Many economists and historians have remarked that the past few years or so have felt like the “Roaring ‘20s” in the 20th century. The Roaring ‘20s preceded the Great Depression, so we’re on track for that, probably this year under Donald Trump. I bring this up because Vogue’s April cover is with Gigi Hadid, and the theme of the editorial is “the Roaring ‘20s.” The aesthetic is lovely, but the message behind it is pretty… on the nose. Anyway, it’s been a minute since Gigi has done a major magazine interview, and she even talked about her boyfriend Bradley Cooper in this piece. They’ve been dating for about a year and a half. They’re both single parents, but obviously… there’s an age gap and experience-gap given the 20-year age difference. Gigi also talks about coparenting with her ex, Zayn Malik. Some highlights from Vogue:
Her early-model days were stressful: “It got to a place where I would have three days off, and I would stay inside for three days. And that’s very intense. I felt like, even when I was just trying to put on something casual and go get coffee or go to the pharmacy, to get outside, someone had a comment: Why is she dressed like that? She looks like a slob. She looks overworked, whatever. I’ve been called every name in the book.”
Coparenting with Zayn: “Zayn and I do our custody schedules months in advance,” Hadid says, planning everything around the weeks they have Khai. “That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t change here and there, but we help each other out and have each other’s backs.” She and Malik have entered this new phase of their partnership with “love, and a feeling of camaraderie,” she says, accepting—more or less—that their relationship will likely forever be under some kind of microscope. “There is the hard part of the world knowing this much, and thinking they know everything. And at the end of the day, we’re not interested in giving everyone our whole story. What we are interested in is raising our daughter together, with so much respect for each other, and not just as co-parents, but what we’ve been through together.”
On social media: “I don’t think it would be fully genuine to post nothing of Khai but I also don’t want to put anything up that would take away from her privacy and her peace.” I ask her if she’s ever tempted to give up on social media entirely, but it is clearly not in her nature. “I’ll go to Paris, and there’s people in front of shows that have been fans of mine for 10 years. And I love that. I love connecting with people.… I am grateful for social media, and the ways that it has connected me to the world. I wouldn’t have the same career without it…[but] My Instagram is like snail mail, if you follow me, you have to be patient, life has to load.… It’s different from how socials felt when I was younger. It doesn’t come as naturally to me as it did when Instagram started.”
On Bradley Cooper: “Bradley has opened me up to going to the theater more, and that’s something that’s so nice to bring back into my life. You want to give yourself a normal experience of dating and even for my friends who aren’t public figures, that’s hard. Where do you go? And, what? You just start talking to people? And then there’s another added layer of privacy and security. You want to believe that people are going to have your back and not call TMZ or go on Deuxmoi or whatever, but you just don’t know.”
She’s keeping her relationship to herself: Whatever strange dance dating as a supermodel might require, she describes her relationship now as “very romantic and happy,” though there are parts of it she wants to keep to herself, not because there is anything especially secretive about it, but because “it’s just not part of our relationship to share for whatever reason.” She’s aware that people—those unnamed “sources” upon which an entire ecosystem of clickbait headlines rests—will provide information “that’s kind of right and kind of wrong,” she says. But “you just have to let it go; you can’t always correct everything.”
She probably wouldn’t have dated Bradley if she met him when she was younger: “I think just getting to the point where knowing what you want and deserve in a relationship is essential and then to find someone that is in a place in their life where they know what they want and deserve…and you both do work separately to come together and be the best partner that you can be. I just feel really lucky. Yeah, lucky’s the word. I respect him so much as a creative and I feel that he gives so much to me: encouragement and, just, belief. For those people you admire to encourage you, it can create so much belief in yourself. Like, what’s the worst thing if I auditioned for this? You jump and take the leap.”
This sort of made me a convert on B-Coop and Gigi. I’ve always side-eyed their relationship and wondered if it was all some PR conspiracy, a convenient showmance. But hearing Gigi describe it… I get it. He likes that she’s much younger and she absorbs what he teaches her, and she likes being with someone older, more mature, someone who isn’t playing a lot of games with her. At least I hope that’s how it is. As for Zayn… I think their relationship was always pretty toxic, but I guess they’re making the best out of it and both trying to be good parents to Khai.
Cover & IG courtesy of Vogue.