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Heidi Klum is a proud mom. The mother of 4 will have to watch her eldest daughter Leni Olumi Klum leave the nest, but she’s excited about her future. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Heidi gushed over how proud she is of Leni, who graduated highschool, and is moving to New York to attend college. “I am [so proud]. You know, she has her head screwed on right,” Heidi told the outlet.
Leni has been modeling for the last year, but Heidi says her priority is college. “Right now, college is on top of the list. It’s not modeling, and she’s really excited for that next chapter in her life,” she told the outlet.
The 18-year-old will be attending college in Manhattan, which means she will be moving away from home. ‘Unfortunately, she is moving away from home,” Klum continued. “Which is obviously sad but at the same time that she’s got enough to go for it,” she added.
Leni is in a way following in her mother’s footsteps. “I started in New York, so she knows New York inside and out because we shot Project Runway there for so many years,” the Americas Got Talent judge said. “So, she knows it well because I always move my family to New York when we were still filming. So, I think she’s going to have a good time, but my heart will be sad,” she admitted.
Thankfully Heidi will still have her other kids at home to keep her busy. She is also the mother of Henry, 16, Johan, 15, and Lola, 12, whom she shares with ex-husband Seal.
While Seal raised Leni as his own, her biological father is Italian businessman Flavio Briatore. Heidi and Briatore began dating in 2003, and that December, she announced she was pregnant. The couple split, and she began dating Seal while she was still pregnant.
“Leni is my natural daughter, but the three of us happily agreed that it made more sense if Seal adopted her because a child needs to grow up in a family,” Flavio told Italy’s Il Corriere Della Sera in 2016, per MailOnline.
Leni, who was born Helene, used to speak to her dad for 2 hours every day but, “it wasn’t enough.” “We used to speak on the phone 2 hours a day, but it wasn’t enough. She needed to stay with her mum. Then, Heidi started to date Seal, and he raised her,” Briatore added.
The former Renault F1 team manager has a 12-year-old son Nathan with his ex-wife Elisabetta Gregoraci. “‘It’s hard to miss a baby that you never see,” Briatore said. But “Leni is not an abandoned child. Leni is part of Seal’s family, and Nathan is part of mine,” he continued.
Leni and Briatore did reunite in 2018. At the time, TMZ published photos of them embracing at the Cala di Volpe hotel in Porto Cervo. They noted that everyone was happy and having fun, and he joined her along with Heidi and the rest of her children for a meal.
Heidi is now happily married to Tom Kaulitz.