Gigi Hadid believes her late grandmother will be with her "forever".

Gigi Hadid

Gigi Hadid

The 24-year-old model has paid a touching tribute to her "queen angel", Ans van den Herik, after her maternal grandparent died of cancer and praised her elderly relative's "courage, strength and grace"

Gigi shared a series of black and white photos on Instagram of herself and Ans and wrote: "OUR QUEEN ANGEL fought cancer six times in her life with courage, strength, and grace while being the greatest mother and grandmother. She is an honorable guide we will carry with us forever. We love you more than words, our beautiful wonderful Oma.(sic)"

She also shared throwback photos of them together.

One was simply captioned: "Oma [blue heart emoji] FOREVER (sic)"

And the other bore the words: "REST IN PARADISE (sic)"

Gigi's tribute came shortly after her mother, Yolanda Hadid, broke the news in the early hours of Saturday (31.08.19) morning that her mom had died at the age of 78.

She wrote on Instagram: "RIP my guardian angel Mama, Thank you for loving me the way the way that you did and for making me the woman that I am today.

"On angel wings you were taken away, but in my heart you will always stay..... I can not imagine this life without you but I pray that I will hear you whisper in the tallest trees and feel your love in the gentle breeze...

"When I miss you the most, our beautiful memories will hold you close... Our Love is eternal and you will always be with me and i will always be with you beyond the bounds of this realm

"Rest In Peace my beautiful mama, I will honor you for the rest of my days..... Until we meet again, I LOVE YOU (sic)"

Yolanda's other daughter Bella, 22, remembered her grandmother on her own Instagram Stories with some photos.

She wrote: "I wish I could hug you right now."