Model Adut Akech heartbroken over Karl Lagerfeld’s death

Model of the moment Adut Akech has revealed her distress at the death of Karl Lagerfeld, saying her heart is broken after the loss of her “love”.

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She is our model of the moment, with the fashion world at her feet, however life is not as rosy as it appears for Australian beauty Adut Akech.

Despite the monumental success which comes with being branded the freshest face in fashion, behind closed doors the 19-year-old has revealed she is battling fatigue, depression and anxiety.

“So much has happened to me in the last couple of months,” Akech, who appears on the cover of Vogue Australia’s March issue, told Sunday Confidential.

“Professionally, to everyone looking in on my life, I have had a great start to the year, but personally I haven’t had the greatest time. I just lost my cousin about three weeks ago,” she said.

First look at the Vogue Australia March cover featuring model Adut Akech. Picture: Nicole Bentley/Vogue

“People look at my life and think, ‘how can she not be happy?’ They think, ‘she is opening and closing all these (runway) shows and is getting all these magazine covers and is working with everyone, how can she have any problems?’

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“But I am a human being. I have feelings too and like everybody else I have the same problems. Just because I have all these followers doesn’t exclude me from being human. There have been moments this year when I have felt numb.”

Adut Akech says Karl Lagerfeld’s death “breaks my heart”. Picture: Supplied

Akech’s refreshingly honest revelation came just one day after the death of Chanel’s creative director, Karl Lagerfeld, who the South Sudanese-South Australian model describes as her “love”.

The cover of the March issue of Vogue, on sale from Monday, March 4. Picture: Vogue

Akech was the last couture bride to walk for Lagerfeld and only the second black woman ever to have closed his Chanel Couture show.

“His death breaks my heart,” she said.

“I feel like I have lost a special part of me. I really did love that man.

“Karl was somebody very special to me. I had a very close relationship with him … maybe not for a very, very long time. But for me in that short amount of time I developed a much stronger and closer relationship with him than I have with other people I have known forever.”

Akech credits the late fashion icon with putting her on the modelling map.

“He made me feel so incredibly special that every time I was around him or in his presence I always felt like the most beautiful girl in the room,” she said.

“Every time I was at Chanel he would say I was his muse, that I was his favourite model. He said every Chanel outfit I wore was his favourite in the entire collection.

“If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think all this would have happened. I have lost something special and I don’t know if I will ever have that feeling with anyone else ever again.”

Originally published as Model Adut Akech heartbroken over Karl Lagerfeld’s death