Gigi Hadid Elbowed a Rude Prankster in the Face at Milan Fashion Week

Gigi Hadid didn’t waste any time to defend herself when a prankster manhandled her at Milan Fashion Week.

In a video released by TMZ, Gigi is seen being lifted off the ground by Ukrainian prankster Vitalii Sediuk (who was wearing a disguise) as she and sister Bella were exiting the venue. She then elbowed him in the face and attempted to chase him down the street as he ran away. “Find the guy!” she tells her security team as she got in the car after the incident. And we hope they did find him because what he did can count for assault.

Vitalii is widely known as a “serial prankster” with high-profile victims which include Madonna, Will Smith, Anna Wintour, and Brad Pitt. After pranking the latter in 2014―he buried his face in Brad’s crotch during the Maleficent premiere, JSYK―he was sentenced to three months probation, a year of psychiatric counseling, and even blacklisted from flying back to the US. He was also told to stay 500 feet away from any red carpet event. So yeah, the guy’s pretty messed up.

Since then, Gigi has posted a series of tweets to explain what happened after articles portrayed her as the bad guy. She also gave advice to other girls who might experience the same thing and more importantly, she thanked her boxing coach.

Gigi expressed that she’s not going to fire her MFW security team for (obviously) being lax during the incident.

Meanwhile, Vitalii released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, saying that he wanted to make a statement about “cute girls on Instagram” taking over high-fashion. “While I consider Gigi Hadid beautiful, she and her friend Kendall Jenner have nothing to do with high fashion. By doing this, I encourage the fashion industry to put true talents on the runway and Vogue covers instead of well-connected cute girls from Instagram,” Vitalii says. And when he was told that his stunt is an assault to women, he replies, “Don’t be over-dramatic.”