"Yay!"

Leap year: Lena Gercke has another birthday

(Bild: Christoph Soeder / dpa / picturedesk.com)

Lena Gercke can finally celebrate her birthday properly again and doesn't have to do it on March 1 as she usually does! The "Germany's Next Topmodel" winner turned 36 on February 29, 2024. 

The German model is one of those people who was born on a leap day, on February 29, 1988. The beauty, who was the first to win Heidi Klum's Topmodel show, rejoiced on Instagram that this day has finally come around again and posted a message to her fans.

"Yay"
"Guys, it's finally back. It's back, February 29th. Yay!" She first celebrated with a breakfast birthday, as she revealed. And "afterwards, we're going on a little tour up the mountain", she announced. Gercke has been in a relationship with director Dustin Schöne since 2019 and has two daughters with him, who presumably gave her a heartfelt birthday party first thing in the morning on Thursday.

Lena Gercke is a leap day baby and was born on February 29, 1988.(Bild: Christoph Soeder / dpa / picturedesk.com)

Spring in January ...
Every four years is a leap year, in which the calendar counts 366 days. In 2024, February has therefore not only been given 28 days, but an additional 29th to bring the calendar and the seasons back into line.

This prevents the start of spring from being in January in a few hundred years' time.

In Austria, this affects a total of 4,835 "leap year children" who were born on February 29. This includes 186 four-year-old children who were born in Austria and could now look forward to their "first real" birthday.