No filter needed. Gigi Hadid and Joe Jonas were absolute perfection as they made their red carpet debut as a couple in NYC on Thursday, Oct. 8. The lovebirds — who first stepped out in May together — attended the Global Lyme Alliance Inaugural Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street to support Hadid’s mom, former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ Yolanda Foster.
Hadid, 20, wore an off-white strapless Tommy Hilfiger dress, which was cinched at the waistline. The former boy bander and DNCE frontman, 26, donned a blue suit and kept his arm on the model’s back for photographs. (She told Us Weekly that double dates with her sister, Bella Hadid, and The Weeknd are low-key affairs.)
During the event, Gigi presented her mother — who has publicly been battling Lyme disease — with an award.
“Before someone I loved was diagnosed with something that drastically and negatively changed her quality of life I didn’t really understand the meaning of the word hope. For a whole year I struggled to understand the pain and confusion that she was experiencing but that no one seemed to have the answers for,” Hadid said in her speech. “Finally after being falsely diagnosed for many things including chronic fatigue syndrome and depression, my mom was diagnosed with neurological Lyme disease.”
She added: “Treatment after treatment all I wanted was to know how to be her hope. That was the worst part for me. I’m a perfectionist and I don’t like anything that I can’t fix.”
Hadid also said how proud she is of her mom’s perseverance — and that RHOBH turned out to be a blessing for the family. “She realized she could use this platform of this world-famous television show to spread awareness. She was honest, unapologetic, and raw,” she said. “In no time she got thousands of emails, letters from families that were suffering, lost, felt misunderstood, mostly scared.”
As previously reported, Foster, 51, later joined her daughter on stage and gave an emotional speech to the crowd — and revealed that her children Bella, 19, and Anwar, 16, were also diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012.
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