Christy Turlington says she's sick of men ogling her daughter Grace, 22, as she insists 'a young woman is a child, and I don't know if a lot of men have control'

Christy Turlington has said she felt deeply unsettled when men started to ogle her daughter.  

As one of the original 1990s supermodels, Christy was no stranger to the male gaze. Yet she says her views on the type of attention she was getting shifted when she could see men 'looking' at her daughter Grace Burns, 22.

'It was something that I was aware of but I didn't go deep on it until I had a child of my own who at 15 or so I could see men's eyes looking at her in that way,' she has explained.  

Grace is Christy's eldest child Hollywood actor Edward Burns, and has since followed her mother's footsteps into modelling.

Speaking on Bella Freud's Fashion Neurosis podcast, Christy added that she doesn't know if men have control over themselves in such a situation.

'A young woman is a child, and I don't know if a lot of men have control in the way that they react to that beauty and innocence,' she said.

'Whatever that is, it's like its a drug I think and people aren't even aware that they have that reaction.' 

'And they need to actually be taught not to have that reaction or to ask themselves why they're having that reaction. It's it's a very strange thing to observe.

Marking Grace's 22nd birthday in October, Christy raved about her daughter's 'poise, sensibility, and determination.'

'It’s so hard to comprehend how quickly these 22 years have flown by sometimes and then also as if we’ve know one another for centuries,' she wrote on Instagram.

'You continue to amaze me since the moment we met - in countless ways. Your poise, sensibility, and determination are unrivaled in my mind, and my vocabulary is too limited to express all the qualities that you embody.'

'As with each and every milestone and accomplishment earned this far, I know you’re just getting started. 

Christy shares Grace and son Finn, 18, with her husband Ed. They met in 2000 at a charity event and got married in 2003. 

Grace is following in her mother's footsteps in the modelling world. 

Despite being warned to stay 'far away' from modelling, Grace made her runway debut in 2023 at the X LuisaViaRoma show in Florence, Italy. 

Two months before that event, the mother-daughter duo appeared in a campaign for designer Carolina Herrera. 

In summer 2024 Christy shared a rare photo with her husband and two kids on social media as she revealed she was 'an empty nester'. 

Her sweet family portrait was shared in celebration of her younger child Finn's high school graduation.

'I am officially an “empty nester” today!' she wrote in the post, which racked up a host of likes from fellow fashion stars, including pal Linda Evangelista.

'How do I feel about it? Ask me in three months, after my baby has moved out of our home and settled into his college dorm across the country.'

'Every day is a gift, especially when in good health and when we feel safe and well supported,' the star shared.

'I know by now that life and our experiences are fleeting and that what’s truly important is to make meaningful connections in this lifetime.'

The model launched Every Mother Counts in 2010, which is a nonprofit that aims to 'address the barriers to maternal health around the world and at home', after almost dying during the birth of her daughter in 2003.

'Usually, baby's out, you're feeling OK, and it's a matter of recouping and bonding. [But] within an hour or so, the energy in the room shifted. And what I had was the beginning of a very serious postpartum hemorrhage,' she explained previously.  

'A woman can bleed to death within two hours.'

Every Mother Counts is a campaign dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safer for every mother, everywhere,' Christy explained.

'Hundreds of thousands of girls and women die because of not having access to basic or emergency obstetric care.'