Gisele Bündchen Says She Has No Plans to Return to the Runway

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Elle Person adjusting their hair

Gisele Bündchenis having the rare Zoom meeting where her daughter Vivian doesn't make an unexpected cameo appearance. Usually, the supermodel laughs, "She's like, 'What am I going to have for dinner?' I'm like, 'Is this really what you need to ask?' Kids!" In case it wasn't obvious, the legend is in full Mom mode, especially with a one-year-old at home. Digital interruptions aside, she says, "Kids are just the best. I feel how blessed I am that I get to be a mom. I think I was born for that. It is just joy for me, their smiles; everything makes my day. It's very simple to make me happy; they just have to smile at me and I'm like, 'Oh, okay. It's perfect.'"

Today, Gisele is here to speak about her new campaign for the Chanel J12 watch, which was shot in the South of France and inspired by her love of the ocean—the images show her sailing and immersing herself in the waves. Here, the model talks environmental advocacy, her favorite Chanel memories, and whether we'll ever see her back on the catwalk.

When Iprofiled you in 2019, we talked about your environmental advocacy. I know you lived with an Indigenous tribe in the Amazon for a period of time.

[I lived] with the Kisêdjê, which is the tribe in the Xingu River in the area of the Amazon. I've always been deeply connected to nature because I grew up in a small village in the south of Brazil, picking up fruit from the trees and barefoot. But it wasn't until that trip that I was able to see the impact of what humans were doing with mining and pesticides, everything that was happening with the clear-cutting of the forest, how that was impacting the Indigenous people. I was always very connected to nature. But for them it was on a whole different level. Spending those 10 days there shifted my entire perspective.

Close-up of a person's arm with a watch.

That's when your environmental awakening really began.

I started theLuz Foundationin 2007. It was my way of saying, "I'm going to designate a percentage of what I make to different causes that I believe in." Because initially, I was just donating money to a bunch of stuff. And then my accountant said, "Gisele, you have to have a foundation!" Initially, I was just focused on environmental causes, and once I became a mom, I was like, "I need to help women and children."

I also became a board member ofLotus House, which is an amazing organization here in Miami. It is the largest women's shelter in America—they've taken over 15,000 women and children off the streets and gotten them back on their feet. And now they've opened a children's village.

You also recently joined theEarthshot Prizeas a council member.

I feel so blessed that I get the opportunity to be involved in this type of project. I don't even turn on the TV anymore because it's only gloom and doom, it's bad news, it's terrible. You feel so powerless with all the crazy things happening in the world. It's so wonderful to be a part of this council, because to be in this space with all these people who are coming up with solutions and putting all their energy into creating positive change in the world, it gives me a lot of hope.

Sail of a boat with a silhouette of a person against the fabric.

You have a longstanding relationship with Chanel, going back to the Karl Lagerfeld era. What are some of your favorite memories over the years, given that you have such a history with the house?

[In 2014], I wasn't even really doing shows anymore. And he called and was like, "Gisele, I'm going to do this show, it's about women's empowerment. I'm going to give you a megaphone, and you're going to be a surprise in the middle of the show." And I'm like, "Okay."

I was actually at that show! I think it was my first Chanel show ever.

Another memory that was so fun for me: We were shooting a Chanel campaign in the middle of Paris, and I was barefoot. Imagine the streets of Paris—and I was barefoot!

What was it like shooting this new campaign?

Being in nature is the biggest blessing for me, because nature is my temple. It's where I reconnect with myself. So it didn't even feel like work. I was just meditating all day, relaxing, and being with the elements. It was awesome.

Luxury watch with a sleek design, featuring water droplets.

It feels like it very much suits your personality.

This woman [in the campaign] in the ocean, she's on her own sailing, and there's such peace. It is nourishment for the soul. It's [about] the importance of taking a pause and going inward and having this moment for yourself, this reflection.

When I was a kid, I used to write in my diary every day. It was a way of checking in with myself to reflect on what I did in my day. It was almost a gauge of where I was with myself. So I love, love, love that Chanel took this on and made it into a moment of reflection, a moment for the self. In sailing, you need to be paying attention because the winds can change. There is strength and power, but reflection and softness at the same time.

The watches that you're wearing from this collection have a sporty inspiration as well.

I got one and I was like, "Can I start wearing it already or is it going to be before it's out? Maybe I should wait until it comes out!"

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Traditionally, we think of the "watch guy," but there's been such asurge in female watch collectorslately. There are watches that cater more towards women in that they're jewelry-inspired or a bit smaller and more delicate. But you also have the oversized, sporty styles that women are really drawn to. There are just a lot more options now.

It's so funny you say that because I consider myself very sporty. I exercise pretty much every day; it's like brushing my teeth. I'm always finding ways to move my body, whether I'm taking a bike out or going paddleboarding in the ocean. I'm 45, so I'm starting to do weights. So I like a more sporty, bigger watch. I wear them all day and also at night, going out. Because I think when you wear the watch, you can even be a bit more dressed up, and that still looks chic. I don't think you need to necessarily change the watch.

But I think it's fun to change too. You don't have to have just one watch. I think it's nice to have different pieces. Why can only men have that? Excuse me!

Close-up of a watch with water droplets.

You wrote about your wellness journey in your bookLessons. You had reached a point with the cigarettes and the late nights and all of those things that come with fashion week. How did that journey come about?

When you're in your 20s, you feel invincible, at least I did. And I started working at 14. By the time I got to my 20s, I was so conditioned because we are habitual beings. Once we get into the habit of doing certain things, we just continue them. But the things you do in your teens or in your 20s catch up to you. At that point, I was working every three days in a different country, just go, go, go. My nervous system freaked out.

Everyone was smoking and drinking and not sleeping because it was the way the fashion life was. I was getting signs: a little push, your body tells you. But sometimes you don't want to listen and you're like,okay, I'm just going to keep doing what I've always done. Until you get a punch. And then your body is not talking with you, it's screaming at you. And you're like, "Okay, I have to listen."

I would be having a mocha Frappuccino in the morning with cigarettes. Now I'm like, "What was I thinking?" I replaced those habits. I started doing breathwork every morning, yoga, I started running, I went on a diet; there was no sugar, only proteins and vegetables. To reset myself. And then everything changed. I became aware of my body in a way that I was never before because I had been on a hamster wheel, just going.

The last time you were on a catwalk was at the Olympics Opening Ceremony in Rio in 2016. Do you have any plans to return to the runway?

Every year I get this call. But I have no plans. The Olympics were such a moment; it was like a spiritual experience for me, having that runway where I was on my own. It was pretty powerful. I don't feel like I'm ever going to have a feeling like that again. I felt like,this is a great way to close this chapter. I will never say never, but I feel so fulfilled.

And the Olympics are a pretty good way to cap things off.

It was beautiful. I felt very honored to be able to do that for my country and be there at that moment. And I don't think anything is going to match that.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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J12 Caliber 12.1 38 mm watch

8350.00 at chanel.com

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Sudan's war puts charity kitchen workers feeding displaced families at risk

CAIRO (AP) — Enas Arbab fled Sudan's western region of Darfur afterher hometown fell to Sudanese paramilitary forces, taking only her year-old son with her and the memory of her father, who was killed, she said, simply for working at a charity kitchen serving people displaced by the fighting.

Associated Press Farouk Abkar, a 60-year-old former charity kitchen worker who spent a year distributing grain and organizing lines at a charity kitchen in Zam Zam refugee camp in Sudan, peers from his home window in 6 October city, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khaled el Fiqi) Farouk Abkar, a 60-year-old former charity kitchen worker who spent a year distributing grain and organizing lines at a charity kitchen in Zam Zam refugee camp in Sudan, and his daughter Halima sit at their home in 6 October city, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khaled el Fiqi) Mustafa Khater, a 28-year-old charity kitchen worker who fled with his pregnant wife a few days before el-Fasher fell to the RSF, sits at his his home in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Khaled el Fiqi) Mustafa Khater, a 28-year-old charity kitchen worker who fled with his pregnant wife a few days before el-Fasher fell to the RSF, walks at his neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Khaled el Fiqi) A woman carries food as she leaves a charity kitchen in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

Sudan Charity Kitchens

The Rapid Support Forces — or RSF, a paramilitary group that has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023 — had laid siege onel-Fasher in the western Darfur region, starving people out before it overran the city.

U.N. officials say several thousand civilians were killed in the RSF takeover of el-Fasher last October. Only40% of the city's 260,000 residentsmanaged to flee the onslaught, thousands of whom were wounded, the officials said. The fate of the rest remains unknown.

During the fighting, Arbab says RSF fighters took her father, Mohamed ِArbab, from their home after beating him in front of the family, and demanded a ransom. When the family couldn't pay, they told them they had killed him, she says. To this day, the family doesn't know where his body is.

When her husband disappeared a month later, Enas Arbab decided to flee north, to Egypt. "We couldn't stay in el-Fasher," she said. "It was no longer safe and there was no food or water."

Her father was one of more than 100 charity kitchen workers who have been killed since the war began, according to workers who spoke with The Associated Press and the Aid Workers Security database, a group that tracks major incidents around the world impacting aid workers.

In areas of intense fighting — especially in Darfur — famine is spreading and food and basic supplies are scarce. The community-led public kitchens have become a lifeline but many working there have been abducted, robbed, arrested, beaten or killed.

Grim numbers in a brutal war

Volunteer Salah Semsaya with the Emergency Response Rooms — a group that emerged as a local initiative and now operates in 13 provinces across Sudan, with 26,000 volunteers — acknowledges the dangers faced by workers in charity kitchens.

The real number of workers killed is likely far higher than the estimated 100, he says, but the war has prevented reliable data collection and record-keeping.

Semsaya shared records showing that 57% of the documented killings of charity kitchen workers occurred in Khartoum, mainly whilethe Sudanese capital was under RSF control, before the army retook it last March. At least 21% of the killings were in Darfur.

More than 50 of those killed in Khartoum worked with his group, Semsaya said.

Sudan's warerupted after tensions between the army and the RSF escalated into fighting that began in Khartoum and spread nationwide, killing thousands and triggering mass displacement, disease outbreaks and severe food insecurity. Aid workers were frequently targeted.

Dan Teng'o, communications chief at the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs, says it's unclear whether charity kitchen workers are targeted because of their work or because of their perceived affiliation with one side or other in the war.

The kitchen workers are prominent in their communities because of the work they do, making them obvious targets, activists say. Ransom demands typically range from $2,000 to $5,000, often rising once families make initial payments.

"A clear deterioration in the security context ... has significantly affected local communities, including volunteers supporting community kitchens," Teng'o said.

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Kitchen workers face risks

Farouk Abkar, a 60-year-old from el-Fasher, spent a year handing out sacks of grain at a charity kitchen in Zamzam camp, just 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of the city. He survived drone strikes and remembers the day RSF fighters attacked his kitchen. One of them punched him in the face, knocking some of his teeth out.

Abkar said he fled el-Fasher at night with his daughter, walking for 10 days. Along the way, some RSF fighters fired birdshot, which hit him in the head, leaving a chronic headache.

Now in Egypt, he shares an apartment with at least 10 other Sudanese refugees and can't afford medical care. The harrowing images from his hometown still haunt him.

"Many things happened in el-Fasher," he said. "There was death. There was starvation."

Mustafa Khater, a 28-year-old charity kitchen worker, fled with his pregnant wife to Egypt a few days before el-Fasher fell to the RSF.

During the 18-month siege, some el-Fasher residents collaborated with the RSF, telling the paramilitary fighters who the kitchen workers were, Khater said. Many disappeared.

"They would take you to an area where there is a dry riverbed and kill you there," Khater said.

A volunteer working with Semsaya's aid group in Darfur said some of his colleagues were beaten, arrested and interrogated, with their attackers accusing them of receiving "illicit funds" for the kitchen. The volunteer spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Despite the challenges, many charity kitchens remain the only reliable food source in areas gripped by conflict and a place people can come to and give each other support, Semsaya said.

Struggling to feed thousands

The town of Khazan Jedid in East Darfur province has three charity kitchens feeding about 5,000 people daily, said Haroun Abdelrahman, a spokesperson for the Emergency Response Rooms' branch in the area.

Abdelrahman says he was once interrogated by RSF fighters, while several of his colleagues have been robbed at knifepoint. Despite the fear and harassment, many kitchen workers are still volunteering and working, he said.

In Kassala in eastern Sudan, military agents questioned a volunteer with the branch there and his colleagues in January 2024, he said, after their kitchen started serving food and providing shelter to people who escaped nearby Wad Madani when RSF seized that town. He also spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals.

Khater, the 28-year-old who fled el-Fasher, said he heard from friends back home that after the RSF takeover, all charity kitchens in the city closed and his colleagues were either "killed or fled."

Teng'o says the closures in areas of fighting have left "vulnerable households with no viable alternatives" and forced people to shop at local "markets where food prices are unaffordable."

Arbab, the pregnant 19-year-old who fled with her baby boy, had hoped to rebuild her life in Egypt, her friends and a humanitarian worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk about the young mother.

But while on the road to the northern city of Alexandria last month, she and her son were stopped by Egyptian authorities and deported back to Sudan.

Sudan's war puts charity kitchen workers feeding displaced families at risk

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Federal agents release Columbia student after university says they used false pretenses to enter building and detain her

Ellie Aghayeva – a Columbia University student who was detained early Thursday after the university said federal immigration agents allegedly used false pretenses to enter a campus residential building – has been released, she confirmed on her Instagram account.

CNN Students are seen on the campus of Columbia University on April 14, 2025, in New York City. - Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

At approximately 6:30 a.m., agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia residential building in New York City and took a student into custody, Columbia University's Acting President Claire Shipman saidin a letter.

University officials say agents misrepresented their purpose in order to access the building.

"Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a 'missing person,'" Shipman wrote. "We are working to gather more details."

The student has been identified as Aghayeva, an international student and senior double majoring in neuroscience and political science, according to the American Association of University Professors, which confirmed her identity to CNN. AAUP learned of Aghayeva's identity when her fellow students alerted the Columbia University AAUP chapter.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to CNN that ICE arrested Aghayeva, but did not respond to allegations that agents misrepresented themselves to gain access to the building.

ICE arrested Aghayeva, who is from Azerbaijan, "whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes," the statement read.

"The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS."

Aghayevashared a story on Instagramshowing a photo of just her legs with the caption: "DHS illegally arrested me. Please help." The night before her detention, the student had shared an Instagram reel documenting a 10-hour study session in the library.

The student had built a sizable social media following, regularly posting about her library study sessions, as well as her lifestyle and productivity habits.

Aghayeva's arrest comes nearly a year after Palestinian activist and Columbia studentMahmoud Khalilwas taken into ICE custody on March 8, 2025. Khalil spent more than 100 days detained, missing the birth of his first child, and now faces the possibility of deportation.

Columbia said it is working to contact Aghayeva's family and ensure the student has access to legal support.

In her letter, Shipman emphasized law enforcement officers must present a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the university, including residence halls, classrooms and buildings requiring Columbia University ID card access. An administrative warrant, she wrote, is not sufficient.

"If law enforcement agents seek entry to non-public areas of the University, ask the agents to wait to enter any non-public areas until contacting Public Safety. Public Safety will contact the Office of the General Counsel to coordinate the University's response," Shipman wrote.

"Do not allow them to enter or accept service of a warrant or subpoena."

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President Donald Trump met Thursdaywith New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in Washington to discuss housing. Mamdani laterposted on Xthat he had raised the detention of Aghayeva during their meeting. In a follow-up phone call, Mamdani said Trump told him, "she will be released imminently."

The incident comes as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed legislation that would bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement from entering sensitive locations such as schools and dormitories.

"Let's be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn't have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student's private residence," Hochul said ina statement on X.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the dean of the New York congressional delegation, and Assemblymember Micah Lasher said in a statement they were "disgusted and outraged" that ICE agents allegedly entered a Columbia University dorm under false pretenses and without a judicial warrant to detain a student, calling the action dangerous, fear-inducing and vowing to work to bring the student home.

An emergency rally was called to protest the early-morning detention, with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student-led coalition representing more than 100 organizations,announcing the demonstration on Xand urging immediate action.

Columbia students targeted in federal immigration actions

Aghayeva's arrest marks the first time DHS has detained a Columbia student at a university-owned residence since the arrest of Khalil, a 2024 School of International and Public Affairs student.

Khalil, who was taken from his apartment andspent more than 100 days without charge in ICE custody, now faces thelooming possibility of rearrest and deportationto Algeria or Syria.

Khalil's legal team suffered a setback in January when a three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a lower court decision that had secured his release from an immigration detention facility.

Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria before going on to graduate from Columbia, had played a prominent role negotiating on behalf of pro-Palestinian protesters at the university.

Another Columbia University student, Ranjani Srinivasan, was also detained in March 2025 amid pro-Palestinian protests at Hamilton Hall, even though she maintainsshe did not participate in the protest.

Srinivasan, then 37, an Indian national and Fulbright Scholarship recipient, said she was targeted for exercising her right to free speech, and the experience forced her to leave the country out of fear of being taken into custody.

DHS officials identified her as one of several Columbia students targeted for immigration action under the Trump administration's crackdown on international students involved in protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a former undocumented immigrant, said students and faculty "should not fear for their safety in their dorm rooms, the classroom, or anywhere else on campus," and described the incident as part of what he called the Trump administration's "lawless actions."

"This exhibit of the Trump Administration's lawless actions — which are rarely supported by legitimate warrants or subpoenas — is yet another reminder that Columbia University and other institutions must enhance the protections and policies they utilize to create a safe environment for those they serve and employ," Espaillatwrote on X.

CNN's Sara Smart contributed to this report.

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Federal agents release Columbia student after university says they used false pretenses to enter building and detain her

Ellie Aghayeva – a Columbia University student who was detained early Thursday after the university said federal immigrat...

 

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