Gigi Hadid Opens Up About Carefree Childhood, Being A 'Nepotism Baby'

Gigi Hadid got candid about her childhood and teenage years.

The 27-year-old model spoke about growing up with successful parents and her life during her younger years. Now a mom of one, Hadid recounted her carefree childhood.

"My mom would be in the office doing work for an hour, so I was roaming around, doing a concert for myself in the living room or playing volleyball," she told The Sunday Times.

Hadid's late-teenage years coincided with her mom Yolanda Hadid's stint on "Real Housewives." She and her sister, Bella Hadid, frequently avoided the cameras. But the start of their careers was inevitably documented on the reality show.

Hadid acknowledged being a child of famous figures. However, she also shared how her mom and dad raised them with the importance of hard work in mind despite being privileged.

"Technically, I'm a nepotism baby," Hadid said. "[But] my parents came from very little."

According to Hadid, her dad, Mohamed Hadid, a real estate developer, fled to Syria with his parents in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war.

"[But] I've always acknowledged that I come from privilege. My parents told me, 'Just because you have parents who were successful, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't walk into the job being as nice and as hard-working as you can be,'" she continued.

Hadid's modeling career exploded when she moved to New York to study criminal psychology. Just within a year, she was on the catwalk for big-name brands. She admitted that there was intense pressure to conform to the standards in the modeling world.

"When I started out I was a heavily trained volleyball player, and I had a certain body type from that. At that time, fashion hadn't started to get into a more inclusive body-image conversation. I was probably harder on my body than I should have been," she said.

"I wasn't starving myself, but I was very routined. Since then I've got into this idea of body neutrality. I love my body for what it has done, but I'm not obsessed with it."

In the same interview, she opened up about co-parenting her 2-year-old daughter Khai with ex-boyfriend Zayn Malik. The model said they prioritize "the importance of the child's happiness at the forefront."

"You have a long life alongside this person," she continued, adding that she often schedules modeling jobs and other business-related trips "when Khai is with her dad. That she can be with both parents makes me very happy."