Jelena Noura "Gigi" Hadid (/ˈdʒiːdʒihəˈdiːd/JEE-jee hə-DEED; born April 23, 1995) is an American fashion model and television personality. In 2016, she was named International Model of the Year by the
British Fashion Council.[4] Throughout her career, Hadid has made at least 45 appearances in international
Vogue.[5] Models.com ranks her as one of the "New Supers."[6] Since 2017, Hadid has been one of the
highest-paid models in the world, earning $20 million.[7][8]
Born in Los Angeles, she began her career as a child model for Baby Guess. She signed to
IMG Models in 2013 and made her
New York Fashion Week debut the next year. Hadid has appeared in numerous
high fashion campaigns and editorials, and is a spokesmodel for
Maybelline.
Early life
Jelena Noura Hadid was born on April 23, 1995,[9] in
Los Angeles, California, to
Palestinian-American real-estate developer
Mohamed Hadid and
Dutch-American former model
Yolanda Hadid (née van den Herik).[10][11] Through her father, she claims descent from
Zahir Al-Umar, Prince of
Nazareth and
Sheik of
Galilee.[12][13] Her younger sister,
Bella, and younger brother, Anwar, are also models.[14] Additionally, she has two older paternal half-sisters, Marielle and Alana.[9][15] She and her siblings were raised on a ranch in
Santa Barbara.[16] The family moved to
Beverly Hills after ten years.[17] Hadid has stated that "Gigi" was a childhood nickname that was also used by her mother while growing up in the Netherlands. She began using it in school to avoid confusion with a girl in her class named "Helena".[18]
In 2013, Hadid graduated from
Malibu High School, where she was captain of the varsity volleyball team, as well as an
equestrian.[19][20] After high school, she moved to
New York City to study criminal psychology at
The New School. She suspended her studies to focus on her modeling career.[21]
Career
1997–2012: Early work
Hadid's modeling career began when she was two years old,[22] after
Guess co-founder
Paul Marciano discovered her. She appeared in Baby Guess ads before stopping to concentrate on school. She returned to modeling in 2011[23] and then resumed working with Marciano, becoming the face of a 2012 Guess campaign. As an adult, she has shot three campaigns with Guess.[20][24]
2013–2016: Breakthrough
After signing to
IMG Models in 2013, Hadid made her
New York Fashion Week debut in February 2014, walking for
Desigual.[25][26] In the same month, she made a
high fashion break, appearing on the cover of
Carine Roitfeld's CR Fashion Book.[27] On July 15, 2014, she starred alongside actor and model
Patrick Schwarzenegger in designer
Tom Ford's Eyewear autumn/winter campaign.[28] She co-hosted the Daily Front Row's Fashion Media Awards event held in New York City on September 5, 2014.[29] She has also starred in campaigns for
Tom Ford F/W 2014, Tom Ford Velvet Orchard Fragrance and Tom Ford Beauty 2014.[30][31] She was featured on the cover of Galore magazine in 2014.[32][33][34]
2017–present: Further recognition and brand collaborations
Hadid started off the Spring/Summer campaign season starring in Fendi and
Moschino campaigns.[63] She also was the face of the S/S 2017 campaign for
Max Mara accessories, Stuart Weitzman[64] and
DSQUARED2.[65] The second Tommy Hilfiger and Hadid ready-to-wear collection was presented in February 2017 for the Spring season.[66] She was the photographer of the
Versus (Versace) Spring/Summer 2017 campaign which featured her then-boyfriend, singer
Zayn Malik, and model
Adwoa Aboah.[67] She also photographed a special summer edition of V Magazine titled Gigi's Journal, which featured
Polaroids of fashion industry colleagues, celebrities and close friends.[68]
She was featured on four March 2017 Vogue covers: American, British, Chinese, and the inaugural edition of Vogue Arabia.[69][70][71][72] She also appeared on the covers for CR Fashion Book (Spring/Summer 2017), Jolie (April 2017) and The Daily (Spring 2017).[73][74][75] She featured on the May 2017 covers for the Dutch editions of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Glamour as well as the June/July 2017 cover of American Harper's Bazaar.[76][77] She has starred in editorials for American Vogue (April 2017) and LOVE Magazine (Spring/Summer 2017).
She scored her second American Vogue cover in August 2017, sharing it with her then-boyfriend, Zayn Malik.[78] The third Tommy Hilfiger and Hadid collection was presented in September 2017.[79] During Fall/Winter 2017 Fashion Month in New York, Milan and Paris, she opened the shows for
Jeremy Scott, Anna Sui, Versus (Versace),
Alberta Ferretti,
Missoni,
H&M and
Balmain; and closed the shows for
Isabel Marant, Moschino, Max Mara and Anna Sui. She also released the first season of two new collaborations with Vogue Eyewear and Messika Jewelry.[76] At the Daily Front Row's third annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards, she was honored for the Best Design Debut for her collection with Tommy Hilfiger.[80] She ended 2017 by being named one of Glamour's Women of the Year, alongside
Nicole Kidman,
Solange Knowles,
Muzoon Almellehan and others.[81]
She started 2018 with multiple high fashion campaigns, including
Valentino, Moschino, Versace and Fendi. She also went on to release her second collaboration with both Vogue Eyewear and Messika Jewelry.[82] In February, during fashion week, she presented the fourth and last season of her capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger in Milan.[83][84]
She appeared on many different international Vogue covers in 2018, including British Vogue in March,[85]Vogue Italia in May and Vogue Brazil in September.[86] She also scored multiple American covers, including the Harper's Bazaar May issue,[87]V Magazine's Fall Preview Cover V114,[88] and W Magazine. She also covered LOVE Magazine's 10th Anniversary edition,[89]Chaos 69, and Chaos True Originals – Disney Special.
In November 2018, she announced her first collaboration with Reebok designing sneakers for the brand, starting with limited release on December 7 and the full collection to be released later in February 2019.[90] She also returned to the
Victoria's Secret Fashion Show for the third time in the same month.[91] In early 2019, she appeared on more international Vogue covers, including Vogue Czechoslovakia, Vogue Arabia, and Vogue Hong Kong.[82]
In August 2022, Hadid revealed that she would be launching her first solo clothing line, Guest in Residence.[94][95][96] In 2023, Hadid and
Tan France co-hosted the reality fashion competition
Next In Fashion.[97] The show was released through
Netflix on March 3, 2023.[98]
Activism
In January 2016, Hadid participated in MasterChef and raised $25,000 for Global Lyme Alliance.[99] In October 2016, she joined other celebrities in supporting the
BBC's
Children in Need's T-shirt philanthropy project. The shirt, designed by
Giles Deacon, sold for $15 with 70% of all the proceeds going to the charity.[100]
Hadid announced in May 2018 that she would be working closely with
UNICEF to help children around the world. On August 25, she went on her first mission with UNICEF to visit their programing in
Bangladesh. The trip fell on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the
Rohingya refugee crisis.[102]
On May 3, 2020, Hadid and other celebrities joined forces to play a virtual charity tennis match on
Facebook Gaming. Organized by IMG Tennis, the participants all received $25,000 to donate to a charity of their choice. The winners received an additional $1 million to donate. Hadid played for the non-profit organization
Feeding America.[103] In June 2020, Hadid auctioned off some of her clothes as part of a charity auction organized by British Vogue that benefitted
NHS Charities Together and the
NAACP.[104]
Hadid has shown support for the
Black Lives Matter movement. A percentage of the sales from her quarantine editorial with V Magazine, Gigi's Journal Part II, were donated to four organizations; the
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the NAACP, the
ACLU, and
Campaign Zero. The organizations also received personal donations from Hadid.[105]
In 2022, Hadid pledged to donate her earnings from the Fall 2022 shows to help Ukrainian victims of the
Russian invasion and Palestinians.
Vogue magazine reported Hadid's donations to Ukraine but omitted Palestine, for which it received criticism.[106][107][108]
Ukrainian self-styled prankster
Vitalii Sediuk lifted her off the ground from behind in 2016 under the pretense of a prank,[110][111] and she was commended on how she defended herself from him.[112][113]
On November 7, 2022, Hadid deleted her
Twitter account, saying on Instagram, "For a long time, but especially with its new leadership, it's becoming more and more of a cesspool of hate & bigotry, and its not a place I want to be a part of."[114]
Relationships
Hadid was in an
on-again, off-again relationship with Australian singer
Cody Simpson. The pair first met in 2013 when she appeared in his music video for "Surfboard". They began dating later that year before their breakup in 2014. They reunited a few months later before splitting for a second time in May 2015.[115][116] She appeared in Simpson's music video for "Flower" in February 2015.[117]
Hadid was in a relationship with American singer
Joe Jonas from June to October 2015. She co-directed Jonas' band
DNCE's music video for "
Cake by the Ocean".[118][119]
She began dating English singer
Zayn Malik in late 2015; they broke up and reconciled multiple times.[120][121][122][123] She appeared in Malik's music video for "
Pillowtalk." They starred on the August 2017 cover of American Vogue,[78] making them the third couple to appear together on a Vogue cover. It courted controversy because of Vogue misnaming them as gender fluid, for which Vogue apologized.[124] They also did a Versus (Versace) campaign as a couple, with Hadid as the photographer.[125][126] In April 2020, she confirmed that she and Malik were expecting their first child during an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, after rumors began to circulate of her pregnancy.[127][128] Their daughter was born in September 2020.[129] The family spent a majority of their time on a farm in rural
New Hope, Pennsylvania, where Hadid's mother and younger sister, Bella, also own land.[130][131]
In October 2021, Malik entered a
no-contest plea to four charges of harassment against Hadid's mother,
Yolanda. He was sentenced by a Pennsylvania court to 360 days of probation as well as counseling for anger management and domestic violence.[132] Hadid and Malik reportedly ended their relationship after the incident.[133]
Legal issues
In late January 2019, Hadid was sued by the independent photo agency business Xclusive for sharing an October 2018 photo of herself without the photographer's permission.[134] In 2017, photographer Peter Cepeda took a photo of her, which she later posted on Instagram. He filed a lawsuit against her the following September and it was later settled outside of court.[134]
On July 10, 2023, Hadid was arrested in the
Cayman Islands under charges of importation of drugs and drug paraphernalia after
customs and
border control discovered a small amount of
marijuana, along with "smoking utensils", to be among her belongings when she touched down at the
Owen Roberts International Airport.[135] Although determined that the possession of the marijuana was for personal use only, Hadid was nonetheless charged with importation-related crimes. She was later processed, fined $1,000, and released.[136]
In 2017, Hadid attempted to travel to
Shanghai to participate in the
2017 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show but ultimately could not, as her Chinese
visa was reportedly revoked after an online video showing her doing a slant-eyes gesture in imitation of
Buddha was criticized as racist by
Chinese internet users.[137][138]
^Janofsky, Michael (December 20, 1991). "Olympics; Construction Was Slow, So . . ". The New York Times.
Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2020. While it would have been ideal to ski for the United States, his adoptive country, he knew that making its Olympic team would be virtually impossible. Instead, taking advantage of his dual citizenship, he petitioned the Jordan Olympic Committee, and Jordanian officials approved.
^Pantazi, Chloe (January 31, 2018).
"Gigi Hadid's first name is not actually 'Gigi'". Business Insider. Retrieved March 24, 2024. But she has gone by Gigi since she was in elementary school to set her apart from a girl named Helena in her class.