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Last week, in between internet-breaking red carpet moments and Paris fashion week runway shows, Bella Hadid decided to casually drop that she’s got a secret boyfriend.
On the last slide of a gallery, Hadid went Instagram exclusive with a mystery man who fans almost immediately identified as being Marc Kalman, an art director and creative who people had been speculating she’d been quietly dating for a few months.
But despite the likes of @DeuxMoi and the paparazzi having eyes everywhere, it appears Hadid and Kalman managed to evade the public for an entire year. According to sources who spoke with Page Six, the couple have been secretly dating since at least July 2020, using the pandemic—masks, fewer public events and travel—to successfully sneak around New York and keep their relationship under wraps.
“They hid it well,” a source said, before going into detail about the organised way the pair would ensure they weren’t ever spotted together by paparazzi. “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.”
“They were very diligent about not being seen on a public street at the same time,” the source added.
Looking back, there were sightings of Hadid and Kalman all the way back in July 2020 with their first photo together taken on July 2 when they were spotted leaving a cafe in Lower Manhattan in New York. In the photos, Kalman is right behind Hadid:
When Hadid and Kalman did go out together, they made sure there was “never any PDA,” the source noted, adding, “most of the time they were with other people, which of course made it difficult to prove that they were dating.”
Case in point, the below image which shows the couple out for lunch in September 2020 with another friend:
The sneaking around was likely due in part to Hadid wanting to make sure the romance was real before the public got involved, adding immense pressure to the start of a new relationship—her first since splitting with ex The Weeknd in 2019.
Plus, there’s the added stress of beginning to date someone during COVID-19, when the world is shut down and everyone’s day-to-day lives look very different.
But as time went on, the couple began to get more serious. Kalman even attended Hadid’s older sister Gigi’s birthday at her home in April. And now that pandemic restrictions have lifted, they’re living their best European summer lives together.
Bring on the loved up ‘grams.
