Gigi Hadid: Multiracial people ‘can feel different pressures from each community’

"The French Dispatch" Red Carpet during the 74th Cannes International Film Festival

Gigi Hadid covers the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The editorial is kind of blah (to me) but that’s because I’m not really fond of Gigi’s hair color these days. Plus, the clothes aren’t that great. The interview is nice though, and Gigi seems to be especially content these days. She gave birth to daughter Khai Hadid Malik last September and she’s taken a nice amount of maternity leave from her modeling career, popping up to an appearance here or there but mostly settled in her farm in Pennsylvania, which is adjacent to her mother’s farm. That’s where she was throughout the pandemic, and she gave birth at home on the farm too. You can read the full Bazaar piece here. Some highlights:

Spending time at the Pennsylvania farm: “It’s peaceful and recharging for me. I deal with a lot of things through just sitting and thinking and writing. People made jokes when Covid hit, like, ‘Oh, Gigi, you’ve been practicing quarantine for years now,’ because when I had a few days off, I would drive to the farm from the city and be with myself in my little cabin, making a resin chair or drying flowers.”

Family dynamics: “This is not to say that I don’t have a heart or Bella doesn’t have a brain, but when dealing with family stuff and world issues, my mom calls me the brain and Bella the heart. My brother is half and half. Whatever the family dinner-table discussion is, Bella will be very emotional and compassionate, and I’m sitting there pulling up charts and infographics, speaking very calmly. My mom is just very Dutch and to the point. And my dad’s a storyteller—a bit goofy, but always connecting it back to, ‘Oh, you’ve heard the old Palestinian saying …’”

How Zayn deals with her family: “At first he was like, ‘How do I get a word in edgewise?’ But now he is very comfortable. He speaks his mind. When he’s in the middle of a family thing and everyone’s like, ‘Zayn, whose side are you on?’ he’s charming. He’s usually on my mom’s side. So he’s smart in that sense.”

Dealing with backlash for supporting Palestine: “Anyone who is multiracial, or even if you aren’t, can feel different pressures from each community.”

She’s not going to say something just to say something: “This year I’ve talked to a lot of people who have been speaking, using their platforms. It’s nice when you get that kind of validation from friends for speaking on what you believe in. But then also not feeling a responsibility to do something that makes you feel unsafe.”

She keeps multiple journals: “During my pregnancy, I had one journal that I called my good journal and one journal that I called my bad journal. They weren’t that literal, but one was more for the memories, for Khai. Maybe one day I’ll give her the bad journal just to be real about it.” What was inside the “bad” journal? “Anxieties and days where I felt like, ‘Am I good enough to be a mom?’ I didn’t want to feel guilty about feeling those things or writing those things down. I just liked the separation. I also have sketch pads where I’ll watercolor-sketch, and sometimes I end up writing there too. I write on the back of receipts and keep those in a notebook. I’m not particular about it, and my journals are everywhere around the house. I just pick up whichever one is closest to me and write.”

Her relationship to mirrors: “I don’t spend a lot of time in the mirror at all. I brush my teeth in the shower in the morning. Or I usually look out the window.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

I used to brush my teeth in the shower to save time but I ended up getting annoyed with myself for doing that! Gigi also talks a lot about surrounding Khai with animals and taking her to the aquarium for the first time because Zayn thought Khai would love the fishes (she did). Gigi still sounds really blissed out from her country life, and the family she’s created with Zayn. I mean… in the back of my mind, I wonder if it will be all bliss and farm life when Zayn is touring or Gigi has to work back-to-back fashion weeks or whatever. But they’re rich, they’ll figure it out. And if they don’t figure it out… I’m not worried about Gigi. She seems fine either way.

Cover & IGs courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.

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16 Responses to “Gigi Hadid: Multiracial people ‘can feel different pressures from each community’”

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  1. psl says:

    WHY would they choose that as the cover shot? I am sorry, but that is a terrible picture of her. She is prettier than that.

  2. Pilar says:

    Pretty sure it’s Zayns farm. He bought a farm up there and has been living up there for years. Well I guess it’s theirs.
    As a fellow biracial person I definitely relate to this.

  3. A says:

    Isn’t she multicultural rather then multiracial?

    • Amy Bee says:

      Her father is Palestinian. Her mother is white.

      • Red says:

        That’s not a race…

      • Amy Bee says:

        @Red: I’m not going to argue with you on this matter. I think we should respect Bella’s wish to identify as multiracial.

      • GraceB says:

        I’m in the UK and my dad is Arab. Here it’s defined as a race. Usually on the tick boxes on forms, it comes under Asian or other. If you go to the Middle East, people mostly do not look white and they’re far from being treated like white people by westerners.

        I get what people are saying though but I also think in the US there is a similar debate about hispanic/latino. In the UK, under our tick boxes which we get with so many forms, they’d be white.

      • questions says:

        In the USA, I think Arab might be defined as white on the census. Or at least I think that’s the option they get when ticking off a box. That or “other race.”

        The way these categories work from country to country is interesting.

        I have no real opinion or facts on whether this classification is correct or not. I’ll leave that to others.

    • Kviby says:

      Scientifically there are not « different races » of people. that was, I guess, a scientific belief by white scientists for 1-2 hundred years, not sure how much it was believed elsewhere. There are racialized populations though (which is why we should not say race doesn’t exist) and her father is Arab. Some Arab people look white and some European people have darker skin and hair just like Arab people. So is she biracial? I guess yes as arabs are certainly racialized where she is from (the US.)

    • nina says:

      That’s what I thought. Multicultural not multiracial

      • Margles says:

        I don’t think bigots care whether you call it an ethnicity or a race, so I’m not sure why you’re focusing on the distinction in this context.

  4. mimi says:

    Zayn doesn’t tour, he’s been really open about the affect touring and fame has had on his mental health.

  5. Lex says:

    I mean obviously I’ll never know because it’s none of my business, but I’d love to know more about her and Zayn’s relationship, as it doesn’t seem healthy. There’s been rumors since they started dating that he cheats on her quite frequently and that he’s not very involved in parenting. Kinda seems like she was trying to be a savior to him, but who knows.

    • ME says:

      About a month ago TMZ showed a video of Zayn outside a bar/club fighting with some dude. Zayn seemed drunk but not sure. I think he has issues he needs to deal with.

  6. Imogene says:

    I really like Gigi. I think she is a good mom and has a good head on her shoulders. I would totally buy a farm and live isolated if I were her too.

  7. Susan says:

    I’ve always found Gigi to be very beautiful but these pics….do their best to hide that beauty. Guess that’s a lesson to ALL of us when we see pics of ourselves we hate…if Gigi Hadid can look bad in professional photos, the rest of us need to give ourselves grace. Ha.