Michelle Rocca

Michelle Rocca (born 1961 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish former model, television presenter, and beauty queen who, in 1980, won the Miss Ireland title. The following year, she married footballer John Devine; two years after their divorce in 1990 she became, for a lengthy period, the girlfriend, and later, the wife of Northern Irish singer Van Morrison.

She is the daughter of Paddy and Maureen Rocca and granddaughter of Italian immigrant Egidio Rocca who founded the successful business, Rocca Tiles.

Rocca grew up in a large family with two brothers and three sisters. Rocca attended University College Dublin studying Greek and Roman Civilization and Italian and French Archaeology.

Rocca is fluent in several languages and has earned an MA degree from Trinity College in Dublin and also a degree from Bristol University in Bristol, England.

She entered won the Miss Ireland title in 1980 and was number 3 finalist in the Miss International 1981 pageant.

Rocca worked in the family business and also modelled until she joined RTÉ in 1987 as a television presenter. In 1988, she co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest with Pat Kenny in front of a worldwide audience of 600 million viewers. She continued to model, with occasional presenting jobs, such as the Miss World 1990 contest in London.

Rocca now works as a psychology and motivational teacher with a master's degree in philosophy and English.

She began dating Arsenal and Irish International footballer John Devine when she was 17 and they were married in 1981 and lived in England. The couple had two daughters, Danielle and Natasha, but were separated in 1987 and she returned to Dublin with the children. They divorced in 1990.

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