Did Yolanda Hadid Just Break Gigi’s Number One Rule About Her Daughter?

Yolanda Hadid—retired supermodel and reality TV alum—probably thought she was just sharing a sweet beach day with her granddaughter. Instead, the former The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star ignited an online debate when she posted a photo of her granddaughter, Kai, during a beach outing. 

Four-year-old Kai was in a swimsuit, which sent the internet into its usual frenzy. While some were upset seeing a child in beachwear (because apparently that’s controversial now), the deeper issue revolves around celebrity children, privacy, and the complicated dynamics of family social media boundaries. Kai’s parents—supermodel Gigi Hadid and ex-One Directioner Zayn Malik—have been meticulously protecting their daughter’s privacy since birth. Gigi has even written public letters asking paparazzi and fans blur her daughter’s face in photos. 

So when grandma doesn’t get the memo, who’s in the wrong?

In the age of social media and oversharing, we’re living through a shift in how famous parents approach their children’s public presence and their own right to privacy—at least until they’re old enough to consent to fame. Gigi and Zayn of course aren’t alone in this approach. They’re part of a growing contingent of celebrity parents rethinking the whole “kids as content” thing (a conversation currently being amplified on TikTok with family influencers). Here are a few more famous parents who are drawing boundaries, to a certain extent.

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker

As much as it might seem off-brand for the Kardashian-Jenner enterprise, the eldest Kardashian has kept her youngest son, Rocky Thirteen Barker, whom she shares with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, completely out of the public eye since his birth in November 2023. No social media posts showing his face, no appearances on the family’s Hulu reality TV show, The Kardashians, now in its sixth season. It’s a radical departure for someone whose family built an empire monetizing every moment of their lives for two decades.

However, this feels very much in line with Kourtney’s recent approach to parenting and life. On a recent episode of Khloé in Wonder Land, she made controversial remarks about public school education being outdated, attachment style parenting, and not giving her children conventional medicine when they’re sick. 

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling 

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling have been playing the long game since their daughters Esmeralda Amada, 10, and Amada Lee, 9, were born. Mendes has maintained a strict no-social-media policy for her kids. At least, until they are old enough to give her their consent, according to a previous Instagram post that now seems to have been removed. 

During the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Mendes even took to social media herself to express her gratitude to the media for not showing her kids. She responded to one IG comment saying, “I love @nbcolympics didn’t cut away to the kids! And most sites blurred their faces, so mama bear is happy about that.” The policy makes sense when you consider that Mendes and Gosling have managed to maintain an almost mysterious quality to their relationship for more than a decade after filming The Place Beyond the Pines together.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively 

We know this couple has been in some controversial waters lately with the Lively-Baldoni lawsuit. But before the back-and-forth of lawsuits, counterlawsuits, and amended complaints, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively were known for was not showing their children’s faces. 

Their four children—James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5, and Olin, 2—occasionally appear in social media posts, but always with faces most obscured or turned away.

Kristin Cavallari and ex-husband Jay Cutler

Kristin Cavallari recently shared on an episode of Let’s Be Honest why she waited to share her kids with the world. She said, “I wanted them to decide if they wanted their faces on social media. They get to decided if they want to be recognizable. I have a large platform. If I post my kids, people will start to recognize them. I wanted them to decide.”  

Now that her kids are older—Camden, her oldest, is 12, Jaxen is 11, and Saylor turns 10 this fall—Cavallari says they’ve all given her their approval to appear in posts, their new reality TV show Very Cavallari, and even on her podcast.

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas

When Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas welcomed their daughter, Malti Marie, via surrogacy in January 2022, they were very adamant about hiding their daughter’s face. In 2023, when the Jonas Brothers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they publicly shared their daughter’s face for the first time.