What could have been a fairy-tale romance ended not only badly but also in a bitter legal dispute between Greek Playmate Sylvia Papadaki and her wealthy Dutch ex-partner, Denis Jean Marie Martens.
The conflict, which began last year, reached its peak recently, focusing on the custody of the two boys the former couple had, who are now in London.
A battle is raging over these children, with court orders and lawsuits between the former partners. For the first time, Sylvia Papadaki is breaking her silence. Speaking to protothema.gr, she breaks down in tears several times when talking about her children: “I miss them so much, and talking to them via video calls is not enough.”
From her words, it seems there is no longer any possibility of finding common ground with the Dutch businessman, who was temporarily granted exclusive custody of the boys by the Athens court.
The situation escalated on September 28 when Sylvia Papadaki was arrested by police in an Airbnb residence for failing to hand over the two boys to their father as required.
Before she could explain to authorities why she didn’t hand over the children, as legally required, Martens took the boys and flew them to London in his private jet.
On Friday afternoon, after filing a lawsuit, Papadaki was summoned again to the Athens Police Headquarters to give an urgent supplementary statement regarding the case.
“After all this,” she says, “my impression is that Denis may have initially loved me, but over time, I realized he probably saw me as a vessel for a good womb.”
The Greek beauty, in an earlier photo with her Dutch ex-partner and their two children, now at the center of the custody battle, recounts her experience.
“I was always alone”
Harsh words from a woman who feels hurt, deceived, and shocked by what has surfaced, such as the famous apartment in Kolonaki that the Dutch businessman supposedly bought her.
“First of all, there’s an option for him to take his money back if I don’t live there, but what people don’t know is that the apartment is essentially uninhabitable and under renovation. The floors are broken, and it’s in bad condition, but I never asked him to buy me a house.”
She describes her former partner, painting a very different picture from the man who won her heart in 2017 in Ibiza. He was tender, giving, and a great partner: “When we met and our relationship progressed, he didn’t want to get married. He told me that would happen later, although I wanted to, as we were planning to start a family. Then the kids came, and like many couples, the differences in character started to show, and problems began.”
When asked when she noticed the change in Martens’ character, she answers without hesitation: “Denis was used to a certain lifestyle—being away a lot, traveling a lot, and he never changed that. I was alone during my first pregnancy and nearly gave birth without him being present. A week after the birth of our second son, he left for a trip to Ibiza, to the house he has there. He left me alone constantly.”
The situation, instead of improving, worsened for Sylvia Papadaki, who saw the dream turn into a dead-end relationship, as she spent most of the time alone with the kids, while Martens was absent: “Emotionally, I was not doing well, and my health was deteriorating because I suffer from chronic lung disease. In the summer of 2022, we came to Greece for a vacation, and I wanted to see some doctors, while the children started preschool in September.”
In March 2023, the father took the children to the Netherlands for a few days, as he told her, but did not return them to their mother, marking the beginning of the intense conflict: “When he didn’t bring the kids back, I went to the Netherlands to get them. He refused to give them to me and even kept my passport and my mother’s passport.”
The crowned Playmate claims she was forced to sign an agreement proposed by Martens in order to see her children, saying she was pushed into a corner.
The Accusations
“The agreement required us to live in London with the children, and I signed it under pressure, even though it might sound strange. However, we didn’t end up going, and we returned here and began legal battles with lawsuits and restraining orders from both sides. At some point, we signed a new agreement that said we would live in Greece and move later.”
According to Sylvia, Martens tried to tempt her into complying with his desire to move the family to London.
Their relationship officially ended last March, despite attempts at reconciliation that failed. Over the past year, the former couple slept in separate bedrooms: “After the final breakup, we had joint custody in separate homes, and there were no issues until recently, when I was afraid to hand over the children.”
Despite claims from her ex that he made her the main shareholder in a Dubai-based company, Sylvia says she has no access to the company’s bank account details.
She now drives a Smart car—the vehicle her ex provided was taken back—and when asked about her arrest, she is firm: “I just wanted to buy a little more time. If I had really wanted to disappear with the kids, I would have turned off the phones or dropped everything and gone to a mountain in Crete. I expected this would happen, but I wanted to protect the children.”
Currently, the children are in London, speaking with their mother every evening. Still, sometimes they say nothing, which deeply upsets her.
“He knows the kids are the most important thing to me, and I believe this was his revenge because I didn’t give in to his demands. He took them away from me.”
