Seal ‘Made Mistakes’ and Wasn’t Always the ‘Perfect Dad’ With the Kids He Shares With Heidi Klum

Seal reflected on how the children he shares with ex-wife Heidi Klum have grown into impressive young people while admitting he learned from “mistakes” he made while they were growing up.

“Luckily my — I can’t call them kids — the sons and daughters that I raised, they’re seeing that I tried my best,” the “Crazy” singer, 61, told People ahead of the 2025 Super Bowl on Sunday, February 9. “I wasn’t always perfect but I tried my best.”

Seal and Heidi, 51, share son Henry, 19, son Johan, 18, and daughter Lou, 15. He adopted Heidi’s 20-year-old daughter Leni in 2009 when she was 5 years old.

“You end up with these great friends now that you can have, you know, real conversations with,” he said of his teenagers and young adults.

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“And you get to learn from your mistakes as a parent, the ones that you’ve made and you get to realize that all that they really care about is not the mistakes you made, but did you always try? Did you always try your best as a parent?” Seal continued.

“As they get older you see that they understand that because they become adults themselves and they realize how difficult it is to be a parent,” the Grammy winner pointed out.

“In fact, it’s the hardest job in the world because it’s the one job where you can’t make mistakes, but the reality is you do make mistakes,” Seal said of parenthood. “They don’t really care so much about those. They care about if you tried, if you tried your best as a parent.”

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Seal and Heidi married in May 2005 and split in 2012. The former couple finalized their divorce in 2014.

The “Kiss From a Rose” singer was already helping raise Leni before he and Heidi had children of their own. Her father is Heidi’s ex-boyfriend and former Formula One racing boss Flavio Briatore.

The pair are still so close. Seal accompanied Leni to the 2021 premiere of The Harder They Fall and gushed about his eldest daughter.

“It’s always been like this, from the day I met your mother. She [Heidi] was two weeks pregnant with this beautiful woman. We have always had this bond,” he told Entertainment Tonight about Leni at the time.

In September 2023, he shared a rare Instagram photo with the New York University student, writing, “In NY with the young woman who changed my life for the better 19 yrs ago. Thank you Leni for making me a better person,” adding, “Love you, — papa.”

Seal made a rare comment about son Henry following the model’s debut at Paris Fashion Week in January, saying he is happy with whatever career his children choose.

“Listen, I am proud of anything they do. If Henry was sweeping the streets, but he was passionate about it, I would be just as proud as seeing him walk down a catwalk,” he told Us Weekly on February 5.

The enthusiastic dad added, ‘“If that is sweeping the streets, and I mean that literally. If that’s what made him happy, I would wake up each morning to see him do it.”