Bella Hadid was 4 years old when her parents divorced and her world changed direction.
She moved with her mother, Dutch model Yolanda Hadid, to Santa Barbara, California, far from her father, Palestinian businessman Mohamed Hadid. There, she grew up surrounded by a predominantly white community, as one of the few Arab girls in her surroundings.
During her adolescence, she experienced episodes of racism that quietly left a mark on her.
In an interview with GQ Magazine, the actress and supermodel confessed that one of her ‘biggest regrets’ is not having been able to live out her Muslim culture in her day-to-day life or practice her faith alongside her father.
She said that this distance left her feeling ‘really sad and alone’ for years.
Everything changed when she appeared as a guest on the Hulu series Ramy, where working alongside a predominantly Arab and Muslim cast finally allowed her to reconnect with the part of herself she had had to leave behind.