Victoria’s Secret Hit With Wild Nepo-Baby Controversy

The iconic Victoria’s Secret fashion show is at the center of a major controversy.

The underwear giant faces a growing backlash mere days before its annual runway show on Sunday, Oct.

18, with the company’s casting choices—including a purported move toward hiring nepo-baby models—at the center of the fuss.

Model Romee Strijd, a regular face in the Victoria’s Secret runway shows from 2014 to 2018, posted two TikTok videos on Monday discussing her experience with the brand.

In the first TikTok video, the 31-year-old Dutch model said many people had asked whether she would be in the upcoming show.

Strijd became an Angel, a contract model and spokesperson for the brand, in 2015 and walked the finale of the 2018 show with Swarovski wings.

That was the final show before Victoria’s Secret paused its runway shows because of plummeting ratings and multiple controversies .

The shows were revived in 2024 , and Strijd, now a mother of two, decided to try out for the 2026 show.

The model said she spent the summer preparing her body and flew to New York City for casting in the first week of September.

But in the following five to six weeks, she said she heard nothing: “I kept asking my agency for updates, but apparently I’m still on that ‘maybe’ list.” With Strijd’s participation still “a big question mark” just six days before the show, she kept training and preparing, admitting the process was “a bit of a roller coaster mentally.” Soon after posting the first video, Strijd sat down for a second TikTok video.

This time, she was teary-eyed as she revealed she had just been told she wouldn’t be walking the show.

“My agency just called, and I said, like, ‘Okay, what’s happening?’ And she said, “Yeah, you know, you look great, blah, blah.

But they thought you wouldn’t fit in the show this year,’” Strijd said.

She then explained her frustration with the mixed signals she felt she was getting from her agency about how the casting process had proceeded: “They kept me in the dark… Not knowing for so long… I got a lot of mental stress from it.“ Strijd said this would close the Angel chapter for her.