‘A beautiful blessing’: Naomi Campbell becomes a mother at 50

Naomi Campbell has become a mother at the age of 50, announcing the news with a surprise post on social media.

The supermodel shared a photograph of her baby daughter and described her as “a beautiful little blessing”.

The message did not include any details about the birth, but Campbell has spoken in the past about her desire to become a mother through adoption, surrogacy or IVF.

In a 2017 interview she said: “I think about having children all the time. But now with the way science is I think I can do it when I want.”

Campbell announced the new arrival with an image of her hand cradling the baby’s feet - similar to the first picture posted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex days after their son, Archie, was born.

The model said: “A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother. So honoured to have this gentle soul in my life - there are no words to describe the lifelong bond that I now share with you my angel. There is no greater love.”

Well-wishers who responded to the post included the fashion designers Marc Jacobs and Donatella Versace. Jacobs wrote: “Oh my God!!!!! Today is the day?? How absolutely incredible. How lucky she is and how lucky you are. What a wonderful Mother you will be.”

Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of British Vogue and one of Campbell’s close friends, said: “Seeing the two of you together made my year. You will bring each other so much joy.”

Campbell’s mother, Valerie, said she was “beyond thrilled” as she had “waited a long time to be a grandmother”.

Although Campbell has previously said she wanted to have a “father figure” for any child she might have, she is not thought to be in a long-term relationship currently.

Her former partners include Flavio Briatore, an Italian businessman, and Vladislav Doronin, a Russian billionaire.

The Streatham-born model is based in New York and made her most recent catwalk appearance in April at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre, when she modelled for Michael Kors.

She joins a number of other famous women who have become mothers in their 50s.

Janet Jackson gave birth to her first child, a boy named Eissa, in 2017. The singer said God had blessed her “at the age of 50, with the greatest gift of all”.

Brigitte Nielsen, the actress and model, gave birth at 54 to a daughter, Frida, after more than a decade of trying through IVF. She likened the chances of getting pregnant at her age to a lottery win, and said women faced unfair criticism for becoming parents at a later age.

“When people say you were 54 - well, what about all the men who are in their 60s, 70s, 80s?” she asked.

Campbell remains one of the world’s most in-demand models in an industry that venerates youth. Last year she admitted in an interview with The Telegraph: “I didn’t think I’d still be working as a model, because we were always told we would never work past 25.”

Away from the catwalk, she is no stranger to making headlines. In 2008, she was arrested for assaulting a police officer at Heathrow in a row over lost luggage.

A year earlier, she was ordered to mop floors at the Department of Sanitation in New York as part of her punishment for throwing a jewel-encrusted BlackBerry at her maid’s head. On her final day she attended in a floor-length Dolce & Gabbana gown and left in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce.

In 2011, she appeared as a witness at The Hague in the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, after he sent two men to her hotel room in the middle of the night to present her with a bag of diamonds.