Christy Turlington. Brian Ach/Getty Images for Urban Zen
Christy Turlington says she wanted “to disappear” at one of her son’s basketball games when the opposing team passed a nude photo of her around as a way to bully him.
“I was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner,” she recalled in a feature from Harper’s Bazaar, published on Wednesday, April 24. “But at the same time, I was like, ‘This is so rude!’”
The photo in question was from an old shoot of hers. Turlington, 55, called it a heckling tactic used against her son, Finn, now 18, that turned “into a bigger thing” when the school got involved. Though she wanted to disappear in the moment, she added, “I don’t feel embarrassed about anything. Regretting things is a waste of time.”
Turlington shares Finn and daughter Grace, 20, with her husband of almost 21 years, Edward Burns.
From the runway to the playroom, many well-known supermodels have learned to balance their careers with raising little ones at home. Gigi Hadid became a mom in September 2020 when she and then-partner Zayn Malik welcomed their daughter, Khai. (Hadid and Malik dated on and off beginning in 2015 before they split for good in […]
The incident ran counter to her typical inclination to blend in, avoiding unwanted attention.
“Being a person who is quiet and studies people, I think I learned how to not stand out,” she said. “My mom never said, like, ‘Oh, here’s how you’re going to protect yourself.’ I think I just really paid attention, honestly.”
Though she still models, Turlington has embraced motherhood as a full time job — not just with Finn and Grace, but as an advocate for moms everywhere with her nonprofit, Every Mom Counts.
Christy Turlington. Rick Kern/Getty Images for Town & Country
She founded the organization in 2010 and since then has helped over 1.5 million mothers make their pregnancies and births safer.
An unlikely meeting turns to true love! Supermodel Christy Turlington and actor Ed Burns married in 2003 after three years of dating. However, only the Saving Private Ryan star actually remembers their very first meeting. “I was a production assistant at a television show, and we interviewed Christy back when I was just a lowly […]
“I feel lucky to have the option [to model],” she said. “It’s still my livelihood. I don’t take a salary here [at Every Mother Counts] because that doesn’t feel right, but this is my main job.”
It’s important to Turlington that she continues to model, which she has been doing since her teens. But similar to her reaction to the incident at her son’s basketball game, she’s trying not to let others dictate how she’s perceived. At Grace’s suggestion, she turned her Instagram comments off as to avoid anything too “pointed or mean.”
And because of her age, Turlington is well aware that some may want to paint her as an aging model, rather than just a model.
“I don’t want to put myself out as the face of aging beauty,” she said. “I’ll be 60 in five years, and I want to start thinking through what the next five years will be for me personally.”
