Did you know that Heidi Klum – you know the one who goes “One day you’re in, the next you’re out” in a ridiculously serious voice in every episode of Project Runway – is the second highest earning model after Gisele? Nope, us neither. But, according to an interview with Ms Klum in this weekend’s Saturday Times, she made $20 million last year, way more than Britain’s best-known supermodel Kate Moss who only raked in $9 million. Intriguing!
So what else did we learn about the model we’d always kind of thought was most famous for renewing her wedding vows with Seal every year? Quite a few things actually…
She had insecurities like the rest of us:
“I wasn’t thin enough, tall enough, edgy enough,” she says of knowing what model agents thought of her early on. “I was always the big commercial girl. I did hair campaigns. There were big-name models like Claudia and Naomi and I understood if I wanted to do cooler, more creative things I had to find her own path.”
Her disciplinarianism – both on TV and with her kids – is probably down to her father hitting her as a child:
“He was pretty strict, like ‘As long as your feet are under my table you have to listen to what I say.’ I was scared of him. That’s what the hitting was for.”
And she’s equally strict with her own kids:
“I have four kids. I have to be [strict] otherwise they rule you because there are more of them,” she says of giving her kids each $1 in the morning if they drink a healthy smoothie she makes them. “Some parents may think that’s wrong, but at least I know they’ve eaten something healthy.”
She’s divorced Seal and is now with her boyfriend – but don’t expect them to get married:
“When I got married the first time [to Ric Pipino in 1997] I was 23 and it was always this dream to get married and wear this white dress. I was married for six years and it didn’t work out… I have been there, worn this dress, dreamt that dream. I’m happy now that I don’t have to have that again.”
Being too big for sample sizes in her early castings taught her what a model needs to do to survive:
“I learnt that I couldn’t eat muffins and spaghetti bolognase every day. I had to have great hair, great nails. I had to stop picking my pimples. I had to have enough sleep and be on time.”
And her beauty regime remains equally intense today:
“The roots grow really fast,” she says of her natural brunette hair – which is why she dyes the roots every three weeks. And runs and swims daily.
Exhausting. But probably the reason she’s the second highest-earning model in the world. And we’re not.