Gigi Hadid on Balancing Work and Motherhood: “You Have to Be Intentional”

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 5 September 2023

Gigi Hadid may be a supermodel, but when it comes to the ever elusive work/life balance, she’s just like the rest of us, attempting to balance her work with co-parenting her three-year-old daughter, Khai, with ex Zayn Malik. Speaking with NET-A-PORTER's digital title, PORTER, about her work as creative director for her label, Guest in Residence, Hadid said it’s important to her that “the jobs I choose to fill that time with have to be ones that are fulfilling to me.”

“I think when you are a parent, you have to be intentional because now, I literally have half the time,” she said. “I work when my daughter is with her dad, and that’s the time I have.”

Of that time, “I will literally fit in as many jobs as I can on those days,” Hadid said. “I’m sometimes a crazy person, but if it means a lot to me, then I do it.”

In her downtime with Khai, Hadid opened up about trying out some old hobbies with her daughter, like crocheting or ceramics. She revealed she recently spent a six-hour flight crocheting a unicorn for her daughter, laughing as she recounted that “it’s just a blob with a horn and eyes. It’s hilarious.”

Khai and Hadid also bond professionally, as Khai serves as a “fit model” for Guest in Residence’s upcoming kids’ collection. “Khai and her best friend are our fit models,” Hadid said. “They come into the office, Khai tries on one dress and then she’s like, ‘Do you want to go to the donut store?’”

Hadid and Malik split in 2021, but remain dedicated to raising Khai together, People reports. “It’s been really easy for me and Gigi to kind of just ease into it, I guess,” Malik said of fatherhood in an interview on “Valentine in the Morning.” “She [Khai] kind of made it easy for us. She sleeps really well. She loves her milk.” In an interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Malik opened up further on fatherhood: “I feel like we get to a certain point in adult life where everything is kind of vague and grey and boring, she she’s brought that color back for me,” he said of Khai, adding that his main goal since her birth was to be “a good example to her.”

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Gigi Hadid

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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