdom in 2004 and met with much acclaim from leading critics and newspapers.