Yolanda Hadid (/həˈdiːd/) (née van den Herik; born 11 January 1964) is a Dutch American television personality and former model. She is best known as a star of the American reality-television show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Yolanda van den Herik was born and raised in Papendrecht, Netherlands, to a family of Christian background. She has a brother named Leo. When she was seven years old, her father died in a car accident, leaving her mother to raise the two children.
Dutch designer Frans Molenaar asked van den Herik to replace one of his models at a show, where she was discovered by Eileen Ford and signed a contract with Ford Models. Afterward, van den Herik modeled in Paris, Milan, Sydney, Cape Town, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Hamburg. She modeled for 15 years before wanting to settle down and start a family. In 1994, van den Herik moved to Los Angeles to start her family after meeting and marrying Mohamed Hadid.