Gigi and Bella Hadid’s secret half-sister admits she still feels like the ‘odd one out’

Aydan Nix is opening up about her relationship with supermodel sisters Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid, revealing how the trio formed a close bond after meeting for the first time.

In a deeply personal essay for The Cut, Nix described Gigi and Bella as ‘warm and generous,’ writing that they welcomed her into their lives after discovering in 2023 that they were half-siblings.

‘My sisters (along with the rest of the family) have been nothing but warm and generous,’ Nix wrote. ‘They have made space for me in ways they didn’t have to.’

Nix, 23, was born following a brief relationship more than two decades ago between her mother, Terri Hatfield Dull, and real estate developer Mohamed Hadid. 

Hadid is also father to Gigi, 30, Bella, 29, and Anwar, 26, with ex-wife Yolanda Hadid, as well as daughters Marielle, 45, and Alana, 40, from his first marriage.

Despite not growing up together, Nix said the connection with her famous sisters felt immediate once they were in touch. 

She recalled that Anwar called her his ‘baby sister’ during their very first phone call, while Bella quickly began referring to her as her ‘twin.’

‘My mom couldn’t even tell our voices apart when we first spoke to her on the phone,’ Nix wrote.

Gigi, she added, played a hands-on role in welcoming her into the family – from introducing her to Palestinian food and culture to supporting her early steps in fashion after she graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York.

‘Gigi took me for my first Palestinian meal and taught me the names of different dishes,’ Nix shared, while also crediting her siblings with helping her connect to a heritage she hadn’t known she had.

While grateful for the bond she’s building with Gigi and Bella, Nix admitted that joining the Hadid family as an adult has come with its own quiet heartbreak. 

In the essay, she described feeling ‘like the odd one out’ when confronted with memories she’ll never be part of.

‘No sleepovers, no shared holidays, no borrowing clothes, no inside jokes, no stories woven together,’ she wrote. ‘They had a lifetime of memories, and I felt like the odd one out.’

She described placing pressure on herself to make up for lost time – laughing at family jokes, sifting through Bella’s closet, and trying to find her place in a family she never knew she had.

When news of her connection to the Hadids became public in May 2025, Nix said the internet quickly framed her story as a fairy tale, with many likening it to The Princess Diaries, as if discovering her biological family instantly transformed her life into something glamorous. 

Instead, Nix stressed that her day-to-day reality barely changed.

She said she still lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in New York’s East Village, works freelance as a wardrobe assistant, holds a part-time job at a vintage clothing store, and takes the bus or subway to work.

‘I posted a TikTok while I was taking the bus to work, and people commented, “You’re a Hadid — why are you taking the bus?”‘ she wrote, underscoring how little her everyday life shifted despite worldwide attention.

Nix said the sudden scrutiny took an emotional toll, with strangers dissecting her appearance, questioning her motives and speculating about her relationship with Gigi and Bella.

Overnight, she said, people debated whether she was ‘clout chasing,’ an ‘industry plant,’ or benefiting unfairly from her sisters’ fame.

‘The worst part was how quickly everything I had worked for evaporated in people’s minds,’ she admitted. ‘I worried that everything I’d ever say or do would now be perceived as a desperate attempt to climb the social ladder. I applied to Parsons at the age of 17 and dreamed of being in fashion since I was old enough to talk.’

Despite mourning the childhood she’ll never share with Gigi and Bella, Nix made clear that the relationships she’s building now matter deeply – and that the space her sisters have created for her has helped redefine what family means.