35 Reasons Why Yolanda Hadid’s Parenting Choices Are Considered Controversial

If you’re a fan of reality television and the world of celebrities, you’re definitely familiar with the powerful Hadid family. It all started with Yolanda Hadid, the matriarch. She became famous after joining the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and then became even more famous for being Bella and Gigi Hadid’s mother.

Upon first glance at the Hadid family, you probably can’t even imagine that this family has gone through a lot together, especially Bella, Gigi, and Anwar. While it’s clear that Yolanda loves her kids, it’s also not a secret that her parenting choices have always been…questionable.

Yolanda Hadid has done, said, and allowed many things most parents wouldn’t dream of doing. Some of her parenting methods could even be considered toxic, given how they affect her kids to this day. In this article, we will show 40 reasons why Yolanda Hadid’s parenting choices are controversial!

Yolanda didn’t allow cake into her household

Back when Yolanda Hadid was still on the Real Housewives reality show, people had the chance to catch a glimpse of the reality star’s parenting choices. She never even tried to hide some of her controversial parenting methods from the audience.

Yolanda has always had a fit body and wanted her kids to follow the same healthy lifestyle. The problem is that she forbade her kids from eating cake — including on special occasions, like their birthdays! And even when she allowed them to eat a slice of cake, it had to be tiny.

The Hadid matriarch didn’t want her kids to study

To become a Real Housewife, one has to be married to a rich man and be rich herself — so it’s not hard to understand why Yolanda was so hung up on money back in the day. She was pretty rich and wanted her kids to be just as affluent.

And it didn’t matter if her kids had to put their careers over their education. When Gigi moved to New York City to pursue an education, Yolanda was not happy about it at all. For her, it would be more important for her kids to make money than to go straight to college.

Yolanda Hadid didn’t respect her granddaughter’s privacy

When a parent has questionable choices regarding raising their kids, some people expect them not to repeat the same mistakes with their grandkids. The problem is, if the parent doesn’t realize that they’re being toxic, they’ll naturally repeat their past behaviors.

Since Gigi Hadid gave birth to little Khai in 2020, she has done everything in her power to keep her baby’s face from the world. While Gigi wants to protect her daughter’s privacy, Yolanda doesn’t. She once posted a photo where people could see Khai’s face in a reflection. The image was deleted, but the photo was already trending.

Yolanda called out Bella Hadid with very harsh words

These days, all three of Yolanda Hadid’s children are managing to stay out of trouble, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t troublemakers once upon a time. Bella, especially, got into quite a lot of trouble when she was a teenager.

The worst thing Bella got in trouble for was getting caught driving under the influence. She probably regrets that moment to this day, but she will certainly not forget the letter Yolanda Hadid wrote her. In the letter, Bella’s mother calls her a bunch of awful things — and some people believe that Yolanda herself leaked the letter to the public!

Yolanda pushed her younger son to become a model

When compared to his older sisters, Anwar Hadid is not as famous. But that is not because he was unable to reach their level of fame. On the contrary, Anwar never wanted to have that lifestyle! He would’ve never been a model if it were up to him.

Anwar probably wanted to do something in the fashion world behind the curtains. He didn’t want to be a model on the cover of magazines. However, Yolanda pushed him towards it as a way to “expand his horizons,” even though he didn’t initially reject the idea.

Yolanda Hadid made her kids work from an early age

While many people see Yolanda Hadid as a money-driven woman, most of the public doesn’t know her background. Yolanda didn’t actually grow up rich — far from that. She had to start working from the moment her father died when she was a kid.

Maybe it’s a childhood trauma thing or something, but Yolanda Hadid made sure that her kids started working early in their lives. Gigi, her eldest child, started modeling from the time she was only two years old, which is certainly uncommon!

Yolanda didn’t care that her kids didn’t like the cameras

Most people can’t relate to the so-called “nepo babies.” When your parents are famous, you deal with things that literally most people could never even dream of. One of those things is having to live your life surrounded by cameras everywhere you go.

Technically, a house should be a safe space for a family — but that’s not always the case when one of your parents is a reality TV star. If you watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, you’ll notice how Gigi always avoided the cameras. That’s because she hated them and hated having to come home to them!

Yolanda is constantly judging her kids’ outfits

When she was younger, Yolanda Hadid was a model herself. Maybe she loved her profession so much that she wanted all her three kids to become models. In addition to pushing Bella, Gigi, and Anwar in this direction, she also scrutinized their outfits.

Most people who watched Real Housewives thought that Yolanda was too forceful. That’s because she went as far as changing Gigi’s outfit — which a professional fashion stylist had carefully picked! Let’s mention the times that she didn’t let her daughters wear certain outfits that she considered “too masculine.”

Yolanda Hadid allowed her teenage daughter to get a nose job

Because Gigi and Bella Hadid grew up in front of the cameras for most of their lives, most people knew what she looked like growing up. And much like Kylie Jenner, the younger Hadid sister looks nothing like she did when she was a teenager.

Most parents would never allow their teenage daughters to get a nose job at such a young age — but then again, Yoland Hadid is not like most parents. Instead of teaching Bella to love herself, she accepted that her 14-year-old daughter “fixed” her nose. Even Bella herself regrets having gone through with this decision.

Yolanda was okay with her daughters sticking to unhealthy diets

If you are all for body positivity, you’ll hate watching how Yolanda Hadid treated her daughters on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Instead of teaching the girls to love themselves and be happy with their bodies, she didn’t even flinch when she heard of Gigi’s insane diet.

One day, Gigi called her mother and told her she wasn’t feeling well. The cause of her weakness was the crazy diet that only allowed her to eat half an almond a day. Instead of getting Gigi to eat a healthy meal, she “allowed” the young woman to eat a couple more almonds. She even taught Gigi how to trick her stomach into thinking she had eaten a full meal instead!

Yolanda didn’t want her daughters to play “masculine” sports

You don’t even need to watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to know that Yolanda Hadid cares a lot about looks. Well, the woman is a former model, so who can blame her for being this way, really?

Because she wanted both daughters to be professional models, Yolanda always kept both girls fit. And while playing sports is an excellent way to stay active and healthy, she wasn’t too happy about Gigi’s choice. Yolanda didn’t want Gigi to play volleyball because she feared becoming too “masculine!”

Yolanda Hadid can’t help playing favorites sometimes

When parents have more than just one child, they always try to do everything in their power to avoid making the kids feel like they have a favorite. Most parents will tell you they don’t have a favorite child, but not Yolanda Hadid.

Out of all three kids that Yolanda Hadid had with Mohammed Hadid, Gigi is the one who looks like her mother the most. Bella and Anwar share a lot of traits with their father, and sources claim that this is why Gigi is the favorite. Yolanda even called her the “all-American girl!”

Yolanda pushed her kids to work out and avoid sugar from a young age

When you have a talented kid, and you can just tell that they’re going to be famous someday, you’ll want to ensure they stay on the right path. From the moment Yolanda realized that both her daughters had the genes for modeling, she made sure to nurture that talent.

While there is nothing wrong with nurturing a child’s talents, the problem with Yolanda Hadid is that she could be pretty harsh sometimes. Her decisions were highly criticized, especially when the public learned that her teenage daughters worked out six times a week and did not eat any sugar.

Yolanda only allowed the kids to eat unhealthy food on special occasions

Earlier in this article, we already talked about how Yolanda Hadid doesn’t allow cake into her household, not even on her children’s birthdays. However, it seemed like she changed her rules as the years passed and her children got older.

On one particular episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Gigi was more than happy that her birthday had finally arrived. And it wasn’t just because it was her birthday, but mostly because she was allowed to eat cake and other “unhealthy” food. And no, Yolanda was not happy about it!

Yolanda never hid from the kids that they were not irreplaceable

Getting a child to stay motivated in school is not an easy task. And it’s certainly not different with children who start working from an early age. It’s pretty hard to get a young girl to keep working hard in order to have a successful modeling career.

Yolanda Hadid found quite a controversial way to keep her daughters focused on their careers: to tell them that they were replaceable. While she wasn’t technically wrong, it’s not exactly nice for a child to hear that — especially not from their mother!

The Hadid matriarch doesn’t have a problem with sharing photos of her kids

When it comes to sharing photos of children, parents are usually half-half. Half of the parents want to share pictures of their kids on the internet. The other half wants to maintain their kid’s privacy. While Gigi Hadid is part of the second group, Yolanda is definitely part of the first.

The Hadid matriarch has always been an avid social media user and always shares photos with her children. While there’s nothing unusual about this, the problem is that Yolanda sometimes shares pictures that the public considers inappropriate, especially regarding the pictures of Gigi and Bella.

Yolanda never really prepared her children to deal with the spotlight

At this point in time, both Gigi and Bella Hadid are way more famous than their mother ever was. And when you are as globally famous as the two sisters are, there are lots of burdens you have to deal with. 

One of the burdens is dealing with the media distorting everything you say and dealing with people trying to piggyback on your fame. Unfortunately for Gigi and Bella, their mother pushed them toward the spotlight but never taught them how to deal with the attention.

Gigi, Bella, and Anwar never really had a permanent house

While Yolanda Hadid is certainly more well known by the public, Mohammed Hadid is also successful in his own right. While he is not a reality TV star like his former wife, he’s well known in the construction industry.

Because of Mohammed’s business endeavors and the fact that he got divorced from Yolanda six years after they married, the kids never had a permanent address. That’s because they were always moving into the mansions their dad was building — and they didn’t even have time to have stuffed toys in the house before moving to the next mansion.

Yolanda never wanted her kids to be like other kids their ages

Because Yolanda wanted her children to be successful, she was always firm in her parenting methods. When her daughters wanted to play sports, she would ask them to watch their physiques. And when Gigi wanted to move to a college dorm, Yolanda didn’t have it.

When kids head off to college, they want to do all sorts of things they weren’t able to when they were in high school. Being away from their parents gives them the perfect opportunity, hence why Yolanda Hadid didn’t let Gigi move into a college dorm.

Every once in a while, the Hadid siblings have to spend some time with Yolanda

Being a celebrity takes its toll on people. Sure, they have a lot of good things to make up for the bad side of fame, but it’s still tough. After all, nobody appreciates having to deal with paparazzi or the media’s relentless pursuits.

And this is precisely why Yolanda makes her kids take some time off work and stop by her Pennsylvania farm every once in a while. She obviously does this with their best intentions at heart — but the public definitely had something to say about the fact that she demands her children to take time off work just to visit her!

Yolanda was pretty offensive when talking to one of Gigi’s past makeup artists

Back when Yolanda Hadid was on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, nobody thought much of her parenting methods and sometimes rude comments on the show. However, that was almost a decade ago. People started re-watching the show recently and realized some things.

One of these things is that Yolanda Hadid made offensive comments more often than not, especially when her children were concerned. For instance, one time, she asked a makeup artist not to give Gigi a “Chinese look” as it wouldn’t suit her — which was totally offensive.

On top of that, Yolanda has also disrespected other minorities

If Yolanda had only made one mean comment, people probably wouldn’t think much of it. However, she repeated her rude comments quite a lot throughout her years on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. When she wasn’t complaining about makeup looks or outfits, she offended other people.

If you look up Yolanda’s profile on the internet, you’ll see that she is an American citizen but was not born in America. Yolanda moved to the United States to try to make a name for herself, and she barely spoke English then. So, people were upset when she told a Hispanic employee to learn English.

The kids had to make their own money from an early age

When immigrants move to the United States, their ultimate goal is to have a better living in a country where everything seems possible. However, it’s not a secret that most immigrants don’t get to accomplish everything that Yolanda and Mohammed Hadid accomplished in America.

Because they were both immigrants who had to start over in a different country, Yolanda and her ex-husband didn’t want their children to take things for granted. And that led them to make Bella get a regular, minimum wage job at 14 years old!

Yolanda wants her kids to become reality TV stars as well

While Yolanda Hadid first rose to fame as a model, her fame sizzled out over the years. And it was thanks to her participation in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, that the Dutch model became popular again. Maybe that’s why she wants her kids to follow the same path.

Yolanda was being pretty pushy when her daughter Gigi was pregnant. She wanted her daughter and her boyfriend at the time, Zayn Malik, to star in their own reality show. However, neither Gigi nor Zayn had any interest in that. And, to be honest, it’s common knowledge that none of Yolanda Hadid’s children need to become reality TV stars to stay relevant!

Yolanda Hadid turned a blind eye to her child’s problems.

When you claim to have a good relationship with your children, then you must undoubtedly know everything that goes with them — or at least you know most of what is going on in your child’s life. But Yolanda wasn’t like this because she definitely turned a blind eye.

The worst thing that Yolanda did as a parent, according to the public, was that she never gave Bella the emotional support she needed. The model had to deal with eating disorders from a young age, and Yolanda didn’t do anything about it. Lots of people accuse the matriarch of turning a blind eye during this time of her daughter’s life!

The worst part is that Yolanda might have been the cause of the disorder!

While nothing is confirmed, many people believe that Yolanda Hadid shares part of the blame regarding her daughters’ problems with food. After all, she was the one who always insisted that her kids not eat a lot.

If your mother tells you from a young age that certain foods are “bad” and that models have to be on the “skinny side,” you’ll definitely have some eating problems. And Yolanda constantly reinforced these stereotypes, which is why many people believe that she is to blame for Bella’s eating disorder.

Yolanda probably played a part in Gigi and Zayn’s final separation.

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik were together for a long while — but their relationship was definitely like a roller coaster. The pair had an infamous on-again-off-again relationship for years, ultimately ending in 2021 in a huge scandal leaked to the media.

While it seemed that Zayn and Gigi were doing pretty well after they welcomed their baby daughter, everyone was shocked when the news broke out that Yolanda had filed a lawsuit after Zayn allegedly hit her. The singer denied the accusations, but Gigi separated from him during that mess, which led to speculation.

Gigi Hadid was once more than happy to eat a grilled cheese sandwich

We have already mentioned how Yolanda Hadid enforced strict diets on her daughters from an early age. There are many problems with that — and one of the most significant issues is that Yolanda’s crazy diets definitely have consequences for the girls in the long run.

In one of the episodes of The Real Housewives, Gigi Hadid was spotted eating a grilled cheese sandwich. While this is not an unusual thing to eat (we all eat a grilled cheese sandwich every once in a while, right?), it was kind of shocking to see how happy Gigi was to eat such a simple thing.

Yolanda says she’s humble but won’t do these things

If there is one thing that people learned about Yolanda Hadid during her time on Real Housewives is that the woman loves to brag about her humbleness. Indeed, Yolanda was not exactly rich growing up and had to work hard for a while there.

For a person who loves reminding people that she comes from a humble background, Yolanda Hadid surely doesn’t like it. The woman makes sure that everyone knows she doesn’t fly economic class! Let’s hope that none of her kids inherited this trait.

The Hadid matriarch scared her kids because of her health condition

When parents have some type of hereditary health condition, they try to find ways to tell their kids without freaking them out. As expected, it seems like Yolanda Hadid missed this class of the introductory parenting course every parent apparently takes.

Instead of breaking the news gently, Yolanda Hadid has always made a fuss about her Lymes disease. It seems like Bella and Anwar inherited her condition, and she made them worry a lot. Instead of explaining how the condition works, Yolanda made it seem like her children could catch it like it was the flu!

Rumor has it that Yolanda was the reason that Bella got a nose job

Remember how we mentioned that Bella Hadid got her nose done when she was only 14 years old? She didn’t speak about that for many years — and when she finally did open up about her cosmetic surgery, Bella even mentioned how she regretted it.

People heavily criticized Yolanda Hadid for allowing her teenage daughter to undergo plastic surgery at that age. However, people have since created theories regarding this whole ordeal, and one of the theories is that Yolanda might have even pushed Bella to do it!

The public thinks that Yolanda might be slightly homophobic

Back when Gigi Hadid wanted to play volleyball and wear jersey shirts, Yolanda was unhappy about it. The former model was upset that her daughter wanted to play a sport that might make her look “masculine,” but the problem was a different one.

Yolanda Hadid’s behavior at the time insinuated that she might have been slightly homophobic back then. She went as far as to say that she was “scared” that Gigi might be a lesbian — just because she wanted to play volleyball!

Yolanda Hadid is not a good role model when it comes to feminism

The world is not kind to women, so it only makes sense that females would jump at the chance to support other females. However, we all know that that’s not how things go down usually. And Yolanda Hadid is proof of that.

Instead of bonding with the other stars on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Yolanda Hadid was trying to create chaos and jumping at the chance to beef with the other ladies instead of being a friend. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Gigi or Bella were affected by this personality trait their mother has!

Hopefully, the Hadid sisters didn’t inherit their mother’s view on gender roles

On top of making offensive comments regarding people’s race, sexuality, and ethnic background, Yolanda also had some pretty old-fashioned views regarding other topics. One of the topics is gender roles. For the former model, a woman’s place is in the kitchen!

It’s actually funny that Yolanda Hadid feels this way, considering that she doesn’t even step into the kitchen! For Bella and Gigi Hadid’s luck, neither of the two is like that. They’re both hard-working women who know that a lady’s place is wherever she wants it to be!

Yolanda’s parenting might have reflected on her daughter’s career

Yolanda Hadid’s problematic parenting doesn’t affect only her children’s personal lives. It seems like some of the stuff she said and did also affected their professional lives to some extent. After all, if you grow up listening to your mother saying offensive things, you’re bound to repeat some of them.

When Gigi Hadid was still modeling for Victoria’s Secret, she couldn’t get a visa to work for the brand in China. She was banned from the country due to offensive comments and gestures she made when she was younger. Given that Yolanda didn’t even want Gigi to have a “Chinese makeup look,” it’s not hard to understand where Gigi learned the jokes. However, the young model has since apologized and never repeated the gestures!