MOHAMED HADID: BIOGRAPHY AND PROFESSIONAL CAREER - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Mohamed Hadid (1948) is a real estate tycoon of Palestinian origin based in the United States. He is known for the construction of luxury hotels and mansions, generally located in the famous Bel Air neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, as well as in Beverly Hills, also in California.

He has based his empire on the real estate business and his strategy consists of acquiring luxury homes, reforming them and redecorating them to put them back on the market.

He has been married twice and has five children. Two of them are supermodels. It is about the famous Victoria's Secret models, Gigi and Bella Hadid. Today the net worth of this businessman is estimated at about 100 million dollars, which includes several luxury houses and some cars. The real estate developer leads a luxurious life surrounded by the rich and famous of Hollywood. But it was not like this all the time.

His family life

Childhood

Mohamed Anwar Hadid was born on November 6, 1948 in Nazareth, in the State of Palestine, he is the eighth child of the marriage between Anwar and Khairiah Hadid. According to what he said in an interview, his great-great-grandfather was the prince of Nazareth.

But due to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 (the same year in which he was born), his family was forced to leave their land to take refuge in Syria, where they spent several months in a camp.

His father, Anwar Hadid, was a respectable US government official. Before leaving his country, Hadid Sr. attended a teacher's college in Jerusalem and studied law at a university in Syria.

He subsequently worked in a land settlement for the British authorities and also taught English at a teachers' college in Palestine before moving to Syria in 1948.

First jobs

He briefly worked in the English section of the Syrian Broadcasting Authority before joining the Voice of America (VOA), the international radio and television service of the United States government.

Arrival in the United States

Hadid Sr. and his family lived in Damascus, Tunisia and Greece before moving to Washington DC United States. They did so in 1962, when Anwar got a job at the VOA headquarters. Mohamed's father worked as a writer, editor and translator at Voice of America for more than 30 years.

When the family arrived in the United States, it was not easy to adjust. Mohamed was a 14-year-old teenager when he arrived on the mainland, and attending a school with only a couple of immigrants didn't make it any easier for him. He had no friends and he was the only Arab at Washington & Lee High School.

Art

It was for this reason that he took refuge in art and there he found a place where he could be himself. He began painting while still a teenager with portraits in a traditional style. But as he grew older, his lifestyle changed, as did his paintings. Modern abstract art captured his attention, but he never forgot the traditional style.

When he was 20 years old, Mohamed Hadid attended North Carolina State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT. But he left it when he met his first partners.

Little by little the artist expanded his perception of modern abstract art. On one occasion he said that you cannot follow trends, you have to create them. It was for this reason that over time, the artist incorporated other trends into his art style and it was thus that he was able to create unique and beautiful architectural wonders.

Your career as an entrepreneur

Today Mohamed Hadid is the person that billionaires and celebrities trust to build their palaces. But Hadid was not always so recognized. His fame and his money has been earned with great effort and dedication.

He began his career restoring and reselling cars in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC After that he moved to Greece, where he opened a nightclub on an island. That place, called Aquarius, became one of the most exclusive clubs on the European continent.

Oil boom

From that business he jumped to another. Hadid wanted to take advantage of the boom that oil was generating, so she went to Qatar. There he began working with the country's new billionaires, designing and building their luxurious mansions. It was from that moment that he started his real estate business.

With the profits he made, he returned to the United States to create his real estate business. Hadid Design & Development Group, Mohamed's company, got its start in Washington, DC building residential and business real estate developments.

Design for Ritz Carlton

But the businessman really became famous for having designed the luxurious Ritz Carlton Hotels in Washington, New York, Aspen and Houston. After that, Mohamed was hired to develop other incredible mansions, thanks to which he was able to amass a great fortune.

Mohamed became known to the media thanks to his appearance on the television show The Real Housewives in Beverly Hills. It was Lisa Vanderpump's wealthy friend, who was kind enough to allow Lisa's daughter Pandora's engagement party to take place at one of his luxurious Los Angeles mansions.

Yolanda foster

A couple of years later, when Yolanda Foster joined the cast of the famous reality show, it became known that her ex-husband was none other than Mohamed Hadid. And they had also had three children together: Gigi and Bella Hadid, two of the best-known supermodels today, and Amwar Hadid.

Mohamed and Yolanda were married for eight years, between 1995 and 2003. The businessman had already been married once. His first wife was Mary Butler, whom he divorced in 1992 and with whom he had his first two daughters: Alana, who is a stylist and designer, and Marielle, who defines herself as the mother of two children.

Mohamed and Yolanda have reportedly maintained a friendly relationship after their separation. In fact, it was the businessman who introduced her to David Foster, a music producer who became her husband, but from whom she separated in 2011.

According to some court documents, after Mohamed and Yolanda's divorce, Gigi's mother was left with a mansion in Malibu valued at 6 million dollars, another incredible mansion in Santa Barbara, a couple of cars, 3.6 million dollars. dollars in his bank account and a monthly pension of almost 30 thousand dollars in support for his children.

His mansions

Mohamed Hadid not only likes to show off the amazing mansions he has designed for others, but also the ones he has flaunted himself. One of them is located in the luxurious neighborhood of Bel Air, in Los Angeles. It is a property of 4,500 square meters that has that modern style that characterizes its buildings. It has ten bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.

In 2012 he built another mega mansion located at 904 North Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills. It has been dubbed 'Le Palais' and is located right next to the Beverly Hills Hotel. The beautiful property also has all the amenities a millionaire needs and even more. It has seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, glass doors and chandeliers.

It also has limestone columns, as well as Egyptian marble walls. It has a large reception room, a bar, a library, a luxury suite, a private cinema for 50 people, an outdoor swimming pool, a pond with swans, a large number of sculptures and a garage with space for about ten cars.

Mohamed Hadid is currently working on an impressive 3,000 square meter mega mansion on Strada Vecchia in Bel Air. The construction will feature an incredible contemporary design of curved concrete, marble and glass walls, and will offer one of the most incredible views of the Pacific Ocean.

The luxurious property has had quite a bit of trouble with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety and its permits have been revoked several times. But even so, Hadid hasn't stopped construction.

This massive home is said to have a 20-car garage, multiple pools, and the largest IMAX theater ever built in a home. But while the property sounds like the home that any millionaire would want and be willing to buy, it appears that the construction has some drawbacks.

The ground where the mansion is being built is reportedly unstable. And it not only represents a danger for the house itself but also for the other properties that are under them. So after struggling with orders coming and going, Hadid has finally been sued and his company has been charged with three counts of construction complaints.

But the businessman seems not to be concerned about the accusations. He has assured that this is a great misunderstanding. And that what the city and its neighbors believe to be a mega mansion is really two separate houses. Which means that no building code is being violated.

The life full of luxuries and parties of Mohamed Hadid

His business as a developer of hotels and the most luxurious mansions made him one of the most recognized entrepreneurs in the United States.

However, some years ago his last name stopped being a reference to name him, but rather his daughters, specifically Gigi, who in 2014 became one of the revelation faces of the world of modeling and fashion.

His younger siblings, Bella and Anwar, have also followed in his footsteps. So Mohamed is about to become the least famous of his family.

However, this does not affect it at all. In fact, he has confessed on multiple occasions how proud he is of his children. In his social networks he defines himself as the “proud father of five”. And the same love that he professes for them receives it back.

His daughter Bella has defined him as her favorite man in the world, while Gigi has confessed to love him more than he imagines himself.

And at 68 years of age, his life is still far from over, much less stagnant. Despite having had two failed marriages, the businessman has not given up on love. He is currently engaged to Shiva Safai, a businesswoman in the world of cosmetics 30 years his junior.

Despite not having the 26 million followers that Gigi has on Instagram, Mohamed does have just over half a million followers on the social network of photographs. What really makes him a star in her world. It is from this account where the businessman tells the world the details of his life, the luxuries that surround him, as well as the glamor and the parties he usually attends.

Although Hadid is famous for his luxurious buildings and his own mansions, the businessman also likes to spend a lot of time at parties and in exquisite vacation spots. Like his famous daughters, the businessman lives his life surrounded by friends and celebrities. And like every millionaire, he does not skimp on his vacations, which are usually European places such as Paris, Sardinia, Saint Tropez or Bora Bora, among many others.

There is no doubt that everything around Mohamed Hadid glitters for its money. But that doesn't mean that you haven't worked hard to achieve everything you have. In fact, in his early 70s he is still working and apparently does not plan to retire just yet. The patriarch of supermodels Hadid, has earned his success by dint of sweat. And he assures that his daughters too.