Gigi Hadid Addresses Racist Instagram Video Towards Asians in Private DM to Fan

This week, Hadid announced that she’d be returning to the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which will be hosted in Shanghai this year.

Chinese netizens voiced their distain on the post, telling Hadid that she was not welcomed in China. Comments were disabled on the post shortly after.

According to Hollywood gossip site Hollywood Life, a source allegedly close to Hadid claims that the 22-year-old model has been crying for days from reading all the negative comments.

“She doesn’t have a racist bone in her body,” the source told HollywoodLife.com. “Gigi is trying very hard not to let the hate get to her, but it’s definitely hard to have so many people attacking her, especially since she never ever meant to disrespect anyone. It breaks her heart that anyone would think of her this way because it’s just so not true. Gigi’s father is Muslim — she’s seen and felt racism firsthand throughout her entire life. Anyone that knows her knows she doesn’t have a racist bone in her body. She’s pretty distraught over this, she’s been crying a lot because she feels like no matter what she says, she can’t change these people’s minds and that really hurts.”

Earlier today, Twitter user @xoxoMrQiQi shared the following DM Hadid sent to a Chinese fan, where she says the video was “taken out of context.”

NextShark attempted to contact Gigi Hadid’s manager for a statement, but we have yet to receive a response.