What happened to Karl Lagerfeld’s muse Baptiste Giabiconi?

With the fashion world preparing to celebrate the late Karl Lagerfeld at the Met Gala in May, his former muse Baptiste Giabiconi will surely be following the event with great interest. 

The 33-year-old model, from Marignane, France, was discovered by the former Chanel and Fendi creative director in 2008 when he was just 18, and the two struck a firm friendship. 

The two men were so close that they even sparked dating rumours, but Giabiconi has denied that they were ever lovers, calling their bond a ‘filial relationship.’

After Karl’s death in 2019, tensions arose over who was to inherit his £178 million fortune – with Baptiste insisting he was the designer’s ‘favourite heir.’  

Here FEMAIL reveals how the model came to be of such importance to Karl – and how he has been filling his time since his passing, from modelling on runways to announcing he is due to become a father.

Baptiste Giabiconi, 33, from Marignane, southern France, was discovered by the former Chanel creative director when he was 18 in 2008 and the two of them struck a friendship spanning more than a decade. Pictured in 2009

2008-2012: A SUDDEN RISE TO FAME THANKS TO KARL

Giabiconi was a budding model signed to the Agency MGM when he met Karl in 2008. 

He has opened up about growing up ‘spotty and awkward’ and suffering from his parents’ complicated separation when he was 11 which left him feeling like his father had ‘abandoned him.’

Struck by the young model’s good looks, the Chanel creative director booked him for a Chanel Cruise advert with Jerry Hall and also had him pose for a Fendi campaign. 

This launched Giabiconi’s modelling career, and led to appearances in Vogue and several other men’s magazines that same year, as well as a campaign with Giorgio Armani. 

By the end of 2008, Lagerfeld had made him the male face of Chanel, with the French model closing the fashion house’s Paris Fashion week show with a steamy scene with Freja Beha Erichsen and Lara Jones.

Meanwhile he also signed to the New York agency DNA, debuting his international modelling career. 

Giabiconi quickly became one of the most famous male models of the early 2010s.

Lagerfeld was an omnipresent figure in Giabiconi’s rise to fame, whether on camera, like in an advert for Volkswagen in Germany in 2011, or behind the lens, when he photographed the model in a Coco Cola campaign with Coco Rocha that same year.

Giabiconi denied that he and Lagerfeld were ever lover. He said the pair, pictured in 2020, had a father-son relationship

In 2012, his net worth reached £9,661,356, making him the highest paid male model in the world that year. 

In March 2015, he launched a streetwear collection titled ‘Giabiconi is my sexfriend,’ agreeing to pose nude to advertise the brand in pictures taken by none other than Karl Lagerfeld. 

His successful modelling career opened new doors for Giabiconi, allowing him to start a music career. 

He released his debut single ‘Showtime’ in 2010 and from then on, more music projects followed, including a 2016 EDM cover of Donna Summers Love To love You Baby, which was number 4 in the French charts that year. 

2012-2019: SPECULATION OF A DECADES LONG ROMANCE – OR A FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP…

There was much speculation on whether Lagerfeld and his young friend were in fact lovers. Pictured in 2010 in Paris 

The model was the original owner of the Birman cat Choupette, who became Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved pet and muse 

The model with Lagerfeld at the Chanel Spring Summer 2016 show as part of Paris Fashion Week

The pair’s close friendship, and the fact that Lagerfeld was openly gay, fueled speculation that they were in fact lovers. 

Rumours even swirled that the pair were set to get married in the summer of 2012. 

The Chanel creative director never hid the obvious affection that he had for his young protégé, telling him ‘I love you,’ on several occasions.

However the French model has continuously fought off rumours that he and the late designer were ever lovers.

‘People will always talk about me and Karl but it doesn’t bother me. What’s wrong with being a homosexual anyway?’ the model told the Evening Standard that year.   

Writing in his book Karl and Me, which was published in 2020, Giabiconi said the designer first became a mentor for him while he made his modelling debut, and later became a real father-figure in his life. 

Speaking of his ‘special bond’ with Lagerfeld the YouTube channel Le QG in 2021, Giabiconi hit back at people calling him ‘Lagerfeld’s w****’ and said his friendship with ‘the Kaiser’ would not have lasted long if the pair had been lovers.

Calling out his critics for their ‘horrifying homophobia,’ he said sex was never a component of his relationship with Lagerfeld.

‘I can guarantee you, that if I had had sex with Karl or had a romantic relationship with him, it would have withered fairly quickly,’ the model said.

Elaborating on the bond that united the pair, Giabiconi said: ‘It’s a friendship that has lasted over the years because it was not based on any erotic or ambiguous sexual attachment.

‘There were two pillars, and we kept them separated: work, where we explored a lot of things in terms of pictures, and our father-son bond.’

Giabiconi told French television in 2021 he had a ‘filial relationship’ with Lagerfeld. 

He said: ‘As Karl was more interested in taste buds than sex, our relationship soon became one of father-son.’

Meanwhile many speculated that the closeness of their bond was reflected in the fact he gifted Karl his favourite being in the world, his Birman cat Choupette. 

The cat initially belonged to Baptistei, who asked the designer to cat-sit while he went on holiday. 

Legend has it that the Chanel creative director was not too enthusiastic about looking after the pet at first, but eventually fell in love with the feline. 

Lagerfeld doted on Choupette so much that Giabiconi let him keep her. 

The pet, who turned 11 last summer with a lavish holiday, is now being looked after by Lagerfeld’s former governess, Françoise Caçote.

She is also due to attend the Met Gala, which is set to honour the Kaiser’s legacy, in May in New York.

2019: …WHICH ENDED IN AN INHERITANCE BATTLE 

The model and the Chanel and Fendi creative designer spotted at the Style.com’ Launch Party at the VIP Room Theater in Paris in 2015

The model is allegedly among the seven people who were left a share of the Chanel and Fendi creative director’s fortune, estimated to be £178 million, when he died in February 2019. 

Tensions over the will emerged in 2019 between Baptiste Giabiconi and the designer’s right hand man Sébastien Jondeau at the time. 

Giabiconi called himself the designer’s ‘favourite, saying: ‘There are seven main heirs to Karl Lagerfeld. On this list, my name is the highest, I’m the first heir.’

Le Parisien claimed Giabiconi’s claim to the title sparked ‘jealousies and dissensions’.

Meanwhile the magazine Voici published an article claiming the French model had lost touch with the designer before his death – and stated that his spiritual heir was Jondeau.

‘He is not even on the list of persons summoned to the notary for the inheritance!’ sources told Voici at the time, insisting Giabiconi and Lagerfeld had a fall out in recent years and were not in speaking terms when the designer died.

Giabiconi quickly denied this and announced his intention to sue the publication for libel.

He went on to tell Le Parisien that none of Lagerfeld’s friends had fallen out – and claimed the designer would have ‘detested’ reports which alleged they had.

‘We are all in the same boat,’ he said. ‘We are sailing in mid-ocean and there is a beautiful sun and not the slightest storm.’

However Giabiconi and the six other heirs, who count the designer’s close friends, his godson and his housekeeper, were left hanging in 2019, when the designer’s trusted accountant closed his practice and refused to take their calls. 

Lucien Frydlender, now 91, was believed to be the only person with enough knowledge about Lagerfeld’s assets to help with his succession at the time. 

An inventory of the late designer’s assets was being drawn up in 2019, including a bookstore, apartments in Paris and Monaco, his library and designer furniture, however, the matter of the succession appears to still be unresolved, four years after his death. 

The process has been complicated by the fact that Frydlender – who has an intimate knowledge of Lagerfeld’s assets – is not taking anyone’s calls, Le Parisien weekend supplement reported, according to Voici magazine.

Frydlander’s wife, who remains unnamed, has defended her husband and explained he has not ‘run off to an island,’ but is simply too sick to help with the designer’s will.

2022: A ROMANCE WITH A FEMALE PARTNER? 

Engaged? Giabiconi shared a picture of himself holding a woman’s hand, showing off what looked like an engagement ring in September 2022

While he has very rarely commented on his private life publicly,  Giabiconi has been known to have had a number of female partners. 

In 2012, he was rumoured to be dating Katy Perry, however, he told Pure People that he was simply ‘friends’ with the singer, and that she called him when she was in Paris. 

That same year, he revealed he was dating a French woman living in New York named Stephanie, however, the relationship did not seem to last. 

Talking about his taste in woman, he told Pure People: ‘I appreciate when you can stroke a woman’s curves.’

He has since kept his private life out of the limelight – leaving much to the imagination. 

While he denied that Karl Lagerfeld and him were ever lovers, he has never openly addressed his sexuality, and told Voici magazine in 2020 ‘why choose?’ 

However in September 2022, he announced he was engaged on his Instagram.

The model shared a photograph of a picture of his hand holding his partner’s showing off a sparkly diamond ring. 

Meanwhile he is also set to become a father, and announced the news in a surprise post on Instagram in late March. 

A black and white picture showing him holding his partner’s pregnant bump, her hands resting on his neck. 

The woman’s face could not be seen in the snap.  The accompanying caption simply read: ‘Becoming a dad.’ 

2023: LIFE AFTER KARL

Giabiconi was spotted putting on a very stylish display at the Dior Womenswear Fall Winter 2023-2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week in February 

The model and entrepreneur likes to spend his time travelling the world. Pictured in Dubai in 2022 

Giabiconi has focused on his business ventures since the death of his long-time collaborator. 

At 33, he still models, and is multiplying campaigns for YSL, Mugler and Jean-Paul Gauthier. 

He was spotted putting on a stylish display at the Dior Paris Fashion Week show last February when he showed up in a woolen grey ensemble.

Back in October, he donned a black cape shirtless as he walked the runway during the ‘Le Defile Walk Your Worth’ By L’Oreal Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week.

Giabiconi is a brand ambassador for l’Oreal, as well as for the jewellery brand APM Monaco, Techno Gym and Viktor&Rolf Fragrances. 

As well as working with a number of big brands, he has also funded his own  entrepreneurial projects with his earnings. 

He released another album in 2021, titled Oxygen, which was  a commercial success in France, topping the SNEP album charts. 

The model also launched his own marketing agency, Wonderwall agency, which he advertises on Instagram. 

He also founded his own holiday business, Casa Giabiconi, where he rents four-stars villas to holiday-makers in the South of France.