Inside Gigi and Bella Hadid’s supermodel empire ... and how their famous family made millions
Supermodels, a property mogul and a reality TV star. The Hadids are one of the wealthiest dynasties in Hollywood, with social and financial influence worth millions. This is how they made their fortune.
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Supermodels. A property mogul. And a reality TV star.
The Hadids are one of the wealthiest dynasties in Hollywood with social and financial influence worth millions of dollars.
Sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid are two of the world’s top-paid models, whose collective annual earnings added up to nearly $US20 million in 2018.
Gigi was the world’s seventh highest-paid model ($US9.5 million) last year, while Bella was No. 8 ($US8.5 million).
They have more than 70 million Instagram followers between them, fronted campaigns for some of the world’s top fashion brands including Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess and Prada, while having also strutted the runway for US lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret.
But the Hadids’ business and social success runs even deeper than just the supermodel sisters.
Their mother Yolanda Hadid, 55, is a Dutch model-turned-Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality star, who is said to be worth more than $US30 million.
She has three children Gigi, 24, Bella, 22, and son Anwar, 19, with ex-husband Mohamed Hadid, the patriarch of the Hadid family, and one of the richest men in Los Angeles — already a domain for the uber wealthy and famous.
Mohamed, 70, is a real estate mogul with a reported net worth of $US400 million. Mohamed and Yolanda were married for six years before splitting in 2000, though Yolanda reverted to the “Hadid” surname after divorcing her second husband, songwriter David Foster.
This is how the Hadids have built their empire.
BELLA HADID
She’s strutted for Victoria’s Secret three times, appeared on the covers of Vogue worldwide, and dates singer The Weeknd, 29 (real name Abel Tesfaye).
Born Isabella Khair Hadid, Bella was signed to mega-agency IMG in 2014 — the same agency that represents her siblings
Her lucrative contracts include being the face of Dior Beauty and TAG Heuer, and she has modelled for Fendi, Balmain, Dior and Chanel.
Bella has previously been criticised for her thin frame and was once branded “disturbingly skinny” for posting a selfie photograph in her underwear on Instagram.
“For a long time, it (criticism) was really hard for me,” Hadid told News Corp Australia in New York last November, hours before she walked in the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
“I think every person here is so beautiful with different body types … it’s hard to see people trash any girl.
“I think that we were all born the way we were born and if I have a small booty, I’m sorry if it’s not as big as the next girl’s. It’s just the way that my body is.
“That’s what I keep trying to tell myself. There’s nothing I can change about it.”
While model looks are in her genes, Bella said walking for Victoria’s Secret took months of preparation — including strict dieting and gruelling workouts.
“I don’t think people sometimes understand how hard the girls really do work,” she said.
“A lot of us workout like athletes, it’s twice a day, we’re lifting crazy weights, all different types of activities, it’s a big process.
“Victoria’s Secret is power. It makes us feel sexy and it makes us feel powerful as well.
“I feel like finally, I’m in the place that I need to be.”
GIGI HADID
Like Bella, Gigi has walked the runway for some of the world’s top designers — Chanel, Burberry and Versace.
She raked in an estimated $US1 million more than Bella last year, partly due to her cashed-up brand endorsements with Reebok, Tommy Hilfiger — she had her own capsule line with the all-American brand — and Vogue Eyewear.
Gigi also posts more sponsored content on social media than Bella, including for McDonald’s (at the recent Coachella festival), private jet operator PRVT and H&M.
Gigi began modelling when she was two-years-old, appearing in campaigns for Guess, and has modelled for Victoria’s Secret twice (having missed the 2017 China-based show due to visa issues). No stranger to headlines about her dating life, her ex-boyfriends include former One Direction member Zayn Malik, 26, and Australian singer Cody Simpson, 22.
Last month, Gigi — whose close friendship circle includes pop star Taylor Swift, and fellow model Martha Hunt — opened up to Elle about her relationship with her younger sister Bella.
“Bella and I have very different styles,” Gigi told the magazine.
“A job that wants Bella is not a job that I’m the right look for, so I never took that personally.
“In a lot of ways, she inspires me. We learn from each other.”
She added: “I feel very lucky to be able to have a piece of home in my work environment.
“We are each other’s biggest fans. It has been a huge joy of my life to watch my little sister flourish, and to help when I can.”
Gigi is on the cover of Variety’s Power of Women New York issue this month, with the magazine recognising her career and charity work with UNICEF, which included volunteering at a children’s refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“In the beginning of my career, I knew I came from privilege,” Gigi told Variety.
“And I knew that I needed to be here and prove myself.”
ANWAR HADID
He is one of the fresh new faces in fashion, who has fronted campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, and even appeared on the runway for Australian retail giant David Jones.
Signed to IMG like his sisters, Anwar is fast making a name in the style scene — and not just for modelling.
Last year, he launched Martyre, a unisex lifestyle and accessories brand, and a music project known as Bleach.
Anwar has 2.5 million followers on Instagram, where you’re more likely to find moody photography than pouty selfies.
“I think our family motto is to always work hard, be humble, kind, and thoughtful about others around us,” Anwar told Teen Vogue in 2016.
“I’m comfortable around girls because I grew up with two sisters and a single mom.
“I feel very lucky for all they have taught me. They tell me to be myself, have fun.”
Anwar’s personal life has also made headlines. Last June, he was photographed making out with Kendall Jenner, 23, when she was in the early stages of dating Australian NBA star Ben Simmons, 22.
Kendall is, of course, close friends with Awar’s sisters Gigi and Bella.
Jenner was seen sitting on Anwar’s lap locking lips at Socialista in New York, during which the pair were said to have been “kissing, cuddling and drinking” all night.
They were also spied together in Paris and at Soho House in Malibu last October.
The romance never progressed but Anwar appeared reference it on social media after posting an emotional posts captioned: “A WOMAN IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN A LOADED PISTOL.”
Jenner and Simmons have since confirmed their relationship.
YOLANDA HADID
Yolanda Hadid once gave her daughters Gigi and Bella some blunt advice growing up: “A pretty face only gets you that far.”
She has persistently told them to build personal brands around hard work rather than appearance.
“My basic advice has always been that there are 100 girls out there who are as beautiful as you are, or maybe more beautiful, that deserve success as much as you do,” Yolanda told News Corp Australia last year.
“So how are you going to set yourself apart?”
Already a successful model, Yolanda became a household name from her The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, she started modelling aged 16. Signed with Ford Models, she worked in Paris, Milan and New York before settling in Los Angeles to raise her family.
When her daughters wanted to follow her into modelling, she told them: “pretty faces come and go”.
“You always want to be the first one arriving to set, the hardest working girl there, acknowledging everybody, not just people who can make you successful,” she said.
Now based in New York near Gigi and Bella, Yolanda — who has fought a public battle with Lyme disease — fronted her own reality TV series, Making a Model, which tracked budding models and their “momagers” in their quest for catwalk fame.
So what does the mother of two of the world’s most-followed models think about Instagram — a platform that fuelled her daughters’ fame?
“The millenials have direct connection to people globally,” she said.
“I think that the negative of it is that their job never ends — it is a 24/7 pressure that is on you, where people are watching you under a microscope, judging not only the good but quite often, the bad.
“I think it’s a lot to handle for anybody, not just models.”
MOHAMED HADID
The Hadid patriarch appeared on the cover of Vogue Arabia’s spring/summer 2019 issue under the cover line, “Meet the man with the best genes on the planet”.
His family fled Palestine as refugees during the Arab-Israeli War. Raised in Damascus, Beirut and Tunis, Mohamed’s family moved to the US when he was 14.
“They (his children) know that they’re Palestinians — I tried to explain to them that their culture is very rare. I try to teach them to keep it alive,” Mohamed told Harvard University’s Arab Conference, where he delivered a keynote address earlier this month.
He was a nightclub operator before his property career took off, with multimillion-dollar projects including Ritz-Carlton hotels, and Beverly Hills and Bel Air mansions, among his $US400 million empire.
In 2017, the Los Angeles City Council convicted Mohamed of building code violations over a Bel Air development, and he was fined and sentenced to community service.
Mohamed, who remains close to his ex-wife Yolanda after they separated, has five children — Gigi, Bella and Anwar with Yolanda, and Marielle and Alana to his first wife, Mary Butler.
Despite conflicting reports about his current relationship status, Mohamed is reportedly engaged to Shiva Safai, 38.
The couple appeared together on Second Wives Club — a reality TV show on E! — with Mohamed also making occasional cameos on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
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