Christy Turlington Admits She Doesn't 'Love' That Daughter Grace Is a Model

Christy Turlington revealed that she didn’t enjoy that her daughter, Grace, chose to follow in her modeling footsteps.

“It’s hard for me, and I think about this a lot ‘cause I don’t love that she’s doing it,” Turlington, 55, confessed on the Wednesday, May 8, episode of the “She Pivots” podcast. “But I’m like, ‘Why don’t I love it? Why don’t I love it?’ Early on, I would never have encouraged it because I don’t think that young people need to be out there in the world, selling clothes and products to grown people. I just don’t.”

Turlington noted that beginning her own modeling career at age 14 helped give her “direction,” something she said Grace, 20, “doesn’t need” at this point in her life. “But I get that she wants it and I get that she’s also interested in being more independent,” Turlington added. “She’s a student first, which I’m happy about, like, I got that through when she told me [she wanted to model] like, I don’t know, maybe four years ago.”

Turlington shares Grace and her 18-year-old son, Finn, with her husband, Ed Burns. According to the supermodel, Grace “hated” having her photo taken as a child, but her opinions on the modeling industry changed as she entered her teen years.

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“I was like, ‘OK, OK, OK. But [it has to be] when you are 18 and when you are already in college,’” Turlington said of her modeling guidelines for Grace. “And, a third one, it has to do with my agent, because I don’t trust anybody. I don’t trust them, any of them. And there are plenty of great people in the industry and people that I can be friendly with and I can appreciate them, but I wouldn’t trust my daughter with them.”

With those rules in place, Turlington said Grace has been “dabbling” in modeling while also studying at her alma mater, New York University. “I think I’ve set her on a path, and I think she understands why I was a little bit reluctant,” Turlington stated. “It’s protection and it’s love.”

Grace has graced several magazine covers, walked on runways and appeared in a handful of campaigns since beginning her modeling journey. She credited her famous parents for helping shape her career and personal life in a November 2023 interview with V Magazine, stating, “I am who I am because of them, in every way: the way I look, the way I think, how I dress, my politics. I would never try and reject that.”

She made headlines in September 2023 after making her Milan Fashion Week debut during the Alberta Ferretti spring/summer 2024 show.

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“@albertaferretti thank you thank you thank you for having me in your show … in a castleeeeee!!!!!” she captioned a clip of her runway walk via Instagram at the time. “So so so honored to be a part of this beautiful collection

.”

Outside of modeling, Grace also released a book of original poems and photographs, titled Derived From Us, in March.