Helene Boshoven Samuel (Leni Klum) biography: real name, father, modeling career, and more

9 min readOct 14, 2021

Who is Helene Boshoven Samuel? She is the biological daughter of German-American supermodel Heidi Klum and Formula One star Flavio Briatore. Known to her close friends and family members as Leni, she has four siblings and has started her career as a model.

Helene or Leni is what the media calls a celebrity child being that her parents are celebrities. It appears that she too is charting a path in show business. In this article, we consider facts about her and her family that are available online.

Top ten facts about Helene Boshoven Samuel

Helene Boshoven Samuel was born on 4 May 2004 in New York City, New York, United States of America and she claims that her real name is Leni Olumi Klum.
Her biological parents are popular celebrities; Heidi Klum, a model is her mother while Flavio Briatore, a Formula One personality is her father.
She has four siblings namely; Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel (2005), Henry Günther Ademola Dashtu Samuel (2006), Lou Sulola Samuel (2009), and Falco Nathan (2010).
Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel, a musician known professionally as Seal had married Heidi Klum in 2004 and was present when she gave birth to Helene before adopting her in 2009.
Her legal grandmother is Adebisi Ogundeji, a Nigerian woman and Francis Samuel, an Afro-Brazilian man.
At the age of 16, Leni Klum (as Helene Boshoven Samuel is known publicly) made her official debut as a model for Vogue Germany in 2020.
Leni is also in full acceptance of her stepfather Tom Kaulitz and has a matching friendship tattoo with him and his brother Bill Kaulitz on the inside of her fingers.
Her mother, Heidi Klum was once ranked as the second highest-earning model in the world by Forbes in 2011 and the magazine said she had a net worth of $39.5 million in 2020.
Also, Heidi Klum was a judge on the reality show America’s Got Talent from 2013 until 2020.
Helene has a boyfriend, as of when this article was written, he plays field-hockey and her mother encourages the relationship.

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Early life and family background

Helene Boshoven Samuel was born on 4 May 2004 in New York City, New York, United States of America and she claims that her real name is Leni Olumi Klum. Her biological parents are popular celebrities; Heidi Klum, a model is her mother while Flavio Briatore, a Formula One personality is her father.

Helene’s siblings include Henry, Johan, Lou, and Nathan. Henry, Johan and Lou are biological children of Heidi Klum, Helene’s mother, while Nathan is the biological son of her father, Flavio Briatore. Next, we look at the relationship between Klum and Briatore regarding Helene Boshoven Samuel who is our subject in this article.

Heidi Klum and Flavio Briatore relationship

Coming off the back of a divorce from stylist Ric Pipino in 2002, Klum and Briatore announced their relationship in March 2003. Briatore had just come out of a relationship with supermodel Naomi Campbell at the time.

In December 2003, Klum announced that she was pregnant for Briatore but early in 2004, the couple split. Klum soon began dating Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel, a musician known professionally as Seal Samuel.

When she gave birth to Helene in May 2004, the model said that Seal had been present while Briatore was absent. On several occasions, she had reiterated that Seal is Leni’s father while her biological father played no part in her life.

People magazine also mentions that for undisclosed reasons, Flavio Briatore was okay with the idea of not being involved in the life of his biological daughter. In the next section, we look at brief details about the parents of Helene Boshoven Samuel.

Heidi Klum (mother) Wiki

Helene Boshoven Samuel’s mother is Heidi Klum, a 47-year-old German-American model, television host, producer, and businesswoman who turns 48 in 2021. She notably appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1998 and was the first German model to become a Victoria’s Secret Angel. She also worked with Dannon, McDonald’s, Volkswagen, H&M, Vogue Germany and other brands.

The 47-year-old later became the host and a judge of Germany’s Next Topmodel and the reality show Project Runway, which earned her an Emmy awards win in 2013 for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program (shared with co-host Tim Gunn).

In 2009, she became Barbie’s official ambassador on Barbie’s 50th anniversary and she appeared in films such as Blow Dry (2001), Ella Enchanted (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Perfect Stranger (2007), and Ocean’s 8 (2018). Additionally, she played some parts in TV shows like Sex and the City, How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives as well as Parks and Recreation.

Heidi Klum was a judge on the reality show America’s Got Talent from 2013 until 2020 and was once ranked as the second highest-earning model in the world by Forbes in 2011. As of 2020, Forbes said she had a net worth of $39.5 million.

After she and Briatore broke up, she married Seal Samuel in 2005 and they had three biological children. He adopted Helene and gave her his last name, Samuel. She divorced Seal in 2014 and dated Martin Kirsten before she and art curator Vito Schnabel began dating for three years.

In 2019, Klum and Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz got married after dating for about a year.

Flavio Briatore (biological father)

Helene Boshoven Samuel’s biological father is Flavio Briatore, an Italian businessman who started as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman before being convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s. Later, his convictions were cleared by amnesty when he found his way to the Virgin Islands and the United States.

Initially, he set up several successful Benetton franchises before Luciano Benetton promoted him in 1990 to manage the Benetton Formula One racing team, which became Renault F1 in 2002. Managing the Formula One team made him famous and he even owned part of London’s Queens Park Rangers F.C between 2007 and 2010.

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He was forced to resign due to his involvement in race fixing at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. He was banned indefinitely by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) before a French Tribunal de Grande Instance overturned it.

Flavio Briatore dated Heidi Klum in 2003 and she announced that she was carrying his child in December of the same year. However, when they split in 2004, it appeared that she didn’t want him to be a part of his biological daughter, Helene’s life and he agreed.

In 2009, Briatore allowed singer Seal Samuel, who was married to Klum at the time, to adopt Helene and give her his own last name. After he and Heidi split, he went on to marry another model, Elisabetta Gregoraci, on 14 June 2008.

Gregoraci gave birth to their son Falco Nathan in Nice, France in 2010. Thus, Falco Nathan became Helene Samuel’s half-brother.

Seal Samuel (father)

Helene Boshoven Samuel father is Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel, a musician known professionally as Seal. He found fame as a British singer-songwriter and sold about 20 million records worldwide as of October 2011, according to Yahoo News.

Seal is well-known for songs like “Crazy” (1991) and “Kiss from a Rose” (1994). He has won multiple awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award as well. Additionally, he was a coach on The Voice Australia in 2012 and 2013.

He had married Heidi Klum in 2004 and was present when she gave birth to Helene whom she had been carrying while she dated her ex, Italian Formula One team manager Flavio Briatore. Seal ended up adopting Helene and giving her his own last name.

Additionally, Seal and Klum had three other children.

Seal and Heidi Klum kids

The names of Heidi Klum’s children with Seal are Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel (2005), Henry Günther Ademola Dashtu Samuel (2006), and Lou Sulola Samuel (2009). Meanwhile, as we have already pointed out, Helene Boshoven Samuel is Heidi Klum’s first daughter.

Helene Boshoven Samuel grandparents

Her legal grandparents are Adebisi Ogundeji, a Nigerian woman, and Francis Samuel, an Afro-Brazilian man.

Career

At the age of 16, Leni Klum (as Helene Boshoven Samuel is known publicly) made her official debut as a model for Vogue Germany in 2020. The photo was shot by photographer Chris Colls who also shot her mother Heidi Klum Vogue Germany cover photo.

Before then, her privacy and those of her siblings were usually protected and their paparazzi photos were always pixelated as well. However, defending her decision to let her daughter out into the world of modeling, Heidi told Vogue magazine:

“Sixteen is a good age. If you are allowed to drive a car, you can also have an official Instagram account and show your face. And to be allowed to start with a Vogue cover is an insane privilege.”

She also worked on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in January 2021.

There are already plans for her to start working with other top models. Leni herself has always wanted to be a model. She said that the modeling job is the perfect outlet for all the energy she carries inside her.

Leni Klum runway debut

Leni Klum, 17, who has continued to follow in her mother’s footsteps, was all smiles as she strutted down the runway for Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda show which was held in Venice on Sunday, 29 August 2021, wearing a bright blue satin ensemble topped with a sequined crown.

Her proud mom, Heidi Klum, couldn’t keep calm and she took to her Instagram page to share snippets from her daughter’s ramp walk. Posting a video of Leni walking the ramp, the 48-year-old supermodel wrote: “The smile when she sees mom.”

The mother-daughter duo wasn’t done with the crowd for the night, as they ensured that they made memories in Venice together. After work, the duo wore matching sequined silver outfits and happily posed together.

Posting a picture of herself posing with her mom on a staircase in Venice on her Instagram page, Leni Klum writes: “Matching with mommy”

Personal life

Helene Boshoven Samuel prefers to call herself Leni Olumi Klum as she revealed when talking to Vogue in January 2020. She’s also still in high school and revealed that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she only knows her classmates via Zoom.

Leni is also in full acceptance of her stepfather Tom Kaulitz and her mother Heidi Klum’s marriage. In fact, she has a matching friendship tattoo with Tom and his brother Bill Kaulitz on the inside of her fingers.

Also, she has a boyfriend who plays field-hockey and her mother encourages the relationship. According to Leni, she and her mother are very close and share everything with each other.

Social Media

She is on Instagram as @leniklum and she has 703K followers but we could not find her official Twitter page.

Conclusion

Helene Boshoven Samuel, or Leni Olumi Klum as she prefers to call herself, has clearly towed the path her mother laid down for her and she should succeed in the modeling business as she has both the name and the looks as well.

Despite her somewhat complicated background, her mother Heidi Klum appears to have raised both Leni and her siblings to keep together with each other. While she appears to be like any high school student, there is no doubt that she is aware of how famous she is because of her parents. Yet, she is not letting that stop her from achieving her dreams.

We wish the young model all the best and hope she keeps attaining new heights in her career.