Quiet Strength and Multicultural Roots: The Life of Kim Shaik

A portrait in quiet strokes

Kim Shaik is the steady center of a family painted in many colors. An Australian woman of Lithuanian descent, she is best known publicly as the mother of international model Shanina Shaik. Her life reads less like headlines and more like a long, patient novel—pages filled with day jobs, school runs, and the small victories of raising children who would go on to cross oceans and runways. Facts about her professional life are scarce. What is clear is numerical and domestic: two children raised mainly by Kim after a separation; at least one grandchild; decades spent in Melbourne; a family stitched together from Lithuanian, Pakistani, Saudi and Chinese threads.

Quick facts

Early life and heritage

Kim was born in Melbourne to parents who left Lithuania after the upheaval of World War II. That post-1945 migration shaped the family’s identity: a European lineage transplanted into Australian soil. She inherited the fair features of her Lithuanian family—features that allowed her to “blend” easily into Australian life. Exact birth year is not publicly recorded; estimates place her birth in the 1960s–1970s. Her childhood and early adulthood took place against the backdrop of post-war Australian society, where immigrant families negotiated assimilation and the preservation of memory.

Marriage, separation, and single-parent resilience

Sometime in the 1980s Kim married Hanif Shaik, a man whose own story is multicultural: born or raised in Singapore to a Pakistani father and a Saudi mother. Together they built a household in the Melbourne suburb of Hoppers Crossing and welcomed two children. Shanina arrived on 11 February 1991. A younger son, Shay, followed around 1994.

The marriage ended in the late 1990s (approximate). After the separation, Kim became the family’s primary provider. She worked outside the spotlight, managing income, domestic logistics, and the emotional labor of single parenthood. Those years demanded practicality. They also cultivated a household culture in which cultural identity mattered—Kim encouraged pride and resilience when her children experienced bullying for their looks or heritage.

Family at a glance

Shanina’s rise — a family echo

Kim’s role in Shanina’s early life is both practical and formative. Shanina won baby shows from six weeks old, began modeling at age 8 via a talent agency, and later left school in Year 11 to pursue modeling in New York (2008). She has since become an internationally recognized model—runway shows, campaigns, and public-facing ventures. Important dates tied to Shanina that shaped Kim’s later life:

• 1991 — Shanina born (11 February).
• 2002–2008 — Early modeling and the move to New York in 2008.
• 2018 — Shanina marries (DJ Ruckus) on Eleuthera Island, Bahamas.
• 2019 — Separation/divorce finalized after a year apart.
• 2020 — Shanina begins a relationship with Matthew Adesuyan.
• 16 Sep 2022 — Birth of Zai at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles.
• 2023 — Shanina launches a skincare line.

Numbers matter here because they mark both milestones and sacrifices: a move at age 17, long-distance family ties, and the emotional cost of a young person leaving home for a global career. Throughout, Kim maintained contact and support from Melbourne—messages, encouragement, and the rank-and-file work of mothering across time zones.

Shay and the quieter chapters

Shay, born around 1994, spent much of his childhood in a household where Shanina took on caretaking duties from a young age—helping push the sibling through morning routines while Kim worked. Now in his early 30s (about 31 as of 2025), Shay keeps a private life. There are no public career details, few social-media footprints, and a strong preference for privacy. The family portrait therefore has bright public brushstrokes (Shanina) and softer, domestic tones where Shay and Kim live their quieter days.

Extended family and blended identities

After the divorce, Hanif remarried a Chinese woman and fathered two sons—adding at least two half-siblings to Kim’s children. This created a family web spanning Lithuanian-Australian, Pakistani, Saudi, and Chinese roots. Cultural fusion is not merely theoretical here; it is lived. Meals, names, and family stories cross geographies. Identity, for this family, has been negotiated in classrooms and at kitchen tables alike.

Values, social life, and public profile

Kim’s public appearances are rare. She uses Facebook to mark private milestones; the birth of her grandson Zai was announced there. She otherwise maintains a low profile online, and there is no verified Instagram account connected to her name. Her role is described repeatedly as that of a working single mother who ensured children had clothing, schooling, and steady care. Her achievements are familial rather than professional: she fostered an environment where a daughter could launch into international modeling, where a son could grow secure and private, and where grandchildren could arrive to warm family arms.

Timeline of major family events