Heidi Klum’s daughter Leni, who followed in her mother’s footsteps to become a model, has responded to being labeled a ‘nepo baby.’

‘It’s just a fact. My parents are famous,’ said the 18-year-old, who was adopted by her mother’s ex-husband Seal during the marriage.

However Leni insisted to People magazine that she is ‘doing the work and putting in the time’ to carve out a career for herself.

‘I did get help starting off, and I know that people would dream to start off with what I had,’ said Leni, who walked for Dolce & Gabbana at Milan Fashion Week in July with her mother proudly filming her from the audience.

‘I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to take what was gifted to me by my mom. But I am doing the work and putting in the time,’ she maintained.

‘Now I’m working on my own, traveling alone, going to school. My mom and I just have the same love for the same thing.’

Leni is one of a massive glut of rising new starlets with famous parents, from Johnny Depp’s daughter Lily-Rose Depp to Andie MacDowell’s daughter Margaret Qualley.

Maya Hawke, whose parents are Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, and Kaia Gerber, whose mother is Cindy Crawford, have shot to fame in recent years as well.

Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon, Judd Apatow’s daughter Maude Apatow and Elvis Presley’s daughter Riley Keough are also coming up, among others. 

Leni made her modeling debut at the age of 16 with her mother on the cover of Vogue Germany – a publication out of Heidi’s native country.

In her new interview Leni reflected: ‘That’s like insane that I did that as my first job and my mom was with me, which made it so much fun. It was just such a good day. I wasn’t nervous at all. I was just so excited. I was like: “I’m finally modeling and it’s Vogue.” It was just so many things to be excited about.’

However she first got the fashion bug years earlier at the age of 12 when Brandy Melville asked her to model for them. 

”I was freaking out because Brandy Melville was my favorite at the time. It was the only place I went shopping. I said: “Mom, Mom, guess what? Brandy Melville wants me to model. Please, please.” And she was like, “Absolutely not.”‘

Leni confessed: ‘I was really sad about it, but in the end she was right. And I feel like that’s what sparked me to want to model more.’

Heidi and Seal were married from 2005 until 2014 and they welcomed three children together biologically – Henry, 17, Johan, 15, and Lou, 13.

Meanwhile Leni resulted from Heidi’s previous relationship with Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, but in 2009 Seal legally adopted her as well. 

‘Leni is my natural daughter, but the three of us calmly agreed that it made the most sense that he adopt her, because a child needs to grow up in a family,’ Flavio told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera in 2016.

Flavio, 72, who eventually married a drastically younger Wonderbra model and had a son called Nathan with her, added: ‘Leni is Seal’s family, Nathan mine.’

At the moment Heidi is married to her fellow German Tom Kaulitz, who rose to fame as the guitarist for the band Tokio Hotel. 

Seal hit the headlines last year when he spoke candidly in public about the difficulties of co-parenting his children with Heidi.

‘It can be challenging. It requires teamwork. If you are a team, if both parents are a team, then it’s really easy and that’s not a real challenge at all… But you have to be a team. And if you’re not a team, then it can all fall to pieces,’ he told Us Weekly. 

Seal then explosively claimed that he and Heidi ‘never had that teamwork’ with one another when it came to bringing up their children.

Their differences hit the headlines in 2020 when she wanted to take the children to her native country so she could film Germany’s Next Top Model there.

Seal objected on the grounds that the children might be exposed to coronavirus, but  an emergency court hearing was held and Heidi prevailed.

Although she was permitted to take them to Germany he was given ‘expanded time’ with them before and after the trip. 

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