Naomi Campbell Unveiled Her Daughter For The First Time

Campbell shocked everyone when — at the age of 50 — she unveiled a baby daughter. This was her first child, and no one outside of a select few in her circle had any idea that the announcement was coming. Vogue editor Edward Enninful was one of many to congratulate her, saying, “Seeing the two of you together made my year. You will bring each other so much joy.”

Marc Jacobs — the legendary designer — also gushed, “How absolutely incredible. How lucky she is and how lucky you are! What a wonderful mother you will be. Blessings all around.” After the initial excitement died down, though, people began to wonder just how Campbell had kept her little blessing — and the identity of the father — so secret.

Campbell’s long been an icon of modeling and a pioneer for people of color in the industry. For instance, in 1988 she was the first ever black model to be featured on the front of French Vogue, and in 1989 repeated the same trick in Vogue’s U.S. edition. As writer Selina Julien put it in 2018, “Campbell has always been in a league of her own.”

Regarding the business she’s worked in for decades, Campbell told Vogue, “I’m never going to say I wasn’t picked because of the color of my skin, and I’d never go down that route, even if it was the case. It would just give me more strength and perseverance for me to go out there and get what I want.” In the process, she made sure to advocate for every other model of color.

The rise to the top began for Campbell as a 15-year-old South Londoner, when she was scouted by an agency. According to Julien, “The industry was captivated by her sultry almond eyes, high cheekbones, famously full lips, and Amazonian body — and the attention has yet to waver.” It’s true that these days, Campbell is as in-demand as ever.

Campbell ruled the fashion world in the 1990s alongside fellow supermodels Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Cindy Crawford. Regarding this period, she told Vogue, “It was an incredible time, but we worked hard. And no matter how many outfit changes, how many shows, we never said we were tired. We all loved it and we kept each other’s energy up.”

“We did eight shows a day, and then we would go and celebrate with the designers in the evening,” Campbell recalled. “I wonder sometimes if models now could have kept up with us.” The four will soon star in The Supermodels, an AppleTV+ documentary series that aims to dive deep into that wonderful period in time.

“It’s about our life and times together: our friendship, careers, our womanhood, our motherhood,” Campbell explained. “As models, we don’t have any rights to our image, so it feels good to be partners on our legacy — and in our own words.” Speaking of “womanhood and motherhood,” it’d be surprising if the series didn’t also explore Campbell’s — and her peers’ — love lives.

Campbell’s relationship history is fascinating. For example, during the early 2000s she was with Benetton head honcho Flavio Briatore, though they split in 2002. Briatore would tell the press that he felt they were better as friends. But Campbell had a slightly different take on the matter when she spoke to Marie Claire magazine, declaring, “I’m not going to be a trophy.”

“If you expect me to be in the kitchen cooking breakfast in high heels, looking as though I just stepped out of a fashion magazine, it’s not going to happen,” a disgruntled Campbell continued. “I’m alone now, but I’m not lonely. I feel very content, and I haven’t felt down or depressed in months.”

The following year, some interesting rumors made the press. Back in the 1990s Campbell had dated Hollywood superstar Robert De Niro, and they’d parted on good terms. But a source close to the model told Vogue that De Niro had come back into her life — and that Campbell may have wanted him to do something important for her.

“Naomi’s friends Kate Moss and Claudia Schiffer have babies, and she wants one, too,” the unnamed insider alleged. “She met De Niro again for drinks in New York a few weeks back, and then they went back to her place. Naomi feels he is the calm thing in her life.” Can you see where this is going?

“He was the one she would call at night whenever she needed someone to talk to, and this is the first time in a long time that he’s single and available,” the source concluded. So, yes, at least according to this anonymous individual, Campbell wanted the legendary Taxi Driver star to be father to her child. Obviously, nothing ever came of it, but it’s an interesting rumor anyway.

During a 2016 Sunday Times magazine interview Campbell was asked if her long career as a model was aided by the fact that she never took time off to be a mom. She replied, “Well, I’m not saying I won’t have children. I could have children. I just don’t know which way I’ll have children. But I think I’ll have children; everyone thinks I’ll be a good mother.”

“I’ve always considered it,” Campbell continued. “I’ll just do it when I’m ready. I’m not rushing to anyone’s drumbeat; I’m going to my own.” The following year saw the then-single Campbell reiterate this to ES magazine, when she said, “I think about having children all the time. But now with the way science is, I think I can do it when I want.”

But this didn’t mean Campbell wanted to be a single mother. On the contrary, she revealed, “I do want a father figure. I think it’s important. It’s the way I feel today, sitting here talking to you.” Around this time — 2017 — Campbell reportedly dated Egyptian tobacco giant Louis C. Camilleri. She also apparently had a relationship with Hassan Jameel, who’d later go on to date Rihanna. So, were either of them father material?

The following year, while speaking with Vogue Arabia, the subject of children came up again. This time Campbell said, “I’d love to have kids. I don’t discount anything in life. I love kids and always will. When I’m around children, I become a child myself. That’s the little girl I don’t ever want to lose.”

Now, on to the May 2021 post that shocked the world. Campbell put an adorable photo on Instagram featuring her hand cradling two baby feet. And she’d even tagged her mom, Valerie Morris Campbell. Wait, what?! Yes, Campbell had become a mom — and none of her fans had any idea it was even on the cards!

“A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother, so honored to have this gentle soul in my life,” Campbell wrote beside the photograph. “There are no words to describe the lifelong bond that I now share with you, my angel. There is no greater love.” Interestingly, though, she didn’t reveal the name of her baby, or the identity of the father.

Immediately, the internet was sent into a frenzy. How had Campbell kept this secret? Why wasn’t she revealing more details? How did a 50-year-old woman even have the baby? Statistically, a natural birth at that age is very rare. But, if it was natural, how come no one in her fanbase or the press noticed she was pregnant?

The web was seemingly convinced that Campbell hadn’t displayed any signs of being pregnant when she’d been seen in public. She walked catwalks at the Paris and New York fashion weeks only months before her announcement, and nobody was any the wiser. But baby expert Rachel Fitzd told the Daily Mail that perhaps Campbell’s long, flowing clothes had been worn to disguise her pregnancy.

Fitzd said, “It looks to me as if she really could have been pregnant. Some women barely show at all until the later stages of pregnancy, especially if they are tall, and the way a baby is lying and the clothes we choose to wear can have a big impact on how pregnant we look.” This was certainly one possibility — but there were others, too.

The Daily Mail’s experts believed IVF was also improbable, and therefore pointed their finger at surrogacy as the most likely option. In recent years, celebrity couples such as Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden; Kim Kardashian and Kanye West; and Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas had chosen this method to bring a bouncing baby into their lives. So, why not Campbell?

Fast-forward to February 14, 2022. This is when Campbell introduced her baby daughter to the world in the only way she knew how — on the cover of Vogue magazine! Speaking via Zoom while she and the baby were on a flight to London, Campbell waxed lyrical about her little bundle of joy. The 51-year-old was impressed at just how much she could already include the tyke in her jet-set lifestyle.

“I’m lucky my little one loves to travel like me — no whimpering taking off or landing,” Campbell said of her nine-month-old. “She’s a good girl, she sleeps very well, she hardly ever cries. And I’m told she’s very alert for her age. She’s just started waving, which is fun. She laughs a lot. She’s almost talking.”

The supermodel then stated, “I think she might walk before she crawls. And she’s got six teeth already.” Amazingly, Campbell even claimed the baby hadn’t been crying or causing a fuss during teething — something some parents may have struggled to believe! Perhaps it made perfect sense, though: a superbaby for her supermodel mum.

Campbell felt that her baby — fittingly for the daughter of a model — had taken to the Vogue cover shoot like a duck to water. Campbell said, “She loves the light. She’s inquisitive. She was looking at everyone — she looks at people right in the eye and for a very long time. She was taking it all in.”

Despite coming to motherhood comparatively late in life, Campbell stated that she was loving everything it brought. “I’m like a kid again,” she said. “I’m reliving nursery rhymes, playing, and discovering how many great new toys there are out there in the world! And dolls! Things I couldn’t even dream of.”

Naturally, given that her mother’s a fashion icon, talk soon turned to the baby’s clothes. Campbell happily revealed, “She has a really nice closet thanks to so many designers and friends who have sent her some lovely things. But wow, kids grow fast, don’t they?” So, there you have it: kids growing out of their clothes so quickly even affects wealthy supermodels!

Overall, Campbell was quick to stress how fortunate she feels to have gotten the chance to be a mom. “I always knew that one day I would be a mother, but it’s the biggest joy I could ever imagine,” she revealed. “I’m lucky to have her and I know that.”

The fashion icon finally understood what so many parents will tell you: everything in your life becomes about your child. Campbell explained, “My daughter comes first. Everything I do, I do for her — that’s it. It’s so completely selfless, isn’t it?” And she’d found motherhood so transformative that she’d even begun encouraging her friends of a similar age to try for their own babies!

One thing Campbell wouldn’t be drawn on, though, was the exact parentage of her little girl. From the moment the model had announced her arrival on Instagram, fans had speculated about the father and about the baby’s name. But Campbell seems determined to keep this information private — at least until she writes her autobiography.

An anonymous insider spoke to U.K. newspaper The Sun to offer some further information about Campbell’s living situation. “Naomi has really mellowed in the past year and is in a wonderful place in life,” the source claimed. “She has been living in America with her boyfriend and is really happy. It finally felt like the perfect time to become a mother and she is over the moon.”

An anonymous insider spoke to U.K. newspaper The Sun to offer some further information about Campbell’s living situation. “Naomi has really mellowed in the past year and is in a wonderful place in life,” the source claimed. “She has been living in America with her boyfriend and is really happy. It finally felt like the perfect time to become a mother and she is over the moon.”

Like a lot of people, the global upheaval experienced in 2020 and 2021 had encouraged Campbell to do some serious thinking. And that thinking led her to a monumental decision. The source stated, “The first lockdown allowed her to stop and take stock of the important things. And she decided now was the time to properly look into starting a family.”

With regards to her current boyfriend — the man she’ll seemingly be raising her child with — it’s very much possible that he isn’t famous. In 2019 Campbell was asked by The Guardian if she was in love and she replied, “Yes.” To the follow-up question — “How does that feel?” — she answered that it was “hectic,” before emphasizing that she likes to keep things fairly private.

All Campbell would say was, “It’s actually not someone that you know, but my heart - my heart is happy. I love a lot of people for different reasons. And the other thing that’s taken me a while to understand in my growing up is that you have to accept and love yourself first, and not be validated by someone else.”

In the end, it seemed like a very happy ending for Campbell, a woman who, by most accounts, had wanted a baby for a long time. In fact, an inside source told the Daily Mail that she was always disappointed that she couldn’t have one with Vladislav Doronin. She dated the Russian tycoon for five years from 2008.

The insider claimed, “[Campbell] was devastated not to have a baby with Doronin, and he was her great love. But he didn’t want to commit, so in a way this is no surprise. She has talked a lot about having children and feeling very maternal, but did say that it just was not going to happen for her.” Thankfully, Campbell was wrong!