Heidi Klum Shares Struggles of Being Pregnant in Fashion Industry: Clients Turned Away
Heidi Klum Shares Struggles of Being Pregnant in Fashion Industry: Clients Turned Away
Alex GurleyTue, February 24, 2026 at 12:38 AM UTC
0
(Photo by Amanda Edwards on Getty Images)
Heidi Klum admits her career drastically changed once she became pregnant for the first time—and had clients that even refused to work with her.
The supermodel and Project Runway host, 52, looked back on being pregnant in the public eye in a new interview with Paper published on Monday (Feb. 23). Klum, who is mom to Leni, 21, Henry, 20, Johan, 18, and Lou, 16, admitted that it altered the way she was perceived as it wasn't as acceptable to be visibly pregnant or a mother at the time.
"I remember I had one client. When I was pregnant, they did not want to work with me anymore," she told the outlet. "They thought that I was not sexy anymore, because I was now a mother. I was defined before children as being a sexy woman, and now with a child, as being a mom."
She continued, "That I no longer deserved to have that...that title. That could also not be part of me any longer."
Advertisement
Despite the criticism, Klum says she was determined to continue working and filmed Project Runway throughout her pregnancies, even though it wasn't the norm in the early 2000s.
"You didn't see a lot of pregnant women on television. It was a big thing at the time," Klum said. "I was pregnant with all my kids always on the show, and it was a challenge for me, because pregnancy clothes were really hard to find at the time."
That ended up being part of the reason Klum launched her line of maternity clothing, explaining that she wanted to have more options for herself as well as other pregnant women.
"So that's why I started having a pregnancy line because of that, because it's like, what am I gonna wear? I'm not hiding in the house pregnant," she said. "I'm on the stage, I'm on TV, and it's a show about fashion, I need to have good things!"
This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
