Sure, Gigi Hadid has graced the cover of Vogue 20 times, but when it comes to matters of the heart, she tries to "play it cool" just like the rest of us.
During her first appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talk show Friday—a moment she cited as one of her personal goals—the 21-year-old supermodel covered virtually every topic, including her Tommy x GiGi collection and her love for 8-year-old viral sensation, Noah Ritter.
Of course, there was talk of the star's equally famous beau, former One Direction member Zayn Malik, whom she has been dating for a year and a half. While fans first saw signs of a blossoming romance between the lovebirds when they were photographed gazing into each other's eyes in the back of a car, their origins have been less clear—until now.
"We actually met at a friend's birthday party a few years ago and then he was in New York to come to the Victoria's Secret show last year I think and ended up not coming," the star recalled. "I was like I'll play it cool. I'll go to the after-party...he wasn't there."
Fortunately, they managed to finally be in the same room again. "Later that week, we ended up going on our first date," Hadid added.
So, how did sparks fly? "We played it cool for like ten minutes and then I was like, 'You're really cute,'" she admitted. "We connected like really quickly. We have kind of the same sense of humor and started sharing videos."
Those videos included ones of little Ritter, who has garnered national fame as one of Ellen's recurring guests. Since she has such pull with the pint-sized "Apparently" star, the host had Noah record a video message for Gigi with the hope that he can see her the next time he's in L.A.
"When is he coming to L.A.? L.A. or New York, Noah! What does he like to do?" Hadid asked with excitement.
"Basically, he's food motivated," DeGeneres said. "I'm very food motivated!" she echoed. "If I'm in a bad mood and you feed me, I'm usually good...I put french fries on my Tommy collection."