Gigi Hadid addressed her name being mentioned in a document within the DOJ’s Jeffrey Epstein-related files, calling her inclusion “disturbing.”
Gigi Hadidis breaking her silence on a sensitive matter.
The supermodel spoke out about theJeffrey Epstein-related files recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in which she is mentioned by name.
In a December 2015 email exchange included in the documents viewed by E! News, a redacted individual asked the disgraced financier about Gigi and sisterBella Hadid’s professional success, writing, “How did the Hadid sisters became models and make so much money?! I don’t understand…”
After Epstein replied, “You know,” the individual wrote back, “The father paid the agency,” to which the late sex offender simply responded, “No.” Later in the exchange, he added, “Because they follow directions, its that simple.”
When a social media usercommentedon Hadid’s March 29Instagrampost that they “had to unfollow” the 30-year-old because she “ain’t talk bout those files,” she replied that the documents “made me sick to my stomach.”
“Horrible to read someone you’ve never met speak about you that way. Especially in this context,” she explained in her March 30message. “I didn’t comment bc I don’t want to take away from the stories of real victims of his; but your comment made me realize maybe its not clear—and it’s important to let you know.”
Hadid—who shares daughterKhai, 5, with exZayn Malik—explained that while she “grew up privileged,” her parents Mohammed Hadid and Yolanda Hadid “protected me and taught me the value of hard work,” noting that after her signing to a modeling agency in 2012, “I’ve worked hard every moment since.”
“To be named in those files, I think I was 20-21 at the time he would have written that email—is disturbing,” she said in closing, “and I want to state unequivocally that I have never had any affiliation with that disgusting human being.”
Epstein—who previously took a plea deal on charges of procuring a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute—was arrested in July 2019 andcharged with sex trafficking of minorsand conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He died by suicide in prison weeks later.
