Mohamed Hadid

Early life

Mohamed Anwar Hadid is a Palestinian born in Nazareth in 1948, the son of Anwar Hadid (1908/09–1979) and his wife Khairiah. Through his mother he claims descent from Daher Al Omer, Prince of Nazareth and the Sheik of Galilee.

His father, Anwar Hadid studied at a Jerusalem teachers' college and attended a university in Syria to study law, before working in land settlement for the British authorities and teaching English at a teachers' college in Mandatory Palestine. In 1948, he moved to Syria and joined the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America. He and his family lived in Damascus, Tunisia, and Greece before moving to Washington D.C., as Anwar had a job at the VOA headquarters there, when Mohamed was 14, and spent the rest of his career there with VOA and USIA as a writer, editor and translator.

Hadid has two brothers, Mahmud and Majid, and five sisters, Raida Al-Hassan, Maha Matar, Ghada Harnden, Sana Hadid, and Majida Hyatt.

Hadid attended North Carolina State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career

He started his career restoring and reselling classic cars in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., before moving to Greece where he opened a nightclub on an island, and with the profits, started developing real estate back in the United States.

In the 1980s, he bought the Ritz-Carlton hotels in New York and Washington, D.C. for US$150 million. He outmaneuvered Donald Trump and was able to acquire the Aspen, Colorado Ritz property.

He developed Le Belvedere, a mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles, that sold for $50 million in 2010. In 2012. He developed The Crescent Palace, a 48,000-square-foot home on an acre plot next door to the Beverly Hills Hotel, which he listed for sale at $58 million.

Shortly after Hadid received approval for the construction of his megamansion in Bel Air, the Bel Air Homeowners Alliance, chaired by Fred Rosen, was formed to oppose it. In January 2015, Nancy Walton Laurie, an heiress to the Walmart fortune and Bel Air resident, filed a lawsuit through her company, LW Partnership, against Hadid. Laurie accused Hadid of damaging the roots of a eucalyptus tree on her property with a retaining wall he built next to her house.

In December 2015, the Los Angeles city council voted to pursue criminal charges over a claim that he violated local zoning laws. The council alleged he built his house contrary to multiple planning orders and made it twice the permitted size.

Athletic career

Hadid competed in speed skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics, representing Jordan. He was 43 years old at the time. Hadid was encouraged to participate by his friend, Austrian Olympic skier Franz Weber. Hadid was the only member of the Jordanian delegation, and remains the only person to have represented Jordan in the Winter Olympics.

Television appearances

Hadid has appeared on the TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, as the ex-husband of Yolanda Hadid. He has also appeared on Shahs of Sunset.

Personal life

His first wife was Mary Butler, with whom he had two daughters, Alana Hadid and Marielle Hadid. He and Butler ended their marriage in 1992.

From 1994 until their divorce in 2000, he was married to Yolanda Hadid, née van den Herik. They had three children, who all became models: Gigi (born 1995), Bella (born 1996), and Anwar (born c. 1999).

As of 2014, Hadid is engaged to Shiva Safai, a model and businesswoman. She was born in Iran and raised in Norway, and at age 19, moved to Los Angeles with her family.

Hadid is a dual Jordanian-American citizen. He does not consider himself a devout Muslim, but has never drunk alcohol, although he does have a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, including some from his own Beverly Hills winery.