Supermodel Gigi Hadid has said that being mentioned in the Epstein files made her “sick to my stomach.”
Hadid, 30, and her sister Bella, 29, were both referenced by name in a 2015 email between late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and an individual whose identity was redacted by the Department of Justice.
The anonymous personasked Epsteinhow the Hadid sisters had “become models and make so much money” before suggesting that their father, Palestinian-American real estate developer Mohammed Hadid, may have “paid” their modeling agency.
Epstein said “no” to the concept of a nefarious payment, but when the mystery person responded “there are too many girls giving b---jobs,” the late financier wrote “agreed.”
A social media user posted on Gigi Hadid’s Instagram that she “had to unfollow” the model, as she had not spoken publicly since being referenced in the files. Multiple celebrities, from Bill Gates to Bill Clinton, have clarified they knew Epstein and spent time with him but had no knowledge of his crimes.
Gigi Hadid responded that she never “met the monster” and that being in the files made her “sick to my stomach.”
Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
While the comment has now been deleted,a Brazil-based fan pagefor the supermodel took a screenshot and posted it.
“Horrible to read someone you’ve never met speak about you that way. Especially in this context,” Hadid said in the archived comment.
The model said she had not previously made a public statement because she did not “want to take away from the stories of real victims of his,” but the comment threatening to unfollow her prompted her to clear up any confusion about her career.
“I grew up privileged, yes,” she said. “But my parents protected me and taught me the value of hard work, the same hard work that got them to this country and gave them careers.”
Her father moved to the U.S. when he was 14 and went on to make his fortune developing mansions in California. In 1994, he married Dutch model Yolanda van den Herik, who later appeared onThe Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. They divorced in 2000.
Gigi said her mother took her to meetings with agencies in New York, including two that her mother had been signed to. She joined the agency IMG, which had no link to her mother, in 2012.
“I’ve worked hard every moment since,” she stated. “To be named in those files, I think I was 20-21 at the time he would have written that email—is disturbing, and I want to state unequivocally that I have never had any affiliation with that disgusting human being.”
She finished her post saying “May he rest in…” and added fire emojis seemingly to signify hell.
