Bella Hadid and Her Cowboy Broke Up
We can only hope Bella’s next beau offers as many new fashion opportunities as this one did.
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Picture this: a lone Hadid catwalks across the dusty plains into the sunset, leaving her humble steed (aka sexy cowboy boyfriend) behind once and for all. Entertainment Tonight broke the news on Monday that Bella Hadid has split from her boyfriend, equestrian champ Adan Banuelos, after two years of “on again, off again” dating. At least they’ll always have the “million-dollar horses” they purchased together to remember each other by.
“Bella is doing her best to stay positive and distract herself since the split,” the source told ET. “She’s been staying busy with work and spending time with close friends. She is still processing the breakup since it was a very serious relationship.” That’s right. Bella Hadid was in a “very serious” relationship with a cowboy for over two years, and some of us (me) are just hearing about it now.
Here’s what we know:
Hadid was first linked to Banuelos, a Texas-based championship rider and National Cutting Horse Association Riders Hall of Fame Inductee, when the two were spotted holding hands and kissing while walking around the Fort Worth stockyards (romantic) shortly after she split from art director Marc Kalman in early 2023. From there, the two were off to the races, and eagle-eyed viewers of Bella’s Instagram noticed a marked increase in cowboy hats, horses, and other equestrian-inspired attire.
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Because if you’re not using your new relationship as an excuse to enter a whole new style category, you’re not dating to your full potential.
The two did not go Instagram official until Valentine’s Day 2024, when Bella declared her love for Adan via an Instagram story that looks like it could be a still from a cowboy-themed Hallmark Christmas movie (which almost certainly exists).
From then on, Bella took on the role of public cowgirl-friend, showing up to support Adan at his riding events while wearing various outfits that looked like they were pulled directly from the set of Coyote Ugly.
By March 2024, TMZ was reporting that Bella had purchased property in Texas, spurred on by her relationship with Banuelos. The two spent the year attending various fashion and/or horse-based events together, including the premiere of Banuelos’ movie Horse Sense, which Bella celebrated with its own IG tribute.
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But as with all IG-tribute-heavy relationships, the truth behind the scenes was that the couple was always on a rough ride. Rumors that there was trouble between the two began circulating in June, which Banuelos appeared to reference in his 2025 birthday tribute post to Bella:
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“October’s become a special month,” he wrote. “It’s the month God sent you. Even with all the chaos and ugliness, He gave us something pure and beautiful.”
And like all IG-tribut-heavy relationships that start making vague references to “all the chaos and ugliness,” it would be just a few short months before they tipped their hats to each other one last time and skeedaddled. We can only hope Bella’s next beau offers as many new fashion opportunities as this one did.
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