“She has wanted to model for quite some time,” the America’s Got Talent judge said on a Zoom call to promote season 16 of the NBC talent competition. “I finally said yes because I thought, ‘Now, she’s old enough. She’s 16.’ She started with a German Vogue cover and she has another cover coming out in two months.” Heidi may have given Leni a boost initially, but now the teenager is doing it on her own. So, 20 years after her mother was featured on the cover of Glamour Germany’s first issue, Leni landed her first solo cover on the same publication. “Thank you to everyone who made my first solo cover so special,” Leni wrote on Instagram. “It’s an honor to share this with my mama @heidiklum who was Glamour Germany’s first-ever cover model.” In addition, earlier this year in January, Leni opened Berlin Fashion Week, styled by Vogue Germany’s Editor-in-Chief Christiane Arp, which is where her mother saw her walk for the first time in heels as a real fashion model. “It is mind-blowing to me to watch her work, especially the first shoot I did together with her, but now she is doing everything by herself, even though I go to the set,” Klum continues. In addition to judging America’s Got Talent, Heidi is also the host of Germany’s Next Top Model, which is one place where Leni got some special schooling on her career path. “She’s been coming to my sets her entire life, so she’s not really afraid of the camera,” Heidi says. “I do Tyra’s show. I do Germany’s Next Top Model, so Leni’s done a lot of the shoots that my models have to do. A lot of times at the end of the shoot, she would be like, ‘It’s my turn.’ We always do it off-camera, obviously, so she’s done so much over the years. She loves it.” Born in May 2004, Leni’s biological father is Italian businessman Flavio Briatore. But Heidi had split with him just prior to Leni’s birth and he wasn’t really part of Leni’s life. Rather, Heidi’s ex-husband Seal is Leni’s father. He adopted her in December 2009. Next, Heidi Klum Opens Up About Her Split from Seal
