Gigi

When Gigi Perez took to the stage at the Austin City Limits Festival earlier this month, it felt like the universe was holding up a mirror, reflecting back all the growth she’d done in the four years since her last performance there.

Back in 2021, the Cuban American singer-songwriter had a newly-minted record deal and a handful of viral SoundCloud singles — the wistful acoustic guitar track “Sometimes (Backwood)” and the devastatingly raw “Celene.” The 2021 edition of ACL was the first festival she ever performed, and though her early afternoon slot at one of the smaller stages attracted a few dozen audience members, Perez had spent so many years dreaming of the opportunity that it didn’t matter. She was happy just to be there.

This month, Perez returned to Austin no longer an emerging artist, but as a rising star. Her mega-viral single, the lovesick folk ballad from 2024, “Sailor Song,” had topped the U.K. singles chart and earned more than 1 billion streams on Spotify. On the back of its success, she spent the first half of this year opening for Hozier in support of her 2025 debut LP, “At the Beach, in Every Life.”

So when she took the stage at ACL in October, this time it was for a coveted golden hour set, with a sea of people stretched out before her — and a chorus of voices singing along to her every word.

“It was magical,” Perez told De Los. “There were people there who were actually at my first set in 2021, standing in the front. It meant a lot to me. I think that there’s a shock that I still experience with people coming to my set at a festival.”

At 25 years old, Perez has lived more life than most. Born in New Jersey and raised in West Palm Beach, Fla., the singer grew up in a devoutly Christian Cuban household, the middle child of three sisters.

As a teenager, the religious values she’d been steeped in were beginning to clash with her own realizations about her sexuality — and music provided a lifeline. The queer artists she listened to, like Hayley Kiyoko and Troye Sivan, tapped into feelings she hadn’t been able to articulate, and inspired her to write music that would allow her to express them in her own words.

At 18, just as she was preparing to head to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, her grandmother and uncle passed away, just weeks apart from each other. These dual losses set off a wave of grief and sparked difficult questions about her faith. She was struggling to regain her footing over the next year when, just months into the pandemic, her family experienced the sudden loss of her older sister Celene.

Perez felt unmoored. Her whole life, Celene had been a north star, a guiding light who inspired her to take up music, and who wanted to be a singer herself. Perez did what she knew how: wove her pain and anger and devastation into music, writing the soul-stirring tribute, “Celene.”

“The other day, I thought of something funny, but no one would’ve laughed but you,” she sings. “And mom and dad are always crying. And I wish I knew what to do.”

(Cat Cardenas / For De Los)

Her first original songs gained traction on TikTok, getting the attention of Interscope Records. From there, her career began to take off. She opened for Coldplay and Noah Cyrus, releasing her first EP, “How to Catch a Falling Knife,” in April 2023. Then, just months into a string of performances scheduled in London that summer, the label released her from her contract.

“I remember just being dumbfounded,” she said. “It was this immediate, very deep sense of fear and failure.”

But the funny thing about grief — that all-consuming force that had dragged her out to sea multiple times over the last several years — was that as suffocating as it could be, it was also surprising and unpredictable. So despite the depth of complicated emotions washing over her, Perez was acutely aware that this news was nothing compared to the loss of her sister. “So many things that happen in my life don’t affect me in that same profound way,” she said. “That was one of the things that made me. I don’t know, it’s hard to find the words even now.”

Growing up, Celene had her sights set on Broadway. She introduced Gigi to several musicals, from a bootleg version of “Legally Blonde,” to her first live theater experience in “Wicked,” to the cast album of Lin–Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights.” They played one song from the soundtrack, “Breathe,” on repeat. It’s sung by the character Nina, the daughter of immigrants in Washington Heights, who returns home in shame after having to drop out of Stanford University.

“That’s how I was feeling at the time,” Perez professed.

In London, she listened to the song on repeat. Then, she started writing. From the beginning, her style has always been instinctual; a freeform jam session where she sits at the piano or with her guitar and just lets her ideas flow out. The title came to her first — “At the Beach, in Every Life” — and the song poured out of her, nearly word for word.

“I remember the first time I played those chords on the piano, I had no idea what was going to happen,” she said. “I just knew something was opening up inside me, but I had no idea how deep the well was going to be, or that I was going to be an artist who gets to travel the world. I just had these desires, these visions, but to really live it is something else.”

After finishing out her commitments in the U.K., she moved back home to Florida. From her childhood bedroom, she began to rebuild. She taught herself music production and kept writing more songs. Without intending to, the puzzle pieces of the last few years of her life began to fall into place, and the grief that had consumed so much of her story finally had an outlet.

“At the Beach, In Every Life” details a breaking down of Perez’s walls. Her sadness and regret washes over tracks like “Sugar Water” and “Crown,” building into fiery passion on “Chemistry” and “Sailor Song,” before cresting into the haunting resolution of the title track that closes it out. It’s a portrait of loss and yearning, made up of vivid recollections from her childhood, her family, and her previous relationships. In short, it’s the album she wishes she could’ve listened to five years ago when her pain seemed insurmountable.

“I had just been operating blind for so long,” she said. “Being able to share my experience of loss in this specific way, it’s something that my 20-year-old self would be in disbelief of. At the time, it was like being without air, the isolation was so suffocating.”

Not long ago, Perez’s sadness could sometimes make her self-conscious. She wanted to share what she was going through, but she also didn’t want to be defined by it. “I didn’t want to be that girl who was always talking about her sister, but there was this very genuine desire to cry out for help, or acknowledge her,” she said. “Everyone is different, but for me, I needed to acknowledge her in order to be well.”

Fans of Gigi Perez at the barricade during her performance at this year’s Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, Texas.

(Cat Cardenas / For De Los)

Now, not even five years later, it feels like she’s finally turned the page and started a new chapter. “I’ve been able to build a life around my grief, and honor the loss of my sister in a way that’s helped me,” she said. “I don’t know exactly what healing should look like, but her death affected me and continues to affect me in these very profound ways. This is the best case scenario for me, because I get to share it with others — that’s one of the things that makes it so difficult to navigate: the feeling that no one understands you.”

“Knowing that we’re not alone has really saved my life,” she said. “I used to be the person thinking, ‘What’s the point of being alive?’ But knowing there are other people with the same question, I know now that we can hold each other’s hands through that. That’s given me a purpose and that helps me continue to move through it.”

In the process of writing the album, Perez found ways to bring both of her sisters along for the ride. There are voice memos from Celene, along with a snippet of her singing on “Survivor’s Guilt.” But there’s also “Sugar Water,” a track she co-wrote with her younger sister, Bella, who joins her onstage to perform the song on tour. “Anyone who has two sisters knows the chaos and intensity that can bring,” she said. “But we loved each other, and we still do. My relationship to what it means to be a woman was shaped by having sisters, and Celene and Bella are the closest reflection that I have of myself.”

Amid this wild, almost unbelievable year, Perez has been grounded by her family’s presence. Her mom is part of her management team, and her dad has joined them on the road.

“There’s something to be said about being in it so much that it’s almost hard to physically feel it on the level you want to,” Perez said. But over the last few weeks, as she’s gotten the opportunity to revisit the places where she first found her footing as a performer, she’s had the opportunity to reflect on just how much she’s grown since then.

For now, she plans on heading back home to Florida once her tour is over to spend time reflecting on everything. “I think that’s when I’ll start to see the confetti fall,” she said. “Life is uncertain, and we never know what it’s going to throw our way, but this was a year that I prayed for. And I think it was a year that a lot of people who love me prayed for too. So for that, I’m very grateful.”

SUPERMODEL Gigi Hadid looks a ray of sunshine at a charity event beside actress pal Anne Hathaway.

Gigi, 30, wearing a bright yellow dress, was there to support 42-year-old Anne, who was honoured at the 2025 Golden Heart Awards in New York.

Gigi has been dating American actor Bradley Cooper since 2023.

She was previously in a relationship with former One Direction member Zayn Malik.

Gigi shares four-year-old Khai with Zayn, and despite their shocking breakup, she says the couple now successfully co-parent with “love, and a feeling of camaraderie”.

Meanwhile, Bradley, 50, has an eight-year-old daughter, Lea De Seine, from his previous relationship with Gigi’s friend Irina Shayk.

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The model was apparently instrumental in matchmaking the pair, and has such a great relationship with Bradley they still holiday together.

MANY A-list models stunned while strutting down the runway donning lingerie at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

The night was filled with beauty and sexy outfits for the brand’s annual runway show on Wednesday night in New York City.

It began with jaw-dropping looks from models wearing an array of sultry lingerie, including pregnant Jasmine Tookes, who stepped out first in a barely-there gold beaded number.

She paused at the end of the runway as she cradled her baby bump and was met with cheers from the crowd.

Others like Behati Prinsloo and Alessandra Ambrosio matched her all-gold look in string two-piece ensembles, the former with a massive train, while Alessandra rocked giant wings.

Soon after, several musical acts took the stage.

Madison Beer started the lineup, performing her hit track Bittersweet while wearing nothing but a white angel corset.

She blended in perfectly with the ladies, as most wore variations of white and pink outfits.

Gigi Hadid turned heads in a skimpy pink lingerie set with an enormous pink, feathery coat draped over her arms.

Shortly after, the stage transformed into the brand’s signature pink-and-white polka-dot colors for its PINK loungewear collection.

The singing group TWICE then entered the runway, making history as the first K-pop girl group to perform at the exclusive event.

The foursome sported varying form-fitting ensembles, with knee-high furry boots.

They sang their songs, This Is For and Strategy while the models walked past them in more comfortable attire.

This included newcomers Lila Moss and Barbie Ferreira, who stunned in a gray lounge set and a jean jacket, respectively.

At the end of the PINK showcase, the ladies posed for a group shot in the middle of the stage with TWICE, which was shown on a giant screen.

The evening continued with more seductive attire, as Colombian singer Karol G performed in a body-hugging, see-through white number.

The models kept the red theme going, with Bella Hadid flaunting her incredible figure in a jaw-dropping lingerie set.

Others wore various red lingerie, some paired with props such as capes, wings, and devil horns.

Karol G also got in on the fun, catwalking across the stage to show off her skintight bodysuit with matching wings.

The mood then brightened with more pastel-colored pieces, including a breathtaking vision of Emily Ratajkowski.

The supermodel wore a pink bra and underwear set, strapped heels wrapped up to her knees, and a huge, sparkly pink prop on her back.

The lights dimmed again to display the all-black lingerie pieces, including plus-size model Ashley Graham flaunting her curves in a glittery two-piece.

She paired the look with massive black angel wings and strappy heels.

Gigi later reappeared, wearing a form-fitting white corset and matching skirt, while holding large white angel wings.

Her sister, Bella, also reemerged donning a sexy tasseled white lingerie set with fluffy white wings strapped to her back.

The show ended with a medley performance by Missy Elliott, which included her popular tracks Get Ur Freak On, Work It, and Lose Control.

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Missy made a grand entrance on a platform that came down from the ceiling before she appeared in an all-black sparkly outfit.

The models returned to the stage altogether when Missy’s performance concluded for an encore, as pink confetti covered the room.

PERRIE Edwards has revealed how her ex Zayn Malik contacted her after his split with Gigi Hadid – and how her footballer fiance Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain reacted to this.

The Little Mix star’s very public engagement to first love Zayn, now 32, fell apart before millions of fans.

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Just one year after Zayn found fame in One Direction on The X Factor, Perrie burst onto the scene on the same show in 2011.

Both teenagers at the time, they met when 1D returned to perform on the ITV singing contest that her band Little Mix went onto win.

Just months later, the young stars were a fully fledged couple, sharing sweet selfies from places like Disneyland.

But it was never plain sailing as Zayn was alleged to have cheated with an Australian waitress in a London club, and was later hit with more claims of infidelity.

In 2013, he demonstrated his commitment by getting a portrait of Perrie tattooed on his arm and even bought her mum a house in Dorset.

But in 2015, they split — and she was left devastated, with reports at the time that he had ended their almost four-year romance by text.

The ordeal inspired one of Little Mix’s biggest hits, the chart-topping Shout Out To My Ex.

‘TOXIC’ RELATIONSHIP

Now 32, the mother-of-one, who is happily engaged to her fiancé, footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. has discussed her “toxic” relationship with Zayn.

Speaking on this week’s Paul C. Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, she said: “I think definitely, at the time, I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal. Because it was my first relationship, first love.

“I was like, ‘Oh, this is how it’s supposed to feel. It’s supposed to feel a little bit toxic. In some ways, this is probably normal, right?’.

“And then, when I became single, I was almost thinking, ‘I never, ever want to go through that again’. I didn’t even want to meet anybody. I was like, that’s me done. I don’t think I could bear that pain.

“But now, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, that probably wasn’t good’. And I’ve noticed it a lot.”

Perrie also talked about how her past pain affected the early days of her relationship with Alex, who she started dating in 2017 – two years after her Zayn split.

“Like in the start of the relationship, I would handle things differently with Alex, and he’d come at it with such a level head that it would throw me,” she said.

On what kind of man Alex is, Perrie continued: “He’s very mature. He’s very laid back. He’s very level-headed.

“He’s not the type to get mad or get angry or get funny about things. It might sound boring to some, but it’s so unproblematic.”

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ZAYN GETS IN TOUCH

Following his split from Gigi, Perrie said Zayn got back in touch with her – something that left her “uncomfortable”, especially when she had to tell Alex.

She shared: “My ex reached out and I didn’t know how to handle the situation. I’d only been with Alex like a year and a half, two years. And I felt a bit uncomfortable about it.

“And I remember sweating and panicking, thinking, ‘I’ve got to tell him that obviously I’ve spoken to him.’ And I would be terrified… And he was like, ‘Okay, well, I really appreciate you telling me, thank you for letting me know. That’s fine. Like, hopefully he doesn’t contact you again.’

“And I was thinking, ‘Okay, cool. That’s it.’”

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Perrie is now embracing life as a wife-to-be, and a mother-of-one.

The singer and her fiance Alex welcomed their son Axel, four, in 2021, and the pair are enjoying being parents.

The footballer asked Perrie to marry him in 2022, when he got down on one knee on holiday.

The happy couple have been together since November 2016, although they didn’t make their relationship public until February 2017.

Gigi Gorgeous and Nats Getty are calling it quits after six years of marriage.

In a joint statement to PEOPLE, representatives for the former couple said: “Gigi Gorgeous and Nats Getty confirm they have amicably decided to part ways and officially file for divorce. While they have decided to end their marriage, they remain friends and have the [utmost] love and respect for each other.”

According to documents obtained by E! News, Nats filed for divorce on 2 July, citing irreconcilable differences. 27 February was also listed as their date of separation.

A day after the news was announced, Gigi took to her Instagram to give further insight into how she is taking her split from Nats, describing it as an “ending [that] didn’t come overnight”

“After nine transformative years, my marriage has come to an end. A sentence I never thought I’d have to write. And even though this ending didn’t come overnight, the heartbreak still hits like a wave I never quite learned to brace for,” she wrote.

“Our journey has always been grounded in love, authenticity, and resilience. We held each other through things the world never saw, but who we were becoming could no longer fit inside the shape we had made together. This isn’t the end of my heart. I still believe in love. ‘The beauty of a moment isn’t in its duration, but in its existence.’”

Gigi and Nats, the heir to the Getty fortune, began dating in 2016 after meeting at Paris Fashion Week. They announced in March 2018 that they were engaged, with Getty popping the question at Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

“I wanted to personally share it with you guys here first on my channel that WE ARE ENGAGED!!!!! I can’t believe it, I am over the moon,” the trans activist wrote in a YouTube video titled: “The Proposal.”

A year later, the pair tied the knot in a larger-than-life wedding at the Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito, California.

During their marriage, Gigi and Nats – who came out as trans and non-binary in 2021 – were open books about their desire to start a family.

Weathered and bumpy, the wall hidden among the surplus clothing stores of the Fashion District was hardly the perfect canvas.

But artist Sloe Motions’ vision for the memorial mural in honor of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna following their deaths in 2020 brought the stretch of Main and 14th streets to life with vibrant hues of purple and gold.

One of the most well-known Kobe murals across Southern California, the art piece — outside Jimmy Jam T-Shirts — was the backdrop for a commercial for Super Bowl LVI featuring Vanessa Bryant and has drawn fans from near and far.

For years, the mural remained untouched — an unspoken mark of respect for the artist and the subject but one that abruptly ended this year.

In late March, someone tagged the artwork with large bubble letters outlined in black and filled in with white — a similar style to other street tagging visible across the city.

Sloe Motions went back to work, painstakingly restoring the mural. There was much fanfare in downtown when the new mural made its debut in late May. But within a few days, it was again defaced. The artist is disappointed but vows to restore it once again — this time in a new location.

“This one has a lot of meaning to it, so it hurts me that people would do something like this where they’re disrespecting the Bryant family. It just exposes these people’s demons,” Sloe Motions said.

Graffiti has long been an element of Los Angeles life, and residents of downtown are used to tags as part of the landscape. This is, after all, the place where taggers coated the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza high-rise complex with graffiti, generating international attention and debate about the line between art and vandalism.

But the treatment of the Kobe tribute surprised Sloe Motions.

“This isn’t just another Kobe mural. It’s a memorial,” he said.

Street art has long been a part of the culture of Los Angeles, where murals — sanctioned and unsanctioned — and graffiti harmoniously share canvas space. Some abide by the unwritten code that you don’t cover someone else’s art. Others take a more autonomous approach, creating what they want where they want.

“Great cities have great public art,” said Wyland, a Laguna Beach-based artist who has painted murals across the world. “This Kobe mural, it’s become part of the fabric of Los Angeles. And for someone to come in and destroy it like that doesn’t make any sense.”

Los Angeles is known as a city of murals — some of which remain respectfully untouched for years, while others like the Kobe memorial are a seemingly irresistible target for taggers. There was a time when some property owners believed hiring the right muralist to grace your walls — or including a portrait of the Virgen de Guadalupe — could keep taggers away. But not anymore.

In many ways downtown Los Angeles is the perfect gallery for viewing street art, turning nondescript buildings into colorful canvases that tell the story of the region.

Ife Ewing, co-owner of Jimmy Jam T-Shirts, says street art has changed in the 13 years her business has been housed on Main Street.

James Ewing, co-owner of Jimmy Jam T-Shirts, looks at a mural Wednesday of Kobe and Gianna Bryant that has been vandalized again on the side of the business at 14th and Main streets.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“Before, it was isolated to designated areas,” she said. “It’s a different breed of artists now. They have no respect for business owners, property owners. It’s disrespectful. You have to call it what it is, it’s just disrespect.”

Sloe Motions is far from the only muralist to feel burned.

Judy Baca’s famed mural of a female Olympic runner is beloved, even though it has been hit by taggers in the past. Then in 2019, the mural — part of the 1984 Olympics art movement — was mysterious whitewashed, sparking outrage. Metro eventually admitted one of its graffiti abatement contractors had covered the mural and vowed to restore it.

“They would rather paint on the mural than see even a mark of graffiti on the mural,” Baca said at the time.

The latest vandalism to Bryant’s mural felt like another blow to the area.

A post on June 3 from the DTLA Insider Instagram account summed up the situation simply: “We really can’t have nice things.”

The mural image is a spin on a photograph capturing a sweet moment during the 2008 NBA Finals when the Lakers legend — a proud “girl dad” — leans down and kisses the side of his smiling toddler’s head as he cradles her in his arm during a news conference.

Sloe Motions was drawn to the emotion in the photograph — the purity of a father’s love and a daughter’s admiration for her hero. It was captured years before Gigi started playing basketball, showing off her own version of her dad’s envied fadeaway jumper.

Next to them, the words “Mambas Forever” with an infinity symbol are painted in purple and gold.

Bryant, 41, and 13-year-old Gigi, along with seven others — John Altobelli, 56; Keri Altobelli, 46; Alyssa Altobelli, 13; Christina Mauser, 38, Sarah Chester, 45; Payton Chester, 13; and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50 — died Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter Zobayan was flying crashed in the hills of Calabasas.

After the initial vandalism in late March, Sloe Motions had sought donations to help cover the cost of restoring the mural in the current location, hoping to preserve the spot for the Bryant family.

“There’s just a lot of meaning at that wall,” he said.

Lakers star Luka Doncic’s foundation quickly jumped into action, donating $5,000, the full amount needed, to a fundraiser to help restore the art piece.

In late May, Sloe Motions posted on Instagram that the mural was finally finished. He’d added a few additional touches, painting the No. 8 on Gigi’s jersey, an homage to the number that Kobe wore for the first 10 seasons of his career.

A week later, the new details were still visible but under the scrawl of white paint.

On June 4, television news cameras were positioned near the mural, and passersby stopped to assess the damage. A jumble of bright white paint cut across the image, and heavy white dots covered Kobe’s and Gigi’s eyes.

“This time, they really went heavy,” Sergio Bautista, 35, said as he stood in front of the mural. “It’s sad to see.”

Sky Hendrix, who was in the area filming a music video with a friend, expressed his disbelief.

“That’s disrespecting the dead,” Hendrix said as he took in the scene. “Who would do that? He’s the GOAT and she’s just a little girl.”

Despite the vandalism, Sloe Motions showed no real sign of anger as he talked about the future of the art piece somewhere else where more people could view and appreciate it. He said he sent “prayers” to the people who vandalized his work.

“Nothing’s forever, and that’s the beauty of this stuff,” Sloe Motions said. “Some stuff could last a minute, some stuff could last a day, some stuff could last years.”

Times photographer Genaro Molina contributed to this report.