If I had money and access to move anywhere in the world, Texas is one of the last places I would go. I’m not trying to piss off Texans, especially the good souls who live in some of the more liberal areas of the state. But the Republican/MAGA politics of Texas are despicable and it simply feels like one of the worst states to be a woman, even a rich woman. Bella Hadid felt differently. She moved to Fort Worth at some point in the past year, and she now lives in a spacious Texas home with her boyfriend/partner Adan Banuelos. A big part of the move seems to be about horse culture – the Hadid sisters are horse girls, and Adan is described as a “horseman” too. But… there are other horse cultures outside of Texas! Isn’t there a huge horse culture in Florida? Another state with despicable politics. Anyway, Bella is loving Texas and she’s currently promoting her new perfume line. Some highlights from her Allure interview:

Her Fort Worth home: Hadid is at home, in the kitchen of her new Fort Worth, Texas home, with buttercream walls, vaulted ceilings, Tuscan columns, and at least one antler-shaped chandelier. She has slicked her hair back into the low, tight bun that launched a thousand “clean girl aesthetic” disciples in recent years. Her nails are short and bare, with neat oval tips. She has on a simple, teddy-bear-colored mohair sweater with buttons dotting the ridge of one shoulder, offset by jewelry that feels a bit more maximalist. Her yellow gold knot earrings harken to the 1980s (a time when Hadid, who refers to her current age as “30 in three years,” was not yet born).

Her Lyme disease: The last few weeks have been tough, she says, and describes her recovery as “not really linear” and “a roller coaster.” In the past year, she not only took an unofficial step back from modeling to focus on her mental and physical health, but moved to Texas and started an entirely new chapter with her horseman boyfriend, Adan Banuelos, whom she refers to as “my partner” and “an incredible older businessman” (he is 35).

Horse culture: Banuelos trains cutting horses and riders. (Cutting is a type of equestrian competition in which a horse and rider have to separate a single cow from a herd.) Earlier this year, Hadid, a longtime show jumper, competed in an amateur cutting horse competition (she placed eighth). She was ready for new challenges. “After 10 years of modeling,” Hadid says, “I realized I was putting so much energy and love and effort into something that, in the long run, wasn’t necessarily giving it back to me.”

Her perfume: Hadid is launching her own fragrance line, ‘Ôrəbella, pronounced “aura-bella,” a portmanteau of Hadid, which means “iron ore” in Arabic, and her first name. And, in a way, it’s a family business. “Growing up in an Arab family, perfume and scents were almost a personality trait—I can still remember the way my grandparents smelled when they walked into a room. My uncle Mahmoud was making his own essential oils in the 70s—woody, tobacco-smelling scents.”

She developed this on her own: “It wasn’t something where somebody came to me and said, ‘We want to start a business with you,” Hadid says. She simply sought an alternative to the kind of alcohol-based fragrances that tend to come out of major perfume houses…[and] unlike most perfumes, this one isn’t meant to be sprayed with abandon on your clothes, your hair, or your love letters. Its oil-rich base means it is strictly for use on skin; it would probably leave unseemly stains on clothing (I never risked it). It’s either restrictive or a novel, intimate take on scent, depending on how you look at it.

Life in Texas: “Just as I have styled myself for years now–which I still do–I love being able to do my own hair and makeup, be happy with how I look, and get ready with my girlfriends here in Texas. We have the best time, and I never feel like I need to do too much. For the first time now, I’m not putting on a fake face. If I don’t feel good, I won’t go. If I don’t feel good, I take time for myself. And I’ve never had the opportunity to do that or say that before. Now when anybody sees me in pictures and they say, I look happy, I genuinely am. I am feeling better; my bad days now were my old good days.”

[From Allure]

Other than the part about living in Fort Worth, I admire her choices. So many celebrity women get so strung out in the celebrity rat race, believing that they can never take time off or go away for a while without their whole careers collapsing. And here’s Bella, taking a huge break and moving somewhere else, prioritizing her physical and mental health. She did more than dream of a different kind of life for herself, she actually made it happen. She sounds a lot happier. I’m curious about her perfume too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.