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Supermodel Karlie Kloss Opens Up About The Difficulties Of Being Connected To Trump After Marrying Jared Kushner's Brother
Last October, American model Karlie Kloss, 26, married her longtime love, 34-year-old venture capitalist, Josh Kushner.
While the couple's honeymoon phase should be in full swing fresh off their matrimonial bliss, she has experienced some challenges being married to someone whose brother works closely with Donald Trump.
If the Kushner surname doesn't ring any bells, it should.
Kloss' beau is the brother of Jared Kushner – the President's senior advisor and son-in-law married to Ivanka Trump.
Kloss and her husband are staunch Democrats, but while she supported and voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, Kushner did not, according to Esquire.
She publicly denounced many of the Trump Administration policies since the inauguration and faced conservative backlash for her political stance.
Kloss opened up to British Vogue and said that her connection with the First Family has been "hard."
But instead of delving into the effects of Trump's turbulent administration, Kloss took a page from her bestie Taylor Swift's songbook and decided to shake it off.
" I choose to focus on the values that I share with my husband, and those are the same liberal values that I was raised with and that have guided me throughout my life."
Kloss reflected on the past and acknowledged she was more hesitant about speaking up.
"Looking back at my late teens and early twenties, I think I was fearful that I would lose a job or lose my position if I said I didn't want to do something."
She later realized there is power in being more vocal about important causes and will no longer hold back.
"But I did not lose out on jobs. If anything, the more I exercised the power of my voice, the more I earned respect from my peers. And I earned more respect for myself. Only now do I have the confidence to stand tall – all 6ft 2in of me – and know the power of my voice."
Kloss and Kushner had been dating for seven years since she was 19, long before Trump took office.
On July 24, 2018, she announced their engagement a month after converting to Kushner's faith of Judaism.
"Changing part of who you are for someone else can be seen as weak. But you know what? Actually, if you've been through what I've experienced, it requires you to be anything but weak. It requires me to be stronger and self-loving and resilient. I really did not take this lightly."
Karlie Kloss discusses converting to Judaism to marry husband Josh https://t.co/UYx8RlfNMX— Rozina (@Rozina) 1562020388.0
She continued:
"It wasn't enough to just love Josh and make this decision for him. This is my life and I am an independent, strong woman."
"It was only after many years of studying and talking with my family and friends and soul searching that I made the decision to fully embrace Judaism in my life and start planning for a future with the man I chose to marry."
Karlie Kloss threw herself a second wedding with an extra dose of yeehaw. https://t.co/hbkZrjJwsf— HuffPost (@HuffPost) 1561404165.0
Karlie Kloss and Josh Kushner host second wedding celebration in Wyoming https://t.co/eKUNX3yIMH https://t.co/rkxFhszTsI— Page Six (@Page Six) 1561383363.0
In October 2018, Kloss announced she would be the newest host of Project Runway, stepping into Heidi Klum's shoes for season 17 as the show's host and executive producer.
The former Victoria's Secret Angel is also an avid computer programmer and is the founder of Kode with Klossy, a program that provides opportunities for young women ages 13-18 in the tech industry by offering free two-week boot camps teaching software engineering.
'Kode with Klossy', a program launched by Karlie Kloss, has taught nearly 400 young women programming languages suc… https://t.co/AwcJNNqyaW— Forbes (@Forbes) 1521271801.0
As a political activist, she attended the first Women's March the day following Trump's inauguration and is an activist for stricter gun legislation.
She urged followers to vote for candidates who support anti-gun violence in the midterm elections.
She is also an advocate for women's reproductive rights and attended the
emergency rally in her home state of Missouri in response to the widespread abortion bans across the country.
Despite aligning to opposing parties, there seems to be no contention between the happy couple and their in-laws, Jared and Ivanka.
In fact, Ivanka congratulated Kloss and Kushner on their wedding in Upstate, New York, on October 18, 2018.
She captioned a photo of the couple with:
"So much love for you both as you begin forever together."
In 2017, Josh said of his brother, "Jared and I still speak every day," according to PEOPLE.
In the Vogue interview, Kloss also discussed her decision to step down as a model for Victoria's Secret having a lot to do with female empowerment before the dawn of #metoo.
"The reason I decided to stop working with Victoria's Secret was I didn't feel it was an image that was truly reflective of who I am and the kind of message I want to send to young women around the world about what it means to be beautiful."
"I think that was a pivotal moment in me stepping into my power as a feminist, being able to make my own choices and my own narrative, whether through the companies I choose to work with, or through the image I put out to the world."
The full
British Vogue interview will appear in the publication's August issue when it hits newsstands on July 5.
The book for kids, Karlie Kloss (Influential People), available here, focuses on Kloss' life off the runway.
"Karlie Kloss is a model who also runs her own business making vegan, gluten-free cookies. In 2014 she started a scholarship to help young women learn how to code. Learn more about how Karlie uses her success to make a difference!"