Gigi Hadid Pens Open Letter To Fans & Paparazzi Asking Them To Respect Her Daughter’s Privacy

Gigi Hadid is like any mom trying to protect her daughter and give her the best start possible, but now she’s asking for a little help from an unlikely source. In an impassioned open letter shared on her Instagram Story, Hadid asked fans as well as paparazzi to respect her daughter Khai’s privacy by blurring her face in photos.

The model welcomed daughter Khai with boyfriend Zayn Malik at her home in Pennsylvania last September during the pandemic, timing that afforded her an extra level of privacy as most of the country was living in quarantine. Now that the world is opening back up a little, the busy mom has been going out more often with Khai. And it’s posing something of a problem.

“On our most recent visits to New York, she has started to want her sun shade lifted up (something she is used to at home) and helps herself to it,” Hadid wrote in a lengthy post shared on her Instagram Story, addressed to media, paparazzi, and fan accounts. “She doesn’t understand why she’s covered in the city, or what I’ve wanted to protect her from. I also want her to see the most amazing city in the world + the beautiful and diverse people that walk down the streets of NYC … that is, without the stress of the media circus that comes with parents who are public figures.”

In an effort to make it easier to leave the house with Khai, Hadid is asking paparazzi and members of the media to blur out her daughter’s face in photos as she has done on social media.

“Our wish is that she can choose how to share herself with the world when she comes of age,” Hadid wrote, “and that she can live as normal of a childhood as possible, without worrying about a public image that she has not chosen. It would mean the world to us, as we take our daughter to see and explore NYC and the world, if you would PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE blur her face out of the images, if and when she is caught on camera.”

Hadid and Malik are in a unique position. Their careers make them public figures but, like many other celebrities, they don’t want their daughter to be put in the spotlight because of it. “For a child, I can imagine that close or dramatic paparazzi frenzies must be overwhelming and disorienting… it still is as an adult that understands and deals with it often,” she wrote in her post. “I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hope you can understand where I’m coming from.”