Top Supermodel Says She Was Snubbed for Being Pregnant

Supermodel Heidi Klum, 52, opened up about the struggles she faced in the fashion industry while pregnant.

Klum and two of her four children, models Leni, 21, and Henry, 20, gave an interview with Paper magazine to promote their new reality show, On and Off the Catwalk. The German modeling legend recalled issues she encountered while hosting Project Runway from 2004 to 2017.

“I remember I had one client. When I was pregnant, they did not want to work with me anymore,” she said.

“They thought that I was not sexy anymore, because I was now a mother. I was defined before children as being a sexy woman, and now with a child, as being a mom. That I no longer deserved to have that…that title. That could also not be part of me any longer,” Klum, who began her modeling career in Germany in 1992, said.

This was not the only unexpected pregnancy-related challenge experienced by Klum, whose other children include Johan, 19, and Lou, 16.

“You didn’t see a lot of pregnant women on television. It was a big thing at the time,” she said, adding, “I was pregnant with all my kids always on the show, and it was a challenge for me, because pregnancy clothes were really hard to find at the time.”

“So that’s why I started having a pregnancy line because of that, because it’s like, ‘what am I gonna wear?’ I’m not hiding in the house pregnant. I’m on the stage, I’m on TV, and it’s a show about fashion, I need to have good things!” she said.

Klum launched two maternity lines, Lavish by Heidi Klum and Loved by Heidi Klum, in 2010, with luxe maternity designers A Pea in the Pod and Motherhood Maternity.

Leni, whose father is Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, 75, said her mother was a big inspiration for her modeling career.

“I always love being in front of the camera,” Leni told Paper. “And I think watching my mom, as I grew up, watching her work, how happy she was, and how fun her job was… I was always really inspired by that. And when I’d go to set with her, I’d always try to get in the frame. I’d always steal her makeup artist. I’d tell him to do my hair, and I’d get in front of the camera, and I’d kind of crash the day. I just fell in love with it, and I’m still in love with it now.”

Klum’s three children—Henry, Johan, and Lou—are from her marriage to her ex-husband, English singer-songwriter Seal, 63.

Henry, who has worked with big fashion houses like YSL, agreed with Leni’s sentiment.

“We would always visit [Klum] on her set days,” Henry told Paper. “And we all were just super interested. She just looked like she was having fun in her sets. And I just wanted that feeling as well.”

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Leni said she has noticed a shift in the industry since her mother’s early modeling days.

“Before, with my mom’s generation, it was a stricter kind of criteria you needed to fit into, and I think a lot has changed now, and it’s given many different people an opportunity to be in the industry,” Leni said. “So there’s definitely been a huge shift.”