Heidi Klum Recalls Being Snubbed By A Client Over Her Pregnancy

Supermodel and TV personality Heidi Klum is opening up about a career setback she experienced while pregnant. In a candid interview, the model recalls one instance where she felt judged, highlighting the biases women face in the entertainment and modeling industry.

Klum and her children, Leni and Henry, are on the cover of Paper magazine, and in the interview, the 52-year-old model discussed the challenges she faced in the industry.

As Klum recalled, there was an instance when she lost a client due to her pregnancy. “When I was pregnant, they did not want to work with me anymore. They thought that I was not sexy anymore, because I was now a mother,” she shared, adding that before children, she was always defined as being a “sexy woman,” but that label changed to “mom” when she got pregnant.

Klum welcomed her first child, Leni, in 2004 with partner Flavio Briatore. She later had Henry in 2005, Johan in 2006, and Lou in 2009 with ex-husband Seal.

In 2003, Klum modeled for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show while she was four months pregnant with Leni, a fact that she revealed in 2021. She gracefully walked the runway, donning the label’s “Very Sexy Fantasy Bra” worth $11 million.

Klum was also a host on “Project Runway” in the years she was pregnant, which she explained was a “big deal” back then. “You didn’t see a lot of pregnant women on television,” she said.

One of the challenges she faced was looking presentable for the camera, and she found it difficult to find clothes that fit her growing belly. “I’m not hiding in the house pregnant. I’m on the stage, I’m on TV, and it’s a show about fashion, I need to have good things,” she exclaimed.

This prompted her to release her own maternity clothing line.

In 2010, Klum talked about coming up with fashionable pieces for expecting mothers, saying, “It’s so hard when you in the morning, you go in the closet and you don’t know what to wear.”

Back then, she worked with Motherhood Maternity and A Pea in the Pod to come up with pieces, including leather pants and apparel with animal prints, ensuring that they are not only stylish but also comfortable to wear for pregnant women.

After Klum shared her bad experience with the unnamed client, Henry and Leni were asked whether there had been a shift in terms of how models are viewed today.

Leni shared that there definitely has been a “major shift,” sharing that Klum’s generation was stricter in terms of the criteria for being a model. “A lot has changed now, and it’s given many different people an opportunity to be in the industry. So there’s definitely been a huge shift, Leni expressed, to which Henry agreed.

Both Henry and Leni followed in their mother’s footsteps and have pursued careers in modeling. While Leni wanted to be a model since she was in her pre-teens, Klum said she was too young. When she was 16, however, Klum said she was old enough to go after what she wanted.

Henry is also making waves in the modeling world, walking the runway in Paris in 2025, modeling for high-end brands, and gracing the cover of ELLE with his mother in January.

While Klum first rose to fame as a model, she has also built a successful career in television, hosting “Project Runway” for several years before leaving in 2018. She came back for season 21 in 2025 and will be returning for the 22nd season airing in 2026.

In addition, Klum is also the host and a judge for “Germany’s Next Top Model,” which is in its 21st season. In 2024, Klum left “America’s Got Talent” after several years as a judge to return to hosting “Project Runway.”

With her busy schedule, Klum has shared how she manages her time, saying, “There’s two of me. One is being domestic at home, in front of the computer, and the other one is going to the office. I’m a Gemini!”