Major Scandals Involving Supermodels That Are Seriously Sketchy

This feature discusses substance misuse, sexual abuse, racism, ableism, and animal cruelty.

In recent years, the fashion world has been accused of being a hotbed of sexual abuse and seediness, with many industry players coming forward to bravely speak their truth. Although the industry has been embroiled in myriad scandals, it's not always unscrupulous designers, sleazy photographers, and shady businessmen who are responsible for said impropriety. Indeed, many supermodels have also been at the heart of these causes célèbres.

Throughout the decades, there have been innumerable supermodels, from the iconic likes of Naomi Campbell to the more recent incarnation of influencer models like Kendall Jenner and the Hadid sisters. From an early age, supermodels are trained and poised to become so-called clothes horses to display the garments of high-end designers. As such, they are often perceived as unattainable idols, otherworldly figures from an industry that attracts — and indeed, cultivates — fantasy images. They wine and dine with the world's elites, often hooking up with A-list celebs and becoming tabloid fodder in the process. The exposure of supermodels to the public eye will, therefore, inevitably lead to an eye-popping scandal or two. In many instances, models' lifestyles, as glamorous as they may appear on the surface, can ultimately be destructive and prove self-sabotaging. 

With power comes great sketchiness, and it's often the case that the rich and privileged use that power for their own gain. We revere the luxurious fabrics these models promote, but beneath that fabric can be a human being who is just as fundamentally flawed as anyone else — as these seriously sketchy scandals involving supermodels have often proved.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Despite once being hailed as a trailblazer for disabled models, the name "Heather Mills" is now synonymous with her disastrous and scandalous divorce from Paul McCartney. After four years of marriage, the power couple called it quits in 2006. Although reps initially claimed that the split was amiable, theirs would become one of the ugliest celebrity divorces in history.

In the lead-up to divorce proceedings, Mills made a number of contentious remarks. She threatened to release a tape supposedly showing her ex mocking her disability, and she famously quipped that divorcing McCartney was worse than losing her leg. Meanwhile, Macca's team claimed that Mills mistreated him. "In the end, he got sick and tired of her trying to control him," a friend alleged, per The Independent.

Mills initially asked for $250 million of the musician's fortune, which the presiding judge, Hugh Bennett, dismissed as exorbitant, instead awarding the model a princely $48.6 million in 2008, per 19 News. He also disregarded Mills' claims that she was entitled to McCartney's Beatles-era earnings, arguing that her evidence was inconsistent. "But to suggest that in some way she was his 'business partner' is, I am sorry to have to say, make-belief," Bennett said, per Reuters. "I wholly reject her account that she rekindled the husband's professional fame (after his first wife's death) and gave him back his confidence." Following the highly publicized divorce, she was hailed as one of Britain's most hated women, something that critics deemed emblematic of misogyny.

Although she now enjoys a relatively low-key profile as an iconic modeling vet, Kate Moss was once the bonafide bad girl of the catwalk. The supermodel cooked up a storm in 2005 when she was caught using cocaine by undercover reporters for The Daily Mirror. Subsequently, she was dropped from numerous lucrative sponsorships. "I take full responsibility for my actions," Moss said, per The Guardian. "I also accept that there are various personal issues that I need to address and have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve them." She went to rehab in the aftermath of the scandal.

At the time, Moss was in a highly publicized relationship with Pete Doherty of indie darlings The Libertines, and the pair were likened to a Y2K Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen by Vanity Fair. The couple was hounded by the press, with paparazzi frequently following them around London as they looked disheveled, supposedly after some hard partying. In his memoir, "A Likely Lad," Doherty admitted that he and Moss had an unhealthy relationship. "It became a running battle, really, that relationship," he wrote. "It was always the same, for all those years: highs and then crushing, violent lows."

In 2022, the supermodel addressed the scandal during an appearance on the radio show "Desert Island Discs" (via The Guardian). "I felt sick and was quite angry," she reflected. "Because everybody I knew took drugs. So for them to focus on me, and to try to take my daughter away, I thought was really hypocritical."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Considering all the outrageous fashion faux pas that have graced the red carpet throughout the years, it's hard to fathom that a mini dress was once enough to generate a major scandal. But the 1960s was a very different era indeed.

Back in 1965, Jean Shrimpton, who has been celebrated as the world's first supermodel, rocked the fashion world when she attended the Melbourne Cup Carnival wearing a white dress that — gasp — exposed her knees. Even more controversial was the fact that the British beauty didn't cover her legs with tights or stockings. "There she was, the world's highest-paid model, snubbing the iron-clad conventions at fashionable Flemington in a dress five inches above the knee — NO hat, NO gloves, and NO stockings!" blasted an Aussie newspaper at the time, per CNN. Sure, the dress was actually rather long by today's standards, but at the time it was scandalous due to the conservative sensibilities of the era.

In a prudish society, it was unheard of for women to expose their legs above the knee, not least at a prestigious sporting event. "The furor in Melbourne caused controversy as much for the length of her hemline as for her general disregard for stuffy protocol," Mary McGowne, of the Scottish Style Awards, told The Scotsman. "... She dared to be different and her look epitomized the spirit of the liberal revolution." Subsequently, the model is credited with revolutionizing fashion and effectively launching the minidress.

Despite the MeToo movement being a condemnation of pervasive sexual misconduct in the workplace, not everyone was keen to embrace it — women included. In France, a number of prominent female celebs, including veteran actor Catherine Deneuve, wrote an open letter condemning the movement. Such sentiments were echoed by supermodels Carla Bruni and Laetitia Casta.

In the former case, the erstwhile French First Lady claimed that sexual abuse is unheard of in the fashion industry. In an interview with InStyle (via Yahoo!) in 2017, she was asked for her thoughts on Harvey Weinstein and the MeToo movement and had a rather odd hot take. "That doesn't happen in fashion," she claimed. "I never had a photographer or designer do that, never ever. Most agents are protecting girls because they have to work." She was swiftly criticized for the remarks, with detractors arguing that the pervasive sexual abuse within the fashion world is an open secret.

Similarly, Casta critiqued BalanceTonPorc, the French version of MeToo, in a 2018 interview with Corse-Matin, bizarrely stating that she's a woman, not a feminist. "It is not in aggressiveness that we will make things move forward, it is not in hatred of man," she declared, as translated by Google. She was called out for the remarks, with some highlighting her hypocrisy for once posing with a t-shirt emblazoned with the words "We should all be feminists." Subsequently, outlets like Les Inrockuptibles speculated that she sported the slogan tee not out of conviction, but self-promotion.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

The fashion industry has a shameful history of racism. For instance, per Time, the late Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld was repeatedly accused of making racist statements — a fact that prompted backlash for the 2023 Met Gala which used him as its theme. Back in 2009, French Vogue inexplicably thought it a good idea to put Dutch model Lara Stone in blackface for a photo spread. The shoot was styled by Carine Roitfeld and shot by Steven Klein and showed Stone with her naturally pale skin in one shot and in full blackface in another. Understandably, the photos caused a major furor.

The Cut argued that Vogue attempted to circumvent its lack of diversity by casting the supposedly curvaceous Stone (she was a size 4 at the time), as opposed to actually hiring models of color. "No black or Asian models made the cut. But they hired Lara — and her curves — in the spirit of inclusiveness, right?" As Essence noted, the issue's theme was supposedly a celebration of supermodels, yet there was no mention whatsoever of Black supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Chanel Iman. Meanwhile, Jezebel argued that the photos were a pernicious continuation of traditional blackface — "Painting white people black for the entertainment of other white people."

Unfortunately, despite the backlash, Vogue didn't learn its lesson. Almost a decade later, Gigi Hadid appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia in apparent blackface. However, unlike Stone, Hadid did apologize for the offensive shoot and claimed that her skin had been darkened with photo-editing software.

Natalia Vodianova found fame in the mid-2000s, quickly becoming a multimillionaire supermodel after scoring sponsorship deals with Calvin Klein and L'Oréal. But the Russian model has caused controversy throughout the years due to her apparent support for Vladimir Putin. In a 2014 interview with Vogue, she praised him for hosting the Paralympics and remained dismissive of Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula. "I must say I had great admiration for Putin because he was present at the opening and closing ceremonies," she said. "I hoped that [his] actions [in Crimea] wouldn't steal the moment of this important event."

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she expressed her sympathies for all those involved, stopping short of condemning the Russian government. "As a mother, my heart goes out to all mothers who are suffering the consequences of recent events in Ukraine and everyone affected by this conflict," she wrote on Instagram. Critics called her out for failing to criticize the government and refusing to take sides. Moreover, she omitted the words "war" and "invasion" from her post, which was perceived as silent support for Putin. She has not commented on the conflict since.

Although she was condemned for her silence, others argued that her actions should not be interpreted as support for the war. Indeed, as we have seen with myriad critics of Putin, it can be fundamentally unsafe for Russians to denounce the president, as doing so can lead to imprisonment, per the Mirror.

There have been many model feuds throughout the years, but most of these quarrels involved throwing shade as opposed to actual punches. But in 2012, supermodel Selita Ebanks was accused of inflicting violence upon Telemundo model Liza Irizarry after a fight broke out at a Miami nightclub. 

Irizarry claimed that the model broke her nose after she greeted Ebanks' boyfriend, Terrence J., with a peck on the cheek. "When she saw me, she said, 'Don't be kissing my man,'" Irizarry told Daily News. "I said to myself, 'So what, that's my friend.' That's when she hit me on the nose. I went to swing back — that's when all her friends jumped in." She claimed that Ebanks and her pals began throwing punches and pulling her hair. Thereafter, she alleged, she was hospitalized and required surgery.  Irizarry's attorney claimed that Ebanks utilized her supermodel status as a means of supposedly getting away with the alleged assault.

The YBF published photos of Irizarry's apparent injuries, showing bruises on her arms and minor signs of damage to her nose. Accordingly, she launched a lawsuit against the model. Ebanks' lawyers and management team said that the accusations were fictitious. "Selita Ebanks was not involved in a physical altercation in Miami. This story is false," her management told the YBF. Moreover, the nightclub at which the incident is supposed to have occurred stated that they were unaware of any such altercation taking place. The outcome of the lawsuit remains unknown.