Their roses are in bloom!
Seal believes his two eldest kids, whom he shares with supermodel Heidi Klum, are using modeling as a “segue” into bigger and better careers.
The “Kiss From a Rose” artist reveals the aspirations of his son Henry, 19, and daughter Leni, 20, while promoting his new Mountain Dew Super Bowl commercial in an exclusive interview with Page Six Wednesday.
Seal, 61, tells us that he was “so proud” of Henry for making his modeling debut at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week last month.
“I love what he did. He looked like a pro, and most of all, his personality came through, which is his real beauty,” Seal says.
However, the singer notes that Henry really wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps and pursue a career in music.
“I don’t think that’s what he ultimately wants to do,” Seal says of Henry’s fashion gig. “I think that he talked about wanting to have a career in music. But that’s difficult because it’s kind of what I do, and I think there’s a part of him that thinks that, you know, ‘I just don’t want to be kind of, you know, doing music because my dad does it.'”
Seal praises Henry’s musical talents, saying that he has a fantastic singing voice.
“And I don’t say that, as, you know, a biased father, which I am, of course, but he has a great voice,” he gushes, adding, “And I just really wish that he would have the confidence to do it.”
Seal shares that like his older sister, Henry won’t be boxing himself into a modeling career.
“[It’s] great that he’s following in his sister’s footsteps because, you know, she gets it,” he says. “She gets that modeling is a segue. It’s a stepping stone to getting what you want out of life. And it’s not necessarily a profession.”
Seal admits that Leni — who has posed for several lingerie campaigns with Klum — never told him that she would be getting into modeling because “that’s not what she’s doing.”
“Leni is an entrepreneur,” he says, explaining that she’s “extremely resourceful and very, very streetwise.”
Seal adds that he raised Leni to be “very independent” and “very much her own woman.”
“You know, she was the first out of the house, first living in New York by herself. And so she just did it,” he says of modeling. “And I am proud of everything she does.”
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But the songwriter doubles down on his claim that Leni would be taking on other projects outside of modeling.
“She understands that [modeling] is a very fickle business, that it is a very, kind of, it’s a very surface-focused business,” he says. “And she understands that it is, again, a segue to achieving things that are far more important to her in her life.”
He continues, “And if modeling is the catalyst to do so, then she does it and she’s brilliant at it. And she has my undying support, both as a father and a fan and an admirer. I worship the ground all of my sons and daughters walk on.”
Seal and the former Victoria’s Secret Angel, 51, were married from 2005 to 2014. Along with Leni and Henry, they share son Johan, 18, and daughter Lou, 15.
The “America’s Got Talent” judge welcomed Leni with Flavio Briatore in 2004, however, Seal adopted her as his own child in 2009 when she was 5 years old.
Klum secretly married Tom Kaulitz in 2019 while Seal moved on with his former personal assistant, Laura Strayer.