Who is Mohamed Hadid, father of Bella and Gigi Hadid?

This week, supermodel Bella Hadid released a public statement in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict, asking for forgiveness regarding her silence on the subject in recent weeks, revealing that she and her family have been subject to numerous death threats over the conflict.

“My heart is bleeding with pain from the trauma I am seeing unfold, as well as the generational trauma of my Palestinian blood,” Hadid wrote on Instagram. While one of the world’s most prominent modern supermodels, Hadid’s familial background is still unknown to many. While she and her siblings have risen to global fame in recent years, her father – Mohamed Hadid – has been in the public eye for decades, although many of her younger or more casual fans may be unaware of his influence and the role it played in shaping Bella’s.

Who is Mohamed Hadid?

Mohamed Hadid was born in Nazareth in 1948, to a Palestinian Muslim family. Hadid’s father worked as an English teacher at a teacher’s college in their home country at the time of his birth, as well as alongside the British government. According to him, through his maternal lineage, he is related to Zahir al-Umar, a ruler of Northern Palestine during the Ottoman Empire. Hadid describes himself as a cultural Muslim who observes multiple traditions as part of his heritage.

The same year of his birth, Mohamed and his family fled Palestine to Syria as refugees, as part of the Nakba, described the United Nations as a “mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians” during the 1948 Palestine War. After spending his early childhood in Syria, he went on to live in Tunisia and Greece, before eventually settling in the United States as a teenager, graduating high school in Virginia and graduating with a degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), consistently ranked as one of the world’s top universities. Hadid holds dual citizenship in Jordan and the United States.

According to a Washington Post report on Mohamed Hadid from 1989, he made his name in the business world “selling classic cars in Georgetown,” before “developing hotels and office buildings worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” Most notably, he acquired the rights to several luxury Ritz-Carlton hotels across the United States, outbidding then-hotel mogul Donald Trump for the development of such properties.

Hadid also had a brief but impressive sporting career, representing Jordan in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. He competed in speed skiing, and while he did not place, to this day he is the only athlete to represent Jordan in the Winter Olympics, which is quite the feat.

Fans of reality television, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in particular, have been aware of Hadid’s wealth and status for decades. He has frequently appeared on the long-running series since the earliest episodes of the series, which began production circa 2009, long before his children gained global notoriety. Later, his then-partner Shiva Safai would appear on the reality series Second Wives Club.

On the show, the housewives have introduced Hadid in confessionals as the wealthiest man in their neighborhood, and his lavish mansion is the site of some of the hottest parties in town. By his time on the show, he helped develop many of the most expensive properties in the area, as well as in the world-famous Bel Air neighborhood, both in Los Angeles.

For the housewives, anyone who is anyone attends Hadid’s parties, many of which have lavish themes that make a nod to Hadid’s Middle Eastern heritage – after all, who could forget Pandora’s engagement party hosted by Mohamed, with camels, snake charmers, and the housewives attempting to belly dance on tables? Hadid’s ex-wife, former model Yolanda Hadid (née van den Herik) joined the franchise in season 3, which helped bring their three children – Bella, Gigi, and Anwar Hadid – into the cultural zeitgeist. Hadid also has two other daughters, Alana and Marielle, from a previous marriage.

At its highest, Hadid’s personal net worth was estimated to be around $100-200 million or upwards, but his wealth has been marred by financial and legal troubles in recent years. In 2017, he was sentenced to 200 hours and was fined $3000 over one of his Bel-Air properties, dubbed the “Starship Enterprise” due to its unprecedented size at 30,000 square feet.

The property was considered a “danger to the public” and a likely collapse would endanger lives across the region due to its close proximity to a cliff, resulting in the mansion being demolished. Debts tied to the property were estimated to be between $50-100 million, resulting in Hadid filing for bankruptcy in 2019.