HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Heidi Klum vividly recalls the first time she met her future husband Seal while standing in the lobby of The Mercer hotel in New York.
"I was not looking for anybody," the 34-year-old Klum shares of the 2003 meeting in the June issue of Marie Claire. "He was just there. He walked in the door, and there he was. He looked good. I was like, 'Wow.' "
At the time, the "Project Runway" host was five months pregnant with her first child from a previous relationship with Italian businessman Flavio Briatore (she was also married to stylist Ric Pipino from 1997-2002). The attraction was instant, she says, and soon the singer was whisking her away for a romantic proposal atop a glacier in the Canadian Rockies.
"He took me by helicopter," Klum recalls of the December 2004 escape. "He had an igloo built there, and they'd brought up everything: a bed with sheets inside the igloo, rose petals everywhere, candles. Very, very romantic!"
"There was food and champagne, and then the helicopter left," she continues. "It was a little scary, too, because you're so cut off from the world. No trees, nothing — it was hard-core. But I was ecstatic. I loved it. It was wonderful."
The couple married on a beach in Mexico the following May. In addition to her now 4-year-old daughter Leni with Briatore, Klum and the 45-year-old Seal have two children together, Henry, 2, and Johan, 17 months.
"I always wanted to be a mom," Klum says. "At Thanksgiving, I have my parents there, I have screaming kids, I have a big fat turkey — 18 pounds — sitting in the middle; legs are being ripped off that thing, you know what I mean? There's life in the house.
"I don't want to be wondering about how skinny I am, wondering what I'm going to eat because I don't want to gain and I want to look hot and young, always and forever."
Of course, staying "hot and young" doesn't seem to be a problem for Klum. In fact, two months after giving birth to Henry, she was strutting on the runway again in the 2005 Victoria's Secret fashion show.
Does she have a secret for shedding those baby pounds?
"I always think, look at how people were before they were pregnant," Klum says. "If you were a toned, healthy, energetic person, most likely you will be like that again.
"A lot of people come to me, and they're like, 'Will I look like you after I have the baby?' And I say, 'Well, how were you before?' You can't kid yourself."
- Comment
