Bella Hadid shades Victoria’s Secret: ‘I never felt powerful’ modelling lingerie

Bella Hadid has revealed why she didn’t feel comfortable modelling for Victoria’s Secret and how this superstar made her feel powerful ‘in her underwear’.

Bella Hadid Victoria's Secret. Picture: Instagram

Thank heavens for Rihanna.

During an onstage chat at the Vogue Fashion Festival in Paris, Bella Hadid admitted that she was never comfortable strutting her stuff in lingerie on the catwalk — that is, until the Savage x Fenty founder came along.

Bella Hadid walks the runway during the 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York. Picture: Getty

Bella Hadid walks the runway for the Savage X Fenty Fall/Winter 2018 fashion show during NYFW at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Picture: Getty

She also revealed the pressures of being a runway lingerie model could sometimes “(make) you forget how your legs move”.

“Rihanna’s amazing. For me, that was the first time on a runway that I felt really sexy,” the 23-year-old beauty confessed to director Loïc Prigent, per WWD.

Bella Hadid prepares backstage during the 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York. Picture: Getty

Hadid, who modelled in both the 31-year-old Diamonds singer’s inaugural Savage x Fenty show in 2018 as well as her second this September, also threw in a dig at Victoria’s Secret, for whom she’s walked the runway three times.

“When I first did Fenty, I was doing other lingerie shows and I never felt powerful on a runway, like, in my underwear,” she said.

Hadid added that it was Rihanna’s instruction to “walk any way she wanted” that helped boost her confidence.

Gigi Hadid, Rihanna and Bella Hadid attend the FENTY PUMA by Rihanna in 2016. Picture: Getty

Bella Hadid models a creation by Alexandre Vauthier during the 2017-2018 fall/winter Haute Couture collection in Paris. Picture: AFP

“I like being another character. I think at this point I don’t necessarily love being myself sometimes,” she explained. “Sometimes on the runway you get either nervous or you forget how your legs move.”

Hadid then opened up further about on her past mental health struggles, saying, “I feel guilty for being able to live this incredible life, have the opportunities that I do, but somehow still be depressed. It doesn’t make sense.”

Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid pose backstage prior to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris in 2016. Picture: Getty

In fact, she added, some of her darkest moments came when her fashion career was first taking off. “I would cry every single morning, I would cry during my lunch breaks, I would cry before I slept.

“I was very emotionally unstable for a while when I was working 14-hour days for four months straight as an 18-year-old. I think I just wanted to breathe a little bit,” she explained.

Bella Hadid in New York in 2017. Picture: Getty

Bella Hadid walks the runway during the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris. Picture: Getty