Gigi Hadid has broken her silence over her "disturbing" inclusion in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The model and her younger sister Bella Hadid were mentioned in a December 2015 email exchange between the convicted sex offender and an unknown individual.
The redacted individual asked the disgraced financier about the models' professional success, writing, "How did the Hadid sisters became models and make so much money?! I don't understand... (sic)"
After Epstein replied, "You know," the anonymous person responded, "The father paid the agency," to which the late businessman stated, "No." Later in the exchange, he explained, "Because they follow directions, its that simple (sic)."
The email exchange was among the millions of documents released by America's Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this year relating to its investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019.
Gigi recently broke her silence on the matter on Instagram after a fan declared that they had to unfollow her because she hadn't addressed her appearance in the files.
In a lengthy comment, the 30-year-old declared that the email exchange "made me sick to my stomach".
"Horrible to read someone you've never met speak about you that way. Especially in this context," she continued in the comment, which has since been deleted. "I didn't comment bc I don't want to take away from the stories of real victims of his; but your comment made me realize maybe its not clear - and it's important to let you know (sic)."
Gigi then acknowledged that she "grew up privileged" and that her parents, Dutch model Yolanda Hadid and property developer Mohamed Hadid, helped her get meetings with modelling agencies and sign with IMG Models in 2012, but she's "worked hard every moment since".
She concluded, "To be named in those files, I think I was 20-21 at the time he would have written that email - is disturbing and I want to state unequivocally that I have never had any affiliation with that disgusting human being."
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in prison on sex trafficking charges.
