Gigi Hadid posts rare snaps of 'greatest love' Khai for her 5th birthday

Gigi Hadid’s daughter Khai, whom she shares with ex Zayn Malik, just turned five!

To celebrate the milestone, the 30-year-old model shared a series of rarely seen photos of her daughter on her Instagram Stories on Friday, September 19. One of the images shows Hadid crouching down in a camo long-sleeve top as Khai, dressed in a denim jacket, fringed brown pants, and pink cowboy boots, stands in front of her.

"My girl is 5 today 🥲," Hadid wrote on the image. "Happy Birthday to my greatest love & gift."

© Gigi Hadid Instagram

In another snapshot, a then-pregnant Hadid is pictured baring her baby bump, wearing low-rise jeans and a white bra during a photo shoot. The side-profile image was captioned, "Khai Loading...."

She also uploaded another shot from the same session where she faces the camera while gently cradling her belly. Over that image, she wrote, "So Lucky to be your mama."

One more photo, taken in 2023, shows Hadid carrying Khai on her hip. In the candid, Gigi wears jeans and a white tee, while Khai sports a yellow top and green pants. The sweet moment was captioned simply with a heart on fire emoji: "❤️‍🔥."

© Gigi Hadid Instagram

Hadid shares Khai with her former partner Zayn Malik. The two ended their nearly six-year relationship in October 2021.

In a March cover interview with Vogue, Hadid opened up about her parenting journey and her bond with Khai. She spoke about rejecting the unrealistic ideals that are sometimes placed on mothers, explaining how her daughter helped her embrace authenticity.

“For a lot of moms there’s this perfect image of what they’re supposed to be and how it needs to go,” Hadid said.

© Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Image

“We grow together. You wake up and do your best and you realize it is enough, and there’s a beauty in not necessarily knowing exactly how that’s going to go," she continued. “I think that’s a huge lesson that I needed. And probably one of the reasons that Khai came to me."

"You can’t always be in control. You can’t always plan. You can look at an experience as the right or wrong time for anything, if that’s your perspective," Hadid added. "Now I just give myself the grace and look at how many things I’ve handled. Step by step, I learned. I got through it.”