Gigi Hadid Says Zayn Malik Felt ‘Helpless’ During Her Home Birth

Gigi Hadid is opening up about motherhood for the first time—and going into detail about her home-birth experience.

The 25-year-old model opened up to Vogue in a new interview about giving birth to her now six-month-old daughter, Khai, back in September. Due to the pandemic, Hadid opted for a natural home birth with her partner Zayn Malik, mother Yolanda Hadid, sister Bella Hadid, her assistant, and a local midwife by her side. 

They placed a blow-up bath in their bedroom in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Hadid told the publication that she “knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, ‘This is what it is.’ I loved that.”

The model was in labor for 14 hours. “There definitely was a point where I was like, ‘I wonder what it would be like with an epidural, how it would be different,’” she continued. “My midwife looked at me and was like, ‘You’re doing it. No one can help you. You’re past the point of the epidural anyway, so you’d be pushing exactly the same way in a hospital bed.’”

Gigi Hadid described herself as an “animal woman” for pushing through the natural birth. “When you see someone do that, you look at them a bit differently. I probably looked crazy, actually,” she reportedly said with a giggle. “I was an animal woman.” 

However, she reveals the former One Direction member felt “helpless” watching her in pain. According to the model, Malik drew parallels to a lion documentary, which showed a male lion pacing outside the cave while the lioness gives birth. “Z was like, ‘That’s how I felt! You feel so helpless to see the person you love in pain.’”

Hadid added, “I know my mom and Zayn and Bella were proud of me, but at certain points, I saw each of them in terror. Afterward, Z and I looked at each other and were like, We can have some time before we do that again.”

Of course, Malik wasn’t actually helpless. In fact, he caught the baby. “It didn’t even click that she was out,” Hadid told Vogue. “I was so exhausted, and I looked up and he’s holding her. It was so cute.”