Gigi Hadid has recently sat down for an interview with i-D Magazine, in which she opens up on parenting with her partner Zayn Malik and how they’re looking forward to their daughter Khai experiencing life with mixed heritage.
As reported by Billboard, Hadid said, “[Zayn and I] think about it and talk about it a lot as partners and it’s something that’s really important to us, but it’s also something that we first experienced ourselves.”
She continued, “Because both of our parents are their own heritage. We are that first generation of those mixed races, and then that comes with that first generational experience of being like, ‘Oh damn, I’m the bridge!’ That’s not something that my parents experienced or that they can really help me through. It’s something I’ve always thought about my whole life.”
Hadid also mentioned that it was difficult at times to figure out “where you fit in racially”, given her skin colour and being of Arab heritage. She said, “I’m too white to stand up for part of my Arab heritage. You go through life trying to figure out where you fit in racially.”
With Malik also carrying his own cultural heritage, being of British Pakistani heritage, Hadid acknowledges that their daughter Khai is going to be the bridge of her mixed heritage.
Hadid continued, “I think that Khai will grow up feeling out the way that she can or wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities,” Hadid continued in her i-D cover story. “But I think that it will be nice to be able to have those conversations, and see where she comes from [with] it, without us putting that onto her. What comes from her is what I’m most excited about, and being able to add to that or answer her questions, you know?”
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