The sadness behind Bella Hadid’s fox eyes - Supermodel opens up about her battle with depression

Model Bella Hadid. Picture: Reuters

Model Bella Hadid. Picture: Reuters

Published Mar 16, 2022

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Women the world over are obsessed with her unusual features. So much so they are lining up to get “fox eye surgery” - a cosmetic procedure to copy her look.

To many, supermodel Bella Hadid is the epitome of modern beauty. However, the 25-year-old didn’t always see herself in the same light.

It’s hard to believe that a woman as exquisite as Bella would feel “ugly”.

During a recent interview with American Vogue, she admitted that she felt “ugly” next to her elder sister Gigi Hadid and was insecure about her body as a teenager.

“I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn’t as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing,” she said.

Her insecurities ran so deep that she had a nose job at age 14. She, however, told the magazine that she wished she had “kept the nose of (her) ancestors”.

During the interview, she talks about her battle with depression and anxiety.

She said: “For three years while I was working, I would wake up every morning hysterical, in tears, alone. I wouldn’t show anybody that. I would go to work, cry at lunch in my little green room, finish my day, go to whatever random little hotel I was in for the night, cry again, wake up in the morning, and do the same thing.”

In January 2021, the model was forced to deal with her mental health when she suffered what she termed “burnout”.

She checked into a treatment centre in Tennessee for two and a half weeks and admitted that medication and therapy have subsequently changed her life.

“For so long, I didn’t know what I was crying about. I always felt so lucky, and that would get me even more down on myself. There were people online saying: You live this amazing life. So then, how can I complain? I always felt that I didn’t have the right to complain, which meant that I didn’t have the right to get help, which was my first problem.”

While she did start to feel better last September, and for the first time in her career, she cancelled work commitments for Fashion Weeks.

She said: “When you are forced to be perfect every day, in every picture, you start to look at yourself and need to see perfection at all times, and it’s just not possible. That month off was really helpful for me.”

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