Leni Klum: This is how Heidi Klum's daughter grew up

Leni Klum
This is how Heidi Klum's daughter grew up

Leni Klum (16) celebrates her model debut and at the same time dares to step into public. The fact that she can do that with a cover for the world's most famous fashion magazine is thanks to her famous mother Heidi Klum (47, "Making The Cut"). But what is it like to grow up as a child of a world-famous top model?

"The paparazzi have always been part of our lives, just like people who protect us," Leni Klum explains in an interview with Vogue. As the daughter of a "target" for the press, as Leni describes her mother, she was in public from the start. "I've accompanied my mother to sets since I can remember, I've been photographed on the street for as long as I can remember". For her, her childhood was still normal, even if many did not see it that way.

Why is Heidi Klum showing her daughter now?

"It was only a matter of time before I would try it myself as a model," reveals Leni. She received her first offer when she was just twelve or thirteen years old. At the time, she begged her mother to be allowed to do the job, "but no chance". She now understands why.

Heidi Klum has been trying to protect her children's privacy for years. The hype about her person is too big. If she shares pictures with her protégés on Instagram, she covers their faces with smileys – or, in times of the corona pandemic, with masks. Why is Klum now allowing her daughter to step into public? "Sixteen is a good age," explains Heidi Klum in an interview. "If you're allowed to drive, you can have an official Instagram account and show your face. And to start with a 'Vogue' cover is an incredible privilege."

Leni goes into raptures about her first photo shoot. As a model, she doesn't have to suppress her "crazy way", she can "let everything out and just be" as she is. "The job is the perfect outlet for all the energy that I have in me". Mama Klum agrees with her daughter: "Leni can be so enthusiastic and has a lot of energy. She dances, is the center of the party and was also available for any challenge at 'Top Model', which many candidates did not dare to take."

Leni does her "own thing"

Leni is happy about her mother's support and experience. Nevertheless, she makes it clear: "I want to do my own thing, we are so different anyway that there is no other way." What Klum's children ultimately earn their money with, the mother of four "does not really care, as long as they are happy". "And of course I would like my children to become independent adults too." Still, it would be a while before Klum could let go. Leni therefore has to "ignore it if I interfere from time to time".

When it comes to upbringing, Klum tries to stay relaxed "and don't freak out about a few self-dyed hair or a boyfriend". At the same time Leni reveals that she is forgiven and apparently a fan of tattoos. "My boyfriend and I both wanted to have a tattoo in the mouth. My mother didn't like the idea." For a joint tattoo with Klum's husband Tom Kaulitz (31) and his twin brother Bill (31), the teenager was allowed to make a detour to the tattoo artist. "The three dots that Tom, Bill and I tattooed on the inside of our fingers out of friendship were okay." According to her mother, that is "sweet and harmless too".

Leni Klum's father is the former Formula 1 manager Flavio Briatore (70), with whom Heidi Klum was in a relationship for around a year. Her future husband Seal (57) later adopted Leni. With him, Klum had three more children, Henry (15), Johan (14) and Lou (11). She has been married to Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz since August 2019.

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