“As a new mom, I just want the best for my baby, as all parents do,” read part of Hadid’s open letter to the press.
A life surrounded by cameras can be tough, and it’s a struggle that model Gigi Hadid knows all too well. That’s why as soon as her daughter with Zayn Malik, Khai Hadid Malik, was born last September 2020, she made it a point to keep her baby out of the limelight and off of social media.
“I have friends who are public figures and that’s how they’ve gone about it, and I see their kids really blossom in a different way,” she said in an interview with Vogue last February, referring to friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s family of five. Lively and Reynolds have also managed to let their three daughters live a hushed life away from the frenzy of paparazzi.
Since welcoming her daughter into the world, Hadid has also managed the same, only posting photos of her daughter that leave out her profile.
On Tuesday, Hadid shed a little more light on her decision to keep her daughter’s daily life private. Through a reel posted on Instagram, the recurring Vogue model revealed her reasons in the form of an open letter addressed to paparazzi, press, and fan accounts online, and requested from the same to “keep baby Khai’s face out of photos.”
Read her open letter below:
To the paparazzi, press, and fan accounts:
As our baby grows up, we have to realize that we can’t protect her from everything the way we wanted to and could when she was smaller. She loves seeing the world! And although she gets a lot of that out near the farm, she also gets to experience other places- a true blessing. On our most recent visits to New York, she has started to want her sun shade lifted up (something she is used to at home) and helps herself to it! 😅 she doesn’t understand why she’s covered in the city, or what I’ve wanted to protect her from. I also want her to see the most amazing city in the world – the beautiful and diverse people that walk down the streets of NYC … that is, without the stress of the media circus that comes with parents who are public figures.
I know the laws change State to State, and I’ve seen some paparazzi photos of kids in NYC with their faces blurred- but, from asking around, I believe that that comes down to the integrity of the photographer, publication, or fans sharing the images.
I write this all to say: to the Paparazzi, press, and beloved fan accounts, you know we have never intentionally shared our daughters face on social media. Our wish is that she can choose how to share herself with the world when she comes of age, and that she can live as normal of a childhood as possible, without worrying about a public image that she has not chosen. It would mean the world to us, as we take our daughter to see and explore NYC, and the world, if you would PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE blur her face out of the images, and if and when she is caught on camera, I know it’s an extra effort, but as a new mom, I just want the best for my baby, as all parents do… and I hope this can continue the conversation to protect minors in the media, even if they come from a public family.
I would like to send a huge ‘Thank You’ to those paparazzi who have been so respectful, since I asked theme to keep a distance while I walked with the stroller, since my first trip to NYC with Khai. I see you, and I appreciate it.
For a child, I can imagine that close or dramatic paparazzi frenzies must be overwhelming and disorienting… it still is as an adult that understands and deals with it often.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hope you can understand where I’m coming from.
With love, G
