Bella Hadid talks candidly about her struggle with fame and why she's relaxed about nudity

Hadid admits she's not entirely comfortable with the attention and likes to be alone
Bella photographed wearing a Valentino gown
Terry Richardson/courtesy of Porter magazine
Robert Dex @RobDexES3 April 2017

She has almost 12 million Instagram followers and is seen here floating virtually naked in a pool for a photoshoot.

But Bella Hadid’s carefully curated image conceals “a very sensitive person” who struggles with the attention, the supermodel, 20, told Porter magazine.

“It gets really overwhelming,” she said. “You feel really overexposed and you don’t want to see anybody... I just want to be in my apartment alone and kind of retreat and be centred again.” Hadid, who previously dated singer The Weeknd, added: “I’m just really focusing on myself, and my work, and just being the best that I can be.

“I’m not really worried about what guys think about me, I’m just trying to be a woman.”

(Terry Richardson/courtesy of Porter magazine)
Terry Richardson/Porter magazine

This year she has modelled for Fendi and Moschino with her sister Gigi, 21. She said: “People think we’re the same and that we’ve been working just as long, but I’m two years behind her. I still have a long time to catch up!”

She and Gigi were brought up in Los Angeles by their Dutch-born mother Yolanda, who starred in the reality TV show The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. Bella described the 53-year-old as her “best friend” and said she had treated the TV show as “just a job”. “She’s been a single mother my whole life,” she added.

Bella Hadid - Style File

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Hadid made headlines at last year’s Cannes film festival in a revealing red Alexandre Vauthier gown. The model, who posed for Porter in a Valentino dress and a black-and-white Norma Kamali swimsuit for pictures by fashion photographer Terry Richardson, told the magazine she has always been relaxed about nudity thanks to her mother.

“My mom is very European, so our whole life we were very open about that stuff,” she said. “It was just more casual.”

(Terry Richardson/courtesy of Porter magazine)
Terry Richardson/Porter magazine

To see the full interview with Bella Hadid, buy the latest issue of PORTER, on sale globally on Friday April 7. Also available as a digital edition or go to porter.com

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