Two husbands. Three children. A chronic illness.
Today, Yolanda Hadid is living her best life, but she had quite the journey getting there.
When Yolanda Hadid was only 7, her father tragically died in
a car accident. And it changed her life forever.
She recalled to Larry King:
"I remember sitting at the church in my little town and looking to the side
and seeing my mom and my brother, my family all in tears. [...] In that moment, I made the choice,
like, 'okay, I'm the one that has to be tough and strong to take care of all of them.'"
Yolanda's decision to become the breadwinner at such a young age was made without having
properly mourned, and she questioned God as to why her father had to leave
her. She admitted that his death affected her future relationships with men, too.
She told King:
"Anything abandonment — like if they stopped talking to me, I'd
freak out and I'd go back to being 7 years old."
Although an ambitious teen, modeling wasn't on her radar. She told Money,
"I never wore makeup. I didn't even know what Vogue or Cosmo or Elle was
because it wasn't part of my life."
It was completely by luck that Yolanda started her modeling career. As she told Larry King,
her hairstylist friend was working a hair show and a model dropped out because she was sick.
Her friend asked if she could step in, and while Yolanda initially said no,
she ended up going to Amsterdam for the show. While attending,
a famous Dutch fashion designer asked Yolanda if she would walk in it. She remembered telling him,
"Well, I've never walked on heels. I've never worn
makeup. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do.'"
He advised her to "just follow the girls," so she did just that. It was there that she
was discovered by Eileen Ford, who signed the then-16-year-old to the Ford Modeling Agency.
Yolanda told Allure:
"When I was discovered, I was washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant outside of Rotterdam."
She would work any sort of job that paid the bills. Her work ethic guided her
as she started her international career as a fashion model at 16.
She recalled to Larry King:
"I had to live in Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo and spend 3-4 months of my life going
around with my little portfolio [...] show it to [clients], and pray for a booking."
She was also going to her meetings with a paper map and a "roll of quarters" from her agency.
"Not cute, not sexy, not romantic."
When Yolanda moved to New York, her mother gave her $55.
It was a lot of money for her parents, and she was very conscious of living frugally.
She admitted to Money:
"I was keeping tally marks for every thousand dollars I was making. [...] I came here to make
money and go home and buy my horses and take care of my family and continue my life in Holland."
Because she grew up in the Netherlands, Yolanda has often had to deal with
cultural differences while working in the United States. She shared a story
with the BUILD Series about one of her early modeling jobs in Santa Monica, California:
"I was maybe like 18, 19 years old and it was lunchtime,
and I just, with my little towel, I didn't want to go back to the motorhome,
so I just put a towel over my face and I was taking sun without a top."
A cop came over and ordered her to put on a top.
Yolanda's mother had never bought her a bathing suit top so she said to him,
"I don't have a top. I'm from Holland ... we don't do tops."
The police officer started writing her a ticket,
saying that she was now in the U.S. and had to follow the rules of this country.
Ultimately, the producer of the shoot helped get Yolanda out of trouble.
Since 2012, Yolanda Hadid has been incredibly open and honest about having Lyme disease.
However, her doctors initially diagnosed her with chronic fatigue syndrome. But as time passed, she
was not getting better, and she began dealing with severe migraines and dark circles around her eyes.
Yolanda decided to seek help from doctors in Belgium, and after six
weeks, she finally found out she had Lyme disease. It was a moment of validation for her,
as others were not supportive when she said she felt something was wrong with her brain.
As she finally learned what was causing her health problems, she told People,
"I'm ready to put on the boxing gloves and fight this out."
Yolanda's journey to treat her disease led her to meet with over 100 doctors and travel to
numerous countries. This took a toll on her both physically and mentally. She admitted
on Good Morning America that she had thoughts about taking her own life to stop the pain:
"I remember laying in the ocean and just going like, 'Just take me.
Like, I just cannot live one more day.'"
In that moment of desperation, the image of her three children flashed across her mind.
Yolanda said that it was her kids who gave her the will to keep fighting.
She told Dr. Oz that her children also helped care for her.
"There were nights where Gigi, at three o'clock in the morning, had to drive me to the emergency
room because I had such severe inflammation in my brain [...] and not just Gigi driving,
Anwar and Bella in the back of the car and the three of us going to the hospital.
And, them being there, they learn to take charge and be my strength."
She later revealed on After Show: Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
that the best Lyme disease treatment was "an overall holistic protocol." She also said,
"By removing my implants, fixing all my dental work,
it really gave my immune system the opportunity to actually start fighting."
Her treatment plan also involved moving away from Beverly Hills and going back
to her farm girl roots. After she left "Real Housewives," she bought a farm in Pennsylvania.
She told People:
"I didn't really start healing until I got here away from all the stress and the show
and everything that was stressful in my life."
Yolanda has also tried to find balance in her everyday life by having routine, healthy habits.
Being Dutch is not only a part of Yolanda Hadid's identity
but a way of life that is reflected in her parenting. As she told Harper's Bazaar,
"My girls were raised very dutch. We're very kind of
humble, black and white, say it as it is, yet we're very polite."
Yolanda wanted to give her children the kind of childhood she had in the Netherlands,
so when she got divorced from their father, she moved them to Santa Barbara, California. Gigi,
Bella, and Anwar grew up in a small farmhouse where they rode horses and ran around naked
collecting chicken eggs. Letting her children be open and natural was also something she took from
her own upbringing; Yolanda said she was raised to love her body and the skin that she was in.
Hadid's grown children still love to ride horses and go to their mother's farm when
they need a break from their hectic careers. She told Harper's Bazaar,
"I'm my children's anchor. I know when too much is too much."
"I know when I have to bring them back to the farm and to get them back on their horses,
make sure they sleep enough, and just completely disconnect from that whole world."
In an interview with Harry Connick Jr., she revealed her "no phones at the dinner table" rule,
which was inspired by her mother. Even if she had been out all day,
Yolanda said that her mother made sure to connect with her every day at 6 o'clock.
She then did the same thing with her children.
The importance of hard work is something Yolanda
has also tried to instill in Gigi and Bella as she reminds them that:
"There are a million beautiful girls out there, probably more beautiful than you are.
So in order to set yourself apart, you have to be the hardest working girl on set every day."
Yolanda Hadid was born Yolanda van den Herik.
She became Yolanda Hadid when she married Mohamed Hadid, her first husband and the father
of her children. She then became Yolanda Foster after marrying composer David Foster in 2011.
After her second divorce, she contemplated if she should go back to her maiden name.
In an appearance on Watch What Happens Live,
she shared that she ultimately went back to being Yolanda Hadid because of her children.
"I asked the kids, 'Should I go back to van den Herik?'
and they said, 'No. You're our mommy and we have the same last name.'"
Yolanda told Larry King that she's an "ultimate romantic." But as she told People,
she hadn't jumped back into the dating pool after her second divorce and Lyme disease diagnosis.
"I really wanted to [...] step into my own power as an independent woman
and just feel whole on my own for the first time in [...] 53 years."
She also took the time to figure out what she wanted in a future partner
while resting at her farm in Pennsylvania. That's when her current love, Joseph Jingoli,
literally came knocking at her door. According to an interview with The Daily Dish, Yolanda and
Jingoli lived just 10 miles apart and connected through their mutual love of horses and farm life.
Although she is "very much in love with her boyfriend," she previously admitted
to Larry King that she didn't think marriage was in the cards for her again.
When Yolanda Hadid was 49,
she finally got the chance to have an exciting first experience in the United States — voting.
At her citizenship swear-in ceremony, she told E! News:
"I've never voted in my life because I left Holland right when I was 16 and
so I wasn't old enough to vote and when I came here I wasn't allowed to vote."
At age 56, she returned to the runway to walk in the late Virgil Abloh's fall 2020 Off-White
collection. Two years prior, when she was asked by Larry King if she would ever model again,
she had enthusiastically said she would.
She later fulfilled that in a show that featured her own daughters, writing in an Instagram post:
"Such a surreal experience to be back on the runway after 30 years
but now together with my girls."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please dial or text 988 to speak with
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also seek help by visiting 988lifeline.org.