Born in Prostějov, Czechoslovakia, Porizkova was a toddler when her parents fled Czechoslovakia to Lund, Sweden, to escape the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion.
After a failed rescue attempt, in which her pregnant mother was detained by the national police and then placed under house arrest,[REF] international political pressure led by Olof Palme caused the communist government to allow the Pořízek family to be reunited after seven years.