Shayk was born in Yemanzhelinsk, Russia, to Volga Tatar coal miner Valery and ethnic Russian kindergarten music teacher Olga. She says she inherited her looks from her father and she has said that people often think she is South American. "My father was dark skinned, because he was Tatar, sometimes Tatars can look Brazilian," she says. "I get my light eyes from my mother." She has one sibling, a sister named Tatiana.