Yolanda Hadid’s Controversial “Storm Room” Has Fans Completely Split

After former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid left behind the Malibu home that went viral for its incredible refrigerator (it had clear glass doors, impeccably styled produce, and its own Twitter account), she eventually landed in Fort Worth, Texas, where she’s now the proud owner of a massive cowboy-themed ranch house. Last week Architectural Digest posted a tour of the former Real Housewives star’s new home, and the internet (and, in particular, Instagram) has, um, thoughts. 

Hadid, who’s engaged to construction company CEO Joseph Jingoli and mom to world-famous models Gigi and Bella, greeted AD at her new home while wearing a cowboy hat and leather chaps. 

Hadid said that her inspiration for the home was “industrial, modern, relaxed,” and somewhere you could “put your boots up on the table and not worry about anything.” But it’s the controversial storm room (something you would have to worry a lot about in that part of Texas, I’d think?) meant to protect the home and its occupants from tornadoes that has fans seriously divided on her brand new real estate.

Commenters were quick to jump on Hadid’s tornado room in the tour, with one saying: “I’m dying as a real Texan. Why is she wearing pristine chaps for this, we rarely have legit tornado rooms…”

Another commenter added, “And a legit tornado shelter when living in tornado alley makes sense. It’s concrete ceilings and floor and walls. The whole house could go and they would still be in there. All this run to the bathtub folks can still get sucked into a tornado lol. I live in Kansas and I am installing a bullet proof tornado room in my buildout. If you can do it why not? Preparedness for the environment you live in is always smart.”

According to the Center for Science Education, most tornadoes occur in the Great Plains, an area in the U.S. that includes parts of Northern Texas, and the National Weather Service data shows that a total of 286 tornadoes have touched down in Texas between 1950 and 2023 (an average of 3.9 per year).

Another commenter shared their skepticism about needing a built-out tornado room by saying, “Tornado room? You mean the bathroom in the bathtub with a mattress?” And yet another summed it up perfectly: “I don’t know if 500 glass jars is the absolute best thing to have on the walls of the “storm room.” (You can take the full Architectural Digest tour of Hadid’s new home here.)

Aside from the comments about the storm room, people in the comments are having a hard time taking Hadid’s entire home seriously.

“All hat, no cattle,” one person wrote on AD’s Instagram post. “It looks like a steak house,” another added.

And on YouTube, someone else wrote, “That mud room looks more like an upscale boutique store for rich people who want to buy their first Western wear because they’re going to a resort that weekend that will have horses.”

Maybe if she didn’t wear those chaps, fans would be singing a different tune. But whatever your take, you’ve got to hand it to her for having another glass-door fridge — now that is livin’.