Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik welcomed their daughter, Khai, in September 2020.
Five years into their on-again, off-again romance, Hadid confirmed that she and Malik were expecting their first baby during an April 2020 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“Obviously, we wish we could’ve announced it on our own terms, but we’re very excited and happy and grateful for everyone’s well-wishes and support,” she shared.
Malik announced their daughter’s arrival via Instagram that September. He posted the now-famous black-and-white image of newborn Khai’s hand in his.
“Our baby girl is here, healthy & beautiful,” he captioned the image. “To try [to] put into words how I am feeling right now would be an impossible task. The love I feel for this tiny human is beyond my understanding. Grateful to know her, proud to call her mine, & thankful for the life we will have together.”
Just before her first birthday, Gigi subtly announced her daughter’s name. Eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice in June 2021 that the model changed her Instagram bio to read, “Khai’s mom.”
Both Hadid and Malik have spoken candidly about their experience as parents and discussed their coparenting experience after breaking up in 2021.
Keep scrolling to read their quotes about parenthood:
Gigi Hadid Details Her Home Birth
Hadid told Vogue in February 2021 that she “probably looked crazy” while giving birth. “I was an animal woman,” she recalled.
“What I really wanted from my experience was to feel like, OK, this is a natural thing that women are meant to do. I had to dig deep,” Hadid added. “I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, ‘This is what it is.’ I loved that. There definitely was a point where I was like, ‘I wonder what it would be like with an epidural, how it would be different.'”
She noted that Malik caught Khai, saying, “It didn’t even click that she was out. I was so exhausted, and I looked up and he’s holding her. It was so cute.”
Zayn Malik Says He and Gigi Hadid Eased Into Parenthood
Malik praised Hadid’s “wicked” motherhood skills on iHeartRadio’s Valentine in the Morning in March 2021.
“Obviously, she’s a really big help with everything, and she’s doing well,” he said.
“It’s been really easy for me and Gigi to kind of just ease into it. [Khai] kind of made it easy for us, she sleeps really well, she loves her milk. It’s just feeding and changing diapers at the moment.”
Gigi Hadid Was Honest About Her Motherhood Worries
“During my pregnancy, I had one journal that I called my good journal and one journal that I called my bad journal,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in July 2021. “They weren’t that literal, but one was more for the memories, for Khai. Maybe one day I’ll give her the bad journal just to be real about it. [It has my] anxieties and days where I felt like, ‘Am I good enough to be a mom?’ I didn’t want to feel guilty about feeling those things or writing those things down. I just liked the separation.”
Gigi Hadid Praised Daughter Khai’s Intelligence Level
Hadid referred to her daughter as “a genius” during an interview with Willie Geist in September 2022.
“But I think that’s what everyone says about their kid. It’s so much fun,” she continued. “The more that she talks and understands and remembers, it just gets more and more fun. And she’s a blessing.”
Does Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik’s Daughter Have an Accent?
Hadid told London’s Sunday Times about “the little bits” of Khai that are British, like her dad, Malik, in March 2023.
“She’s clearly a child who was grown in my stomach eating a lot of British food — breakfast, beans, curries. And she still eats like that,” the model said. “She even says some words with a little [English] accent, which I love.”
Zayn Malik Emphasized Putting Khai First
Malik said he wanted to “be a good example” to Khai on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in July 2023.
“That’s why I’m even doing this interview, you know? I used to get a lot of anxiety around having a conversation like this,” he said. “I want her to be able to look at me and be like, ‘My dad’s doing this.’”
What Have Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik Said About Coparenting?
During a September 2023 interview, Hadid said she only works when Khai is with Malik.
“I will literally fit in as many jobs as I can on those days,” she told Net-a-Porter at the time. “I’m sometimes a crazy person, but if it means a lot to me, then I do it.”
In March 2025, Hadid said coparenting with Malik is full of “love and a feeling of camaraderie” during a Vogue cover story.
“Zayn and I do our custody schedule months in advance,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t change here and there, but we help each other out and have each other’s backs.”
She added, “There is the hard part of the world knowing this much, and thinking they know everything. And at the end of the day, we’re not interested in giving everyone our whole story. What we are interested in is raising our daughter together, with so much respect for each other, and not just as coparents, but what we’ve been through together.”
They aren’t always in agreement, however. Malik revealed on “Call Her Daddy” in February 2026 that Hadid “gave me s***” after he gave Khai nearly $700 after losing her first tooth.
“At the end of the day, I work my ass off and I should be able to give my kid what I want to give her,” he said.
