Bella Hadid Seemingly Borrowed Kendall Jenner’s Strategy for Keeping a Relationship Secret

Bella Hadid only just confirmed her relationship with Marc Kalman, but according to Page Six, the love match is actually anything but new. In fact, the supermodel and her new art director beau apparently first started seeing each other all the way back in July of 2020–which means the pair is just on one side or the other of celebrating their one year anniversary together. Hmm, did Hadid borrow a from her friend Kendall Jenner’s dating handbook?

According to the gossip column, Hadid and Kalman worked hard to keep their budding relationship under wraps while meeting up around Manhattan during the pandemic.

“They hid it well,” said the Page Six source. “If they went out, he would come out first, get the car, and then she would get into the car. They would drive to a location, and he’d drop her off but not get out and go park the car.”

Undoubtedly, the fact that only one-half of the couple is constantly followed by the paparazzi would make a bait-and-switch easier to pull off. While Kalman is well-connected through his work, he’s not a bold-faced name himself.

Still, the strategy of waiting a year to go public does recall a particular private life policy that Kendall Jenner has.

She, too, only recently went public with her boyfriend, the Phoenix Suns player Devin Booker after dating for a year—and that was on purpose. Unlike her sibling, Jenner has publicly stated multiple times that she’s not too eager to put her private life on display, and in a podcast interview, a Keeping Up With The Kardashians executive producer confirmed that fact. “Kendall’s always had this rule,” explained producer Farnaz Farjam on an episode of The Daily Dish podcast. “She just felt like she had to be with someone for at least a year before she lets them be a part of the show, because she doesn’t always know what people’s intentions are.”

It seems Hadid followed that rule, too. Just replace “reality show” with “paparazzi photos and Instagram appearances.”

Since Hadid posted a photo of her embracing Kalman on Instagram it seems they’ve stopped worrying about hiding too much. The pair have since been photographed together in the South of France in between Hadid’s duties of shutting down the Cannes red carpet.

Jenner, too, is finally more comfortable publicly embracing her relationship with Booker. She’s been in attendance at the NBA Finals (Booker’s team is currently leading the series 2-1).