Heidi Klum has revealed a fashion client “did not want to work with her” when she got pregnant.
The 52-year-old supermodel – who has children Leni, 21, with ex Flavio Briatore as well as Henry, 20, Johan, 18, and 16-year-old Lou with former husband Seal – has reflected on how having children impacted her career, although she didn’t specify when the incident with the unnamed client took place.
Speaking to Paper magazine, she recalled: “I remember I had one client. When I was pregnant, they did not want to work with me anymore.
“They thought that I was not sexy anymore, because I was now a mother. I was defined before children as being a sexy woman, and now with a child, as being a mom.
“That I no longer deserved to have that… that title,” she continued. “That could also not be part of me any longer.”
The former Project Runway host also explained how the television industry has shifted from her experiences early in her run, which lasted from 2004 to 2017.
She said: “You didn’t see a lot of pregnant women on television. It was a big thing at the time.
“I was pregnant with all my kids always on the show, and it was a challenge for me, because pregnancy clothes were really hard to find at the time.
“So that’s why I started having a pregnancy line because of that, because it’s like, what am I gonna wear? I’m not hiding in the house pregnant. I’m on the stage, I’m on TV, and it’s a show about fashion, I need to have good things!”
Thankfully, Heidi’s daughter Leni – who has embarked on her own career as a model – has noticed “a major shift” in the industry, noting the business has become more inclusive instead of focusing on a set “criteria”.
She said: “Before, with my mom’s generation, it was a stricter kind of criteria you needed to fit into, and I think a lot has changed now, and it’s given many different people an opportunity to be in the industry.
“So there’s definitely been a huge shift.”