IT is no surprise she stripped down to a thong bikini to celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary, because model Heidi Klum believes everything in life feels better without clothes.
Heidi, 51, shared a series of pictures showing off her stunning body as she holidayed with her 35-year-old rock guitarist husband, Tom Kaulitz.
The former Victoria’s Secret beauty said: “Everything is much nicer without clothes. I grew up very free, not hiding or feeling insecure about myself or my body.
“As much as I love wearing beautiful lingerie or clothes, I also love not wearing too much.
“I grew up nude around my house, with my parents being nude, and us going on vacation with FKK [a German naturist movement that translates to “free body culture”].
“With our trailer or tent in FKK vacation places, I would always see people nude on the beach or nude swimming.
“I grew up on that. For me, that was never weird.”
Heidi insists that her nudity is limited to appropriate locations, such as her private garden and nudist beaches.
And she feels most comfortable in the Caribbean, where she went for her anniversary break with Tom last month.
Heidi told the Armchair Expert podcast: “I just came back from St Barts. We were there for two weeks, my husband and I, because the kids went with their dad to England. You see a lot of boobs out without a top, so I feel right at home there.
“But then there aren’t a lot of people on the beach so, when there aren’t a lot of people there, I think, ‘No tan lines for me!’.
“I can’t wait to take my top off. It’s literally not a sexual thing, it’s a freedom thing.
“I think it feels great when you go through the waves with not a lot on.
“It’s also the feeling of the sun going on your full body, instead of having something on.
“I wouldn’t do this on any old beach with a lot of people to the right and left.
“I know not everyone is into this, so when there are people there I’m not going to go ‘woohoo!’ and run around showing off.
“On this beach, too, there were so many couples, including an older couple in their 60s, lying on the beach with nothing on.
“There was a gay couple on the other side that were reading and having their lunch.”
But she admits her kids — daughters Leni, 20, and Lou, 14, and sons Henry, 18, and Johan, 17, from her marriage to British musician Seal — have been embarrassed by her propensity for getting her kit off around their Los Angeles home.
Heidi said: “I’m in my garden, I’m topless. And they will come up and say, ‘You know my friend is coming over, Mum — put your top on’.
“And I’m like, ‘When have I ever not had a top on when your friend was coming over? Of course I will!’.
“But they always make sure.”
Speaking on the podcast Call Her Daddy, model Leni was asked about her mum’s worst habits, with nudity immediately being brought up.
Leni recalled: “I would have birthday parties at the house. Or I’d have friends over, like my boyfriend over. And she tans topless by the pool.
“I remember having my girlfriends over and I’d be so embarrassed and, like, scared because usually with my friends’ families, I never see my friends’ mums tanning naked. I thought it was normal. My friends would always be kind of stand off-ish, but it was so normal in our family.”
For decades it was normal for Heidi to strip down for the camera, too.
She started modelling more than 30 years ago after entering and winning a competition which led to her first contract.
Then she appeared on the cover of US mag Sports Illustrated, and was the first German model to become a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
She married Tom, a guitarist and songwriter in the German band Tokio Hotel, on a superyacht in 2019, seven years after her split from London-born chart star Seal.
Heidi was previously married to celebrity hairstylist Ric Pipino for five years from 1997, while her eldest daughter Leni came from a brief relationship with disgraced F1 executive Flavio Briatore, and was adopted by Seal.
On her marriage to Tom, she said: “It goes so fast. Every morning when I wake up and he’s still next to me is another highlight. I’m like, ‘Damn, you’re still here, this is amazing’ — it’s not a dream. I pinch myself.
“Also, you never know — you meet someone and always hope for the best, and this is my third marriage, but I have never given up on finding love and so far, so good.”
Heidi told Glamour Germany mag she worries that one day Tom may change his mind about their age difference, admitting: “I’m not a young girl who hasn’t experienced anything or has no idea about life. Time won’t stand still for me and Tom will never catch up with me.
“I’ll always be 16 years older, and I’m aware of that. Maybe it’ll be a problem for me in ten years’ time, maybe he won’t like it then.
“In 20 years, I’ll be 70. I usually plan for the future but, with my husband, I live in the here and now.
“Not everyone is always cheering you on in all things that you do, but I feel like I’ve got to do what makes you happy. And he makes me happy.”
One place where Heidi is certainly having a great time is as a long-standing member of the judging panel on America’s Got Talent.
The star has reinvented herself as a TV personality since joining the line-up in 2013 — after pursuing the role herself.
She has been a fixture on the hit show ever since, with the exception of 2019, due to conflicting work commitments.
Heidi became the official ambassador for Barbie’s 50th anniversary in 2009 and even had her own special edition made in her honour.
But she reveals it has led to a new passion for collecting.
She said: “I’m a hoarder, I have the whole Barbie collection because I have one — there’s a Heidi Barbie.
“It’s always Barbie as someone else, and then Barbie was me. I don’t know how that happened.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God’, and I was obsessed because I had always played with Barbies, and so I have collected all the Barbies now.”
