Born in Washington D.C. on October 9, 1996, Isabella Khair Hadid was raised in Santa Barbara, California. Her mother is former model and Read Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid, and her father is Palestinian real estate developer Mohamed Hadid. Her older sister, Gigi, and younger brother, Anwar, are also models. Like her sister Gigi, Hadid is also naturally blonde, but she has said she chose to dye her hair brown in order to set herself apart.
Her parents divorced when she was seven years old. According to court documents, Mohamed paid Yolanda a settlement that included a $6 million house in Malibu, a mansion in Santa Barbara, several cars including an Escalade and Range Rover, $30,000 in monthly child support and a $3.6 million cash payout. Yolanda went on to marry prolific music producer David Foster in 2011, though they divorced in 2017.
Hadid was an avid equestrian, first competing when she was only 3 years old, and had dreams of competing in the Olympics. However, due to her chronic Lyme disease, she had to give up competing. After graduating from high school in 2014, Hadid moved to New York City to study photography at the Parsons School of Design, although she has since dropped out to focus on her modeling career.