There are regular moms—and then there are supermodel moms. From an expcecting Doutzen Kroes to Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom’s adorable baby boy, we celebrate Mother's Day by paying homage to the hottest model moms and their children.
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The Dutch Victoria's Secret Angel has covered the likes of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, and Elle and has fronted campaigns for Versace, Gucci, and Calvin Klein. In 2009, she started dating DJ Sunnery James. The two married in November of 2010 and three months later, Kroes gave birth to the couple's first son, Phyllon Joy Gorré. In March 2014, the model announced that she is expecting a baby girl. A few days later, she sparked debate by telling Page Six that she wants her daughter to pursue more than beauty. “Instead of saying, ‘You’re so beautiful,’ I'll say, ‘You’re smart,’ so she’ll have different aspirations in life than beauty and modeling," she said. "Though I love my job, I’m not changing the world. I’d love for her to study and to have different aspirations. We need to teach girls they can become presidents, and it’s not about beauty all the time.”
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The 32-year-old Russian model emerged on the fashion scene at the age of 15 when she signed with her first modeling agency. Since then, Vodianova has earned incredible success as with a seven-figure contract with Calvin Klein, as well as campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, and Diane Von Furstenberg—a vast difference from her poverty striken childhood in Gorky, Soviet Union. Aside from her modeling ambitions, Vodianova has become best recognized for her philanthopic work, particularly with the Naked Heart Foundation, an organization that supports children growing up in urban Russia, which she founded. In November 2001, Vodianova married Justin Portman, with whom she has three children, Lucas Alexander (age 12), Neva (age 8), and Viktor (age 6). Unfortunately, the duo separated in 2011. On May 2, however, Vodianova welcomed her fourth child, son Maxim, with current boyfriend Antoine Arnault, heir to LVMH.
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Lily Aldridge is best known for her work as a Victoria's Secret Angel (for whom she's worked for since 2009), and her work with Sports Illustrated (she most recently covered the magazine's 50th anniversity issue alongside Chrissy Teigen and Ninan Agdal). In May 2011, the model married Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill and a little over a year later, the couple gave birth to their first daughter, Dixie Pearl. Recently, Aldridge and her daughter starred in the Born Free Campaign to help support the end of HIV transmission from mothers to daughters.
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British model Jourdan Dunn has become one of the biggest new faces of the fashion industry alongside peers and friends Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne. At the ripe age of 23, Dunn has appeared on the cover of Vogue, British Vogue, and Teen Vogue, walked the runways of Valentino, Marc Jacobs, and Louis Vuitton, and has fronted campaigns for Burberry, Topshop, and Yves Saint Laurent. Dunn, who became a teen mom at age 19, has often spoken about the difficulties of being a single mother as well as balancing raising a child with a budding career. "More than anything, having a son has made me realise I have to make shit work: I'm his voice, I'm his lifeline, I have to be driven," she told Vogue UK of her son Riley, who has been diagnosed with sickle-cell disease. "I think he pushed me in the right direction. I've always been ambitious, but now I have more focus. I'm more hardworking." Riley's father, Dunn's now ex-boyfriend of five years, was arrested two months after his son's birth for dealing cocaine.
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In 2011, Anna Wintour said of the model: "When I look at Arizona, I see shadows of Linda Evangelista and Natalia Vodianova, but most of all I see her, a gorgeous, smart, grown-up. And how could anyone resist someone with that name?" Rising to fame in 2009—the same year she gave birth to her son, Nikko—Muse has since fronted campaigns for the likes of Miu Miu, Chloe, and Isabel Marant. Muse's post-baby body seemingly led to the peak of her career, rather than stagnating it. 'I think my body was better after I had a child, actually," she said in April 2012. "I prefer my body now to what it was like before I had Nikko."
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France’s former first lady, Carla Bruni, was just 19 when she signed with City Models in the late 1980s. After booking a campaign for Guess? Jeans, she went on to work for Christian Dior, Givenchy, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, and Versace. By the 1990s, she was one of the highest paid models, earning $7.5 million a year, but Bruni quit the fashion world a decade into her career to devote herself to music. In 2011, Bruni, who has one son from a previous relationship, and Sarkozy, who has three sons from previous marriages, welcomed their first child together, a daughter, named Giulia, on Oct. 19. Photos of the newborn baby girl were not made public by the parents as Bruni told La Parisien newspaper that “exposure to public life is an adult choice.”
German-born model Heidi Klum, who’d been featured on the covers of Vogue, Elle, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and in many a Victoria’s Secret campaign, revealed she was pregnant with her first child at 26. Before her daughter Helene “Leni” Boshoven Klum, whose biological father is Flavio Briatore, was born in May 2004, Klum met musician Seal, who was there for Leni’s birth. A year later, they married and went on to have three children together: now 8-year-old son Henry, now 7-year-old son Johan, and now 4-year-old Lou. Shortly after Lou was born, Seal legally adopted Leni, whose last name is now Samuel. “Four is a lot of children,” Klum told Good Housekeeping in February of 2011. “Now we're complete; we look around the table and feel like there's no one missing. Everyone who is supposed to be around the table is there.”
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The Brazilian model credited with ending the fashion industry's “heroin chic” phase has been bringing curves back to the runway since the late ‘90s. By 2000, Bündchen’s record-breaking $25 million contract with Victoria's Secret solidified her status as the world's top model, and for the past seven years she’s been named the highest-paid model in the world. Bündchen has opened shows for Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Christian Dior, Valentino, and has covered many major fashion magazines, including Vogue 11 times. After marrying Tom Brady in February 2009, the two welcomed their first child together, Benjamin Rein Brady, who was born via water birth in December of that same year. At just a few months old, Benjamin made his first appearance in Vogue’s April 2010 issue. “I got to the studio and I felt like I was E.T.—whoa, what’s going on? Hair and makeup? I hadn’t looked at myself in a mirror for a month and a half,” Bündchen told Vogue in that issue. “Usually, as I walk through the door into that atmosphere, I already feel different… This time it wasn’t like that… For the first time, I think I actually saw me—the inside—instead of the persona.” Three years later, the couple welcomed their second child, a baby girl named Vivian.
Australia native Miranda Kerr won a modeling competition at 13, leading to multiple campaigns with the country’s popular surfing brands, including Billabong and Roxy. Eventually, she moved to New York and signed a modeling contract in early 2004, leading to multiple runway and print campaigns, from Levi’s to L.A.M.B and Rock and Republic to Roberto Cavalli. In 2006, she signed a contract with Maybelline New York and in 2007, she replaced Gisele Bündchen and became the first Australian Victoria's Secret Angel. That same year, she started dating actor Orlando Bloom. They married in July 2010 and in August, she announced she was pregnant with their first child, which she proved with a nude photoshoot. Flynn Christopher Blanchard Copeland Bloom was born in January 2011 and two months later, Kerr hit the catwalk for Balenciaga's Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear collection at Paris Fashion Week. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” Kerr told OK! Magazine of motherhood. “Becoming a mother puts everything into perspective.” Having Flynn clearly hasn’t slowed Kerr down—she modeled the $2.5 million Victoria's Secret Fantasy Treasure Bra and posed topless for a Rag & Bone ad in October of the same year.
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The devout Catholic beauty won Ford’s “Supermodel of Brazil” search at 15 and four years later, Adriana Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. She walked catwalks for Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani, and Valentino; worked for Armani, Versace, and Louis Vuitton; and appeared on the covers and pages of Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, GQ. Lima, who claimed she was a virgin at 24, followed in fellow Brazilian Gisele Bündchen’s footsteps as a Victoria’s Secret Angel beginning in 2000, and modeled the $5 million Fantasy Bra in 2008 and the 2010 Bombshell Fantasy Bra, less than a year after giving birth to her first child. Lima welcomed Valentina in November 2009 with her husband, Serbian basketball player Marko Jarić, whom she married on Valentine’s Day in 2009. “Being a mom is the greatest thing that could happen to me now. Now I know what unconditional love is,” Lima told Fox News in 2010. “Valentina, (to modeling) after having her really helped me with my career.” In September of 2012, the couple welcomes their second daughter, Sienna.
After vacationing in the Bahamas, a 14-year-old Kate Moss was discovered at JFK Airport in 1988. By the time the ‘90s rolled around, the British waif became the anti-supermodel, spawning the heroin chic trend that dominated the decade. Though she had some ups and downs with drug and alcohol scandals, Moss had campaigns with Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Bulgari, and, most notably, Calvin Klein. She has appeared on the cover of British Vogue a whopping 30 times and another 17 times on W magazine. Amidst speculation in 2002, Moss confirmed in March that she and style magazine Dazed & Confused editor Jefferson Hack were expecting. The 28-year-old model gave birth to Lila Grace Moss in September. Still, the relatively small 5’7” model has been a muse for high style for decades: she won the prestigious Vogue/CFDA Fashion Inspiration award in 2005 and designed her own collection for Top Shop. In September of 2011, Moss posed topless with her 8-year-old look-a-like daughter in Vogue. Seemingly, Lila is into the natural look. “I always take my make-up off, because otherwise my daughter will come in and say, 'Mummy, tut-tut.' She doesn't like it. She likes the fresh-faced, natural mummy, when I've got my hair in a bun and no make-up on," Moss told the Belfast Telegraph.
At just 12 years old, Brazilian-born Alessandra Ambrosio began modeling classes in an effort to fulfill her dreams of walking the catwalk and appearing on glossy magazine pages. She won Brazil’s Elite Model Look competition and soon appeared on the cover of her country’s Elle magazine. Not long after, Ambrosio was booking campaigns with Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, and Ralph Lauren, and walking catwalks for Prada, Chanel, and Oscar de la Renta. But Ambrosio truly shot to fame when she appeared in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2000 and then became an Angel. Ambrosio walked the runway at the 2008 Fashion Show, three months after giving birth to Anja Louise Ambrosio Mazur, whose father is Ambrosio’s fiancé, Jamie Mazur. “Motherhood changed my life in that everything I do I think about my daughter," Ambrosio told Hollyscoop in March of 2011. "I go to work and when I have a pause I just think about my daughter and what she's doing. I just give more time to be with her and take care of myself to be able to take good care of her." Three years later, in 2012, Ambrosio and Mazur welcomed a baby boy, Noah, to the family.
Though California-born Christy Turlington was discovered in her teens, she made sure to finish high school before heading to New York to pursue what would become an incredible modeling career. She represented Calvin Klein for an impressive 20 years, from 1987 to 2007, and also helped Maybelline make its “Maybe She's Born With It” campaign a success. In more recent years, the longtime fashion mainstay has focused her attention on humanitarian efforts and on her family. In late 2000, she began dating actor-director-screenwriter Ed Burns and in 2003, they made their way down the aisle in San Francisco. At the time, Turlington was 25 weeks pregnant with their daughter Grace and Burns met her halfway down the aisle. But having Grace, in October 2003, was an experience that changed Turlington’s life forever. She suffered from postpartum hemorrhage, which inspired her to create the Every Mother Counts campaign to combat unnecessary deaths during childbirth. Though she had son Finn in 2006 without complications, she continues to work for maternal health. “My kids know that when I’m away, it’s to help other moms and their families,” Turlington told People in 2009. “Grace often says we’re ‘lucky.’ I’ve told them about some of the conditions I’ve witnessed… I think sharing the world with them will be my greatest contribution as their mother.”
Though Czech beauty Karolina Kurkova was often made fun of for her height as a child, the 5’11’ model made a career out of it. She moved to New York City at just 17 and landed on the cover of Vogue. Soon enough, Kurkova was at haute couture fashion shows and doing print campaigns for John Galliano, Chanel, Christian Dior, and Versace, among others. In the 2002 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, she was bestowed the honor of wearing the nearly $10 million Fantasy Bra, and, in 2006, she modeled a $6.5 million Fantasy Bra again. Kurkova has walked the runway for Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, and Stella McCartney. In July 2009, the then-25-year-old model announced she was expecting a child with her fiancé, film producer Archie Drury. In October, she gave birth to a son, Tobin Jack Drury. “How do you balance being a working woman, a good mom and a wife? It's tough, but kind of exciting, too,” Kurkova told W in May 2010. “I'm just really glad to be back to work, and I'm fortunate that sometimes when I have to go away for a few days, I can take my son. I want to incorporate him into my life as much as possible.”
Nicknamed “The Body,” Australian model Elle MacPherson appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue a record five times. Her career began at 17 when she went to New York to do one year of modeling to earn money to pay for her law degree at Sydney University. But MacPherson's career took off and she was soon seen on Time, GQ, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Elle, where she appeared in every issue for six straight years. While dating French financier Arpad Busson, MacPherson had two sons—Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson, now 16, and Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson, now 11. Though the couple were engaged throughout both births, the two did not marry until 2013.“I tell my boys I can’t create a life for them— I can only encourage them to make their own choices,” MacPherson told Shape in September. “Hopefully, they’ll live their dreams with commitment, passion, and patience.”
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Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, Cindy Crawford, who earned an academic scholarship to Northwestern University, was nearly on the cover of every single fashion magazine, including Vogue, W, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Allure. The 5’9” Midwestern brunette with the iconic mole also made history on the inaugural issue of George, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s short-lived political magazine in the 1990s, which featured the iconic image of Crawford dressed like George Washington. In 1998, she wed Rande Gerber, with whom she’s had two children, now 15-year-old Presley and now 13-year-old Kaia, who strongly resembles her mother. “Having come from the world I come from and you know having to maintain a certain weight for most of my career which fortunately hasn't been too much of a struggle...I don't want my daughter to think, ‘Wow I have to deprive myself in order to be pretty,” Crawford said in July of 2011. “So if we go have ice cream as a family I will order an ice cream. I don't usually eat the whole thing but I don't want her to associate being pretty to being thin. It's really a balance, I can be an example by living it."
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At age 60, model Christie Brinkley still looks as good as she did at the start of her modeling career nearly 40 years ago. Brinkley set records in her modeling career, with a 25-year long contract with CoverGirl and three consecutive appearances on the cover of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition. Since 1973, Brinkley has been married four times and has three children with three of her husbands. In 1985, Brinkley gave birth to Alexa Ray, her daughter with then-husband Billy Joel. In 1994, while still married to Joel, Brinkley became engaged to Richard Taubman, a real estate developer. At age 40, she gave birth to Jack Paris Taubman, who was later adopted by her fourth husband, Peter Cook. In 1998, she and Cook welcomed a daughter, Sailor Lee, who now an aspiring model. After 12 years of marriage, Brinkley and Cook called it quits in 2008, when it was discovered that he was cheating with an 18-year-old.
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While a married Iman was majoring in political science at Nairobi University, the Somali stunner was discovered by American photographer Peter Beard, leading her to end her marriage and move to New York in 1975. A year later, she booked her first modeling assignment, which was, impressively, for Vogue. Many prominent designers, like Yves Saint-Laurent, Gianni Versace, and Calvin Klein viewed Iman as a muse throughout her 14 years as a high fashion model. In 1978, she had a daughter named Zelekha with her second husband, American basketball player Spencer Haywood, but they divorced nine years later. In 1992, Iman proved the third time's a charm when she married rock star David Bowie, to whom she is wed. They had a daughter, Alexandria, in August 2000. “The difference between rearing a child in your twenties and one in your fifties is one of patience,” Iman told Parade in 2009. “I was at the height of my career when I had my first child, and I took her with me around the world. Then I had to root her in school. It was difficult to leave her behind. Now this one thinks she has it tough because both her old parents are at home with her all the time.”
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Stephanie Seymour emerged in the late eighties, early nineties as one of the world's biggest supermodels. Having covered the likes of Vogue and Sports Illustrated and even posing for Playboy, the now 45-year-old Seymour has achieved icon status in the fashion industry. In 1990, she gave birth to her first son, Dylan, with her then-husband guitarist Tommy Andrews. The two divorced that same year, and in 1993, her second son, Peter Brant II was born with her boyfriend Peter Brant. The couple married in 1995 and a year later, her third son, Harry, was born. Harry and Peter have become infamously known as the "The New Princes of the City" with their socialite status and "IT" boy behavior. "We had to do a report about our parents: where they were born, what they did, and all that," Peter recently told Harper's Bazaar. "Everyone else had to do theirs as homework, but I finished mine before class ended using Wikipedia." In 2004, Seymour gave birth to a daughter, Lily Margaret.
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Like mother, like daughter. American model Jerry Hall rose to fame not just for her good looks, but her long-time relationship with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. The two began dating in 1977 and were married in 1990. Although the couple has four children together, Elizabeth Scarlett (age 30), James Leroy (age 29), Georgia May (age 22), and Gabriel Luke (age 15), their daugher, Georgia May, has followed in her mom's footsteps as one of the hottest models to watch. She currently has a contract with Rimmel London and has worked for the likes of Marc Jacobs, Chanel, and Versace.
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