Paulo Coelho Height, Age, Wife, Family, Biography

Paulo Coelho

Bio/Wiki
Full Name	Paulo Coelho de Souza
Profession(s)	Lyricist, Novelist
Physical Stats
Height (approx.)	5' 8" (173 cm)
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Salt & Pepper
Career
Awards, Honours, Achievements	• 1995- ELLE Grand Prix Litteraire des Lectrices, France • 1996- Knight of Arts and Letters, France • 1996- Flaiano International Award, Italy • 1996- Super Grinzane Cavour Book Award, Italy • 1997- The Valkyries: An Encounter with Angels--International IMPAC Literary Award Finalist, Ireland • 1998- Comendador de Ordem do Rio Branco, Brazil • 1999- Golden Medal of Galicia, Spain • 1999- World Economic Forum Crystal Award • 1999- Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur, France • 2000- Crystal Mirror Award, Poland • 2001- XXIII Premio Internazionale Fregene, Italy • 2001- Bambi Award, Germany • 2002- Club of Budapest Planetary Arts Award, Hungary • 2002- The Alchemist--Corine International Award for Best Fiction, Germany • 2004- Večernje Novosti Newspaper Golden Bestseller Prize, Serbia • 2004- Eleven Minutes—Ex Libris Award, Serbia • 2004- The Alchemist—Nielsen Gold Book Award, UK • 2004- Order of St. Sophia for Contribution to Revival of Science and Culture, Ukraine • 2004- Order of Honour of Ukraine, Ukraine • 2005- Budapest International Book Festival Budapest Prize, Hungary • 2005- Goldene Feder Award, Germany • 2005- DirectGroup International Author Award, Germany • 2006- The Zahir—Kiklop Literary Award Hit of the Year, Croatia • 2006- The Religion Communicators Council Wilbur Award, U.S. • 2006- Cruz do Mérito do Empreendedor Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazil • 2006- I Premio Álava en el Corazón Prize, Spain • 2006- Association of Mexican Booksellers Las Pergolas Prize, Mexico • 2007- Hans Christian Andersen Award, Denmark • 2007- United Nations Messenger of Peace • 2007- UNESCO Special Counselor for Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences • 2008- Ambassador of European Union for Intercultural Dialogue
Personal Life
Date of Birth	24 August 1947 (Sunday)
Age (as of 2025)	78 Years
Birthplace	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Zodiac sign	Virgo
Signature
Nationality	Brazilian
Hometown	Rio de Janeiro
Religion	Christian
Social Media	• Instagram • Facebook • YouTube
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Married
Marriage Date	Year 1980
Family
Wife/Spouse	Christina Oiticica (Artist)
Parents	Father- (Deceased) (Engineer) Mother- (Deceased)

Paulo Coelho

Some Lesser Known Facts About Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was raised by his parents in a very religious household and was educated by Jesuits. His father was an engineer, and he wanted Paulo to become an engineer too. Paulo’s mother was a devoted Catholic.

Born into a Catholic family, Paulo’s parents were strict about religion and faith.

As a teenager, he used to spend his days at the beach with a group of older kids, and Paulo stood out as the poet among them.

Even though it was risky in a country ruled by a strict military government, he was dedicated to becoming a writer from a very young age.

When he told his wish to become a writer to his mother, his mother told him that “My dear, your father is an engineer. He’s a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer?”.

When Paulo Coelho was 17 years old, his parents sent him to a mental hospital three times because they thought he was acting a bit psychotic, as he never used to follow society’s rules and was keen on becoming an artist. Paulo escaped three times before being released in 1967 when he was 20 years old.

He was also given electric shock therapy during his time in the asylum.

Soon after leaving the mental hospital, Paulo received a medical report from his admission to the hospital, and the report stated that he was irritable and also harassed people politically.

He was doing very badly in school, and his mother thought he had sexual issues. She felt he wasn’t mature for his age, and whenever he wanted something, he would try every possible way to get it, which resulted in him showing more extreme behaviour.

Recalling his experience of the mental asylum, Paulo Coelho was quoted as saying in one of his interviews that
My parents thought I was psychotic. That was the diagnosis. I used to read a lot, I was very shy and I didn’t socialise very easily. They were desperate. It wasn’t that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn’t know what to do.”
Before he realised that writing was what he wanted to pursue in life, Paulo joined law school on his parents’ wishes, and he gave up his dream of becoming a writer.

After one year of studying in the Law School, he dropped out to live a life as a hippie and started travelling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe.

return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Brazilian singers Elis Regina and Rita Lee.

In the 1960s, Paulo Coelho started consuming drugs while being a hippie and started a short-lived underground magazine called 2001, which covered subjects like life from outer space and the psychologist Carl Jung.

While researching for a story for the magazine ‘2001,’ he came across the works of the English poet Aleister Crowley. Soon after, he joined a group called the Alternative Society that promoted drug use, practised black magic, and followed Aleister Crowley’s motto that said ‘Do whatever you want, that’s the whole law.’

Paulo met the producer and singer named Raul Seixas at the Alternative Society, and for many years, Paulo wrote song lyrics for Raul Seixas.

In 1974, Paulo Coelho was arrested by the military for disruptive activities because they thought his song lyrics, which were inspired by the teachings of the poet and novelist Aleister Crowley, were dangerous. During his arrest, Paulo was forced into a car, taken to a hidden location, and tortured with electric shocks to his private parts.

After coming out of jail, Paulo remained traumatised and frightened for seven years, and after all those years, he started getting engaged in several projects of civil rights.

Paulo Coelho did various jobs in the music industry to make ends meet. He wrote television biopics and soap operas.

In 1982, Paulo and his wife, Christina, went to Europe. They bought a Mercedes for a thousand dollars from the Indian Embassy in Yugoslavia and drove it to Germany.

In the same year, he published his first book titled ‘Hell Archives,’ but it failed to make any significant impact in the world.

In 1986, Paulo co-wrote a book titled ‘Practical Manual of Vampirism,’ but he tried to take it off the shelves because he considered the book of poor quality. The book is not included in Paulo’s official bibliography, and he also tries to keep himself distant from that project.

In the same year, Paulo Coelho walked the 500-plus-mile Road of Santiago de Compostela, which is a network of pilgrims’ ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.

While walking on the Road of Santiago de Compostela, he had a spiritual awakening. He later mentioned his entire spiritual awakening experience in his novel titled ‘The Pilgrimage,’ which is a recollection of Paulo’s experiences. The book was published in 1987.
The cover of Paulo Coelho’s novel titled ‘The Pilgrimage’ (1987)

Since his first book, titled ‘The Pilgrimage,’ came out in 1987, Paulo has sold 65 million copies, which made him the world’s top-selling author, and he ended up outselling other famous authors like John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and J.K. Rowling.

His books have been translated into 59 languages.

Paulo was facing issues in delaying the start of his writing career. One day, he procrastinated and said, “If I see a white feather today, that is a sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new book.”

That is exactly when he saw a feather on the window of a shop, and in that very moment, he started his full-time professional writing career.

In 1988, Paulo Coelho released his book titled ‘The Alchemist,’ which was published through a small Brazilian publishing house. The publishing house initially made a print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint it.
The cover of Paulo Coelho’s novel titled ‘The Alchemist’ (1988)

Soon after, Paulo found a bigger publishing house, which was the British-American publishing company named ‘HarperCollins.’ The company released ‘The Alchemist’ again in 1994, and this time, in a larger quantity.

‘The Alchemist’ was originally written in Portuguese by Paulo, nd later it became a widely translated international bestseller.

Paulo spends most of the year in Rio de Janeiro, where he has an institute that cares for 430 poor children. In 1996, he founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides support to children and the elderly.

Since 2002, Paulo Coelho has been a member of the ‘Brazilian Academy of Letters,’ which is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century.

In 2005, a week after the release of his book titled ‘The Zahir,’ the book was ranked number one in the bestseller lists of all 83 countries in which it has been released, except for Germany, where it was ranked second due to the ‘Da Vinci Code.’

In an interview, Paulo Coelho stated that the Sufi tradition had been an influence on his writing, particularly when writing his books ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘The Zahir.’

Paulo Coelho’s books usually involve a spiritual journey kind of writing, written in simple, easy language that eventually leads to a strong moral lesson at the end. American actress Julia Roberts and singer Madonna were known to love his work.

Paulo Coelho serves as a guest at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in the month of January every year.

The majority of his books begin with a prayer to Mother Mary and an epigraph from the Gospel.

Paulo Coelho and his wife, Christina, don’t have children, but their 25-year-old niece, Paula, who works as their assistant, lives with them in Paris.

He has a renovated mill in the French Pyrenees. Paulo spends a few months each year at both homes and spends the rest of his time travelling around the world.

Whenever Paulo Coelho travels, even by car, he always makes sure to recite a prayer to meet interesting people during his journey.

Paulo has also worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre director before pursuing his writing career.

Since the release of his novel ‘The Alchemist,’ Paulo Coelho has written at least one novel every two years. His work has been published in more than 170 countries.

In 2014, Brazilian filmmaker Daniel Augusto released a Brazilian-Spanish biographical drama film titled ‘Não Pare na Pista’ (Paulo Coelho’s Best Story), which was based on Paulo Coelho’s life.

The film ‘Não Pare na Pista’ emphasised three different moments of Paulo’s life, which are his youth in the 1960s, his adulthood in the 1980s, and his maturity phase in 2013, when he visits Santiago de Compostela once again.

In 2014, he uploaded around 80,000 documents-manuscripts, diaries, photos, reader letters, press clippings and created a virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation, together with the physical foundation, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 2016, Paulo Coelho was listed at number 2 by a UK-based company named ‘Richtopia’ in the list of 200 most influential contemporary authors.

In the same year, the American basketball player Kobe Bryant reached out to Paulo Coelho in connection with a children’s book project with him. Paulo and Kobe started to write the book together just a few months before Kobe Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash in January 2020.

When Paulo got to know about Kobe’s death, he immediately deleted the draft of the book that he was writing with Kobe Bryant.

When asked about why he deleted the draft, Paulo was quoted as saying in one of his interviews that
I deleted the draft because it didn’t make any sense to publish without him. It wouldn’t add anything relevant to him or his family. That doesn’t stop me from writing someday about things I learned from Kobe and how much of a larger-than-life person he was. But the children’s book did not make sense anymore.”
The idea behind Paulo’s collaboration with Kobe Bryant was to inspire underprivileged children to overcome adversity through sports.

Over his career, Paulo Coelho has published many books, and some of them include ‘By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept’ (1994), ‘Manual of the Warrior of Light’ (1997), ‘The Winner Stands Alone’ (2008), ‘Manuscript Found in Accra’ (2012), ‘Hippie’ (2018), and ‘The Archer’ (2020).
The cover of Paulo Coelho’s novel titled ‘Manuscript Found in Accra’ (2012)

Paulo hates to see books being neglected and getting dusty on bookshelves, which is why he leaves books in parks, bus stations, and local restaurants for random readers to find and pick as he believes that a book must travel places.