“Germany’s next top model” has been criticized for problematic ideals of beauty for 17 years. Recently, ex-candidates like Lijana Kaggwa have also spoken out. Now that model mom Heidi Klum has responded to the allegations for the first time, she is already announcing an answer.
Heidi Klum started the first episode of the new season “Germany’s next top model” (GNTM) with a surprising statement. After years of criticism of the format, the model took up allegations that the former candidate Lijana Kaggwa made in a sensational YouTube video last year. After Klum’s statement, Kaggwa announced another “disclosure video”.
The 26-year-old left voluntarily in the 2020 GNTM final to take a stand against bullying. The then 23-year-old student was overwhelmed by a wave of hate online. “I’m so shocked that Heidi answered every point of my video from last year in the first episode of ‘Germany’s next top model’,” says Kaggwa in an Instagram story. “But don’t worry, the answer won’t be long in coming.” She also stated that she was already working on her next “disclosure video” and “this is now taking a whole new turn,” she announced in another story.
In her video, Lijana Kaggwa accused the production of creaming the models’ feet to cause a fall. In addition, disputes among the candidates are said to have been provoked and the cut put the models in a different light. Heidi Klum herself also attacked Kaggwa in the video. The model mom should not speak to the girls as soon as the cameras are off. Other former candidates, such as Nathalie Volk, have already made allegations. Last year she spoke on Instagram of scars on her body that she owes to Klum.
Heidi Klum made it clear in the first episode of the new season: “Of course it’s not in my interest for a model to get injured on my show.” There can also be a dress that you trip over. “No shoes are cut.” The catwalk is also not manipulated. It is common for the legs and feet to be creamed at fashion shows. Of course not the sole, emphasized Klum.
In addition, the 49-year-old explained that everything at GNTM is real: “Everything the models do and say is their own decision.” It is a reality show and you will show exactly “what happens”. Because of the cut, you don’t manage “any other people” at the end. The motto diversity is also not a fake. “I come from a time when, if you had a size larger than 34, you were no longer booked,” the model boss looked back seriously. It often happened to her herself: “Fortunately, times are different today. Where ‘diversity’ stops for others, we continue at GNTM”.
If you want to look at Klum’s statement again, you have bad cards. Because both on Joyn and on the ProSieben website, where fans can watch the episode again, the part was left out.