Gigi Hadid Reveals Surprising Reason She's Turning Down Magazine Covers

It's been a while since Gigi Hadid has posed for a magazine cover. She made her return to the glossy pages of InStyle this week while opening up about the reason she sometimes declines cover shoots, her daughter, Khai, and her experience with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

“It’s getting to this point in my career where I don’t only have to take the jobs where I’m just selling clothes. Now I get to be like, ‘What have I not done?’” she explained to the outlet. “There are magazines I say no to because I’d rather another girl have an opportunity to get that cover. I don’t need to do the same cover again if someone else’s career could skyrocket because of it.”

When asked about her first year and a half of motherhood, Hadid couldn't help but gush about baby Khai, who she welcomed in September 2020 with ex Zayn Malik. "I still can't believe it. It's wild," Hadid said. "You're obsessed with them, but sometimes you turn and you're like, 'Oh my god. Where did you come from?'"

"She's just so smart, and she's so aware," Hadid raved about her daughter. "She watches everything, she's always learning, she's always looking. She's just awesome."

As for what she's looking forward to sharing with Khai in the future? Her love for skiiing. "I'm really excited to take Khai skiing one day, because I learned to ski when I was, like, two. We're getting close," she said.

Hadid has no plans to get Khai into modeling just yet. "She's going to do what she wants to do," Hadid said. "She could be an astronaut. I don't know."

Though Hadid knows people believe she grew up with cameras around her as her mom, Yolanda Hadid, filmed RHOBH, the 26-year-old model says the reality tv camera crew only entered her life when she was a senior in high school. She called the experience "weird."

"When people first started to get to know me, it was like, 'Oh, her mom was on [The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills]. That is her life.' But that wasn't my life or a part of my growing up," Hadid explained. "My mom wasn't on TV until I was a senior in high school, so I was just on my way out of the house."

"I would come home from school and there would be production trucks outside," she continued. "I would scale the staircase to my room so I wouldn't have to go say hi to my mom in the kitchen... [I was] just like, 'I'm going to go do homework.'"