Early life and discovery

Klum was raised by her parents, Günther (a cosmetics company executive) and Erna (a hairdresser). According to Klum, "in 1991, my friend, Karin, persuaded me to fill out a magazine coupon: I enrolled for the national contest 'Model 92', with the chosen winners shown on the Gottschalk Late Night Show, a top German television show with host Thomas Gottschalk, similar to late night shows with David Letterman or Jay Leno in the United States. Out of 25,000 contestants, Klum was voted the winner on April 29, 1992 and was offered a modeling contract worth US$300,000. She accepted the contract a few months later after graduating from school and decided not to try for an apprentice position at a fashion design school.

Acting and Modelling

Klum has been on the cover of most of the well-known fashion magazines, including Vogue Magazine, ELLE and Marie Claire. She became widely known after appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and for her work with Victoria's Secret and gained popularity as part of Thomas Zeumer's Metropolitan Models. In addition to working with world class photographers on her Sports Illustrated shoots, she was the object/subject of Joanne Gair body painting works in several editions from 1999 to 2006. She wrote the foreword to Gair's most recent book of body paint work.

She has been a spokesmodel for McDonald's, Braun, H & M, and Liz Claiborne, among others. She is currently a celebrity spokesmodel for Jordache and for Volkswagen. In addition to modeling, she has appeared in several TV shows, including Spin City, Sex and the City, Yes, Dear, and How I Met Your Mother. She had a role as an ill-tempered hair model in the movie Blow Dry, played a giantess in the movie Ella Enchanted and was cast as Ursula Andress in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. She also had cameo appearances in The Devil Wears Prada and Perfect Stranger.

In July 2007, having earned an estimated $8 million in the previous 12 months, Klum was named by Forbes as third on the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels. In 2008, Forbes estimated her income to be $14 million, which put Klum in second place on the list, surpassing Kate Moss ($7.5 million), but still well behind Gisele Bündchen ($35 million). Klum is signed to IMG Models in New York City.

Project Runway

In December 2004, she became the host, judge and executive producer of the reality show Project Runway on the U.S. cable television channel Bravo, in which fashion designers compete for the opportunity to show their line at New York Fashion Week and receive money to launch their own fashion line. She received an Emmy Awards nomination for the show for each of the first four seasons.[15][16] In 2008, Klum and Project Runway received a Peabody Award, the first time a reality show had won the award.[17] Klum herself was nominated for an Emmy in 2008 for "outstanding host of a reality or reality-competition show" for Project Runway, the first year that category was recognized by the Emmys.

Designing and perfume

Klum has designed her own clothing lines (including one for infants) that were featured in the famous German mail-order catalog "Otto." She also has designed shoes for Birkenstock, jewellery for Mouawad, a clothing line for Jordache, and swimsuits – featured in the 2002 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue – that, for a limited time, were available for sale through her personal website. She was one of the designers of the Victoria's Secret lingerie line "The Body", which was named after the nickname she received following her first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show appearance. Her Mouawad jewelry collection debuted on the cable shopping network QVC on September 14, 2006, and 14 of the 16 styles sold out after only 36 minutes.[A second line of her jewelry collection debuted on QVC on April 14, 2007, with similar success. Klum's clothing line for Jordache launched on April 30, 2008.

She has produced two fragrances, called "Heidi Klum" and "Me", which are currently available for sale through her official website.

She was also involved in the development of a namesake rose, the Heidi Klum rose, which is available in Germany.

Germany's Next Topmodel

Germany's Next Topmodel is a German reality television show which pits contestants against each other in a variety of competitions to determine who will win a modeling contract with IMG. Klum is the host, a judge, and co-producer of the show along with model Tyra Banks. The first season or "cycle" of the show aired in 2006 and was won by Lena Gercke. The second cycle aired in 2007 and was won by Barbara Meier. The winner from the third cycle was Jennifer Hof in the year of 2008. All three seasons aired very successfully on the German TV station Pro7.

Other Endeavors

Klum is also an artist and has had several of her paintings appear in various art magazines in the U.S. On September 27, 2002 she dedicated a sculpture she painted called "Dog with Butterflies" to commemorate the role of rescue dogs in the aftermath of September 11.

In 2004, Klum co-authored Heidi Klum's Body of Knowledge with Elle magazine editor Alexandra Postman. The book gives Klum's biography as well as her advice on becoming successful. Prior to that, Klum had been an occasional guest columnist for the German television network RTL's website. She has also written an essay for the German newspaper Die Zeit.

Her other projects have included music and video games. She is featured in the 2004 James Bond video game Everything or Nothing, where she plays the villain Dr. Katya Nadanova.She has appeared in several music videos, including Jamiroquai's video "Love Foolosophy" from their album A Funk Odyssey, and Kelis's "Young, Fresh n' New," off her second album Wanderland.

In November 2006 Klum released her debut single "Wonderland," which was written for a series of television advertisements for the German retailer "Douglas." Proceeds from the single were given to a children's charity in her hometown of Bergisch Gladbach. She also contributed to her husband Seal's 2007 album System, singing the duet "Wedding Day", a song that Seal wrote for their wedding.

In 2008, Klum was a featured guest on a Volkswagen commercial, where she was interviewed by a black Beetle. When she commented that German engineering is so sexy, she caused the Beetle to blush and turn red.

Personal Life

Klum married stylist Ric Pipino in 1997; the couple divorced in 2002. Following the divorce, she had brief relationships with Red Hot Chilli Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis and Formula-1 mogul Flavio Briatore. In the Autumn of 2003, Klum announced she was pregnant with Briatore's child. On the day she announced the pregnancy, Briatore was photographed kissing Fiona Swarovski, a jewelry heiress. Klum and Briatore split up shortly thereafter. Klum gave birth to Helene "Leni" Klum on May 5, 2004 in New York City, New York.

In early 2004, while still pregnant, Heidi began a relationship with musician Seal.[31]Seal proposed to German supermodel Heidi Klum on December 24th 2004 at 14,000 ft, on a glacier in Whistler, British Columbia.

The model and the singer: Heidi and Seal

On May 10th 2005, the couple married on a beach in Mexico near Seal's home on Mexico's luxurious Costa Careyes.They have two children together, both boys: Henry Günther Ademola Dashtu Samuel, born September 12, 2005 in Los Angeles, California and Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel born November 22, 2006 in Los Angeles. According to Klum, Flavio Briatore is not involved in Leni's life, and she has stated emphatically that "Seal is Leni's father." Seal is her only father figure, and he has praised Briatore for keeping his distance and not disrupting Leni's life.

On hearing her family referred to as a "patchwork family", Klum said, "I’m not white, I’m a shade of brown," and added, "we’re all different shades and we came together and we all love each other... it’s actually kind of nice to have a 'patchwork family'."

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