Making A Model

Season 1 SABC3 (*193) 19:30 Reality

Yolanda Hadid can back up her talking as host of reality series Making A Model (2018- current) because she has walked the walk on runways as a professional model and she knows what it takes to be successful from a young age – her son Anwar (19) and daughters Bella (22) and Gigi (23) are all in the industry too. But there’s a lot you don’t know about the former catwalk queen, including one of her favourite holiday spots that is a lot closer than you realise…

The 55-year-old is Dutch and her birth-name was Yolanda Johanna Jacoba van den Herik. She married film composer David Foster in 2011 after divorcing her property developer husband Mohamed Hadid in 2000 after six years and three children. She changed her name back to Yolanda Hadid after divorcing David in 2017 following a two-year feud. Yolanda was a part-time fashion model as a teenager and getting noticed internationally was accidental. She was a stand-in for designer Frans Molenaar’s shows and was spotted by Eileen Ford, co-founder of modelling agency Ford Models, who signed Yolanda backstage after the show. In January this year she undid her plastic surgeries and removed any other beauty enhancements, from her breast implants and lip fillers to her hair extensions. She posted to her instagram account: “It’s taken many years to undo my bad choices. I have found freedom to sustainable internal beauty.” She’s had Lyme Disease for almost a decade – it’s a condition of physical impairment from a tick bite. And Yolanda fell in love with Cape Town as a model and she still visits for low-key holidays.