Gigi Hadid generally does not share images of her three-year-old daughter, Khai, on social media, much less allow her to be photographed by paparazzi. It’s a privacy policy she and pop-star coparent Zayn Malik made clear to the public practically from Khai’s birth. Recently, however, the supermodel seems to be relaxing that stance ever so slightly. Over the summer Hadid shared an Instagram carousel of snapshots from her idyllic countryside summer that featured several of Khai playing dress-up, picking flowers, and feeding horses. Now she’s returned to the platform with another photo dump and an updated look at how Khai has grown.
“Pretty recent…,” Hadid captioned the post. Khai appears in three of the slides, including the portrait below, which finds the mother-daughter duo snuggled up on a couch looking at the woods through a festively decorated window. Clearly, the toddler inherited her mother’s waves, which were waist-length and tied back in pigtails. Khai was bundled up in a red puffer jacket, plaid skirt, and red-and-white striped knee socks, while Hadid opted for a colorfully patterned sweater, gray jeans, and a ponytail paired with silver drop earrings.
Though the carousel includes a few selfies and a sexy bikini snap, Hadid’s comments were all about Khai. Or rather, how much she’s grown.
“Wasn’t she born like yesterday?” reads one of the most liked comments, which was followed by two sobbing emoji. Another follower had a similar reaction: “KHAI IS SO BIG ALREADY OMG.”
Gigi Hadid still seems to be honoring her commitment to refrain from showing Khai’s face, though. She explained the decision in an open letter to press and fans in July 2021, writing: “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.”
