Swimsuit

8 Breathtaking Images of Danielle Herrington’s Photo Shoot in the Bahamas

The model made her SI Swimsuit debut in 2017 and the next year landed the cover.

Cara O’Bleness

Danielle Herrington

Danielle Herrington.

When Danielle Herrington traveled to Harbour Island in the Bahamas for her second SI Swimsuit location shoot in 2018, she never dreamed she’d land on the issue cover. After all, she had only started her modeling career the year before. (Her 2017 SI Swimsuit rookie shoot was her very first professional job...in Fiji, no less.) With her star turn, Herrington became the third Black woman to be featured on the SI Swimsuit cover, following in the footsteps of Tyra Banks (1996, 1997 and 2019) and Beyoncé (2007). 

Banks herself was the one to reveal to Herrington that she had been selected for the 2018 cover. While Herrington was thrilled to receive the news from her “idol,” she initially thought she was crashing Banks’s photo shoot.

Herrington, now 29, shared that modeling for SI Swimsuit helped her to love and appreciate her body in a way she never had previously.

“Becoming a part of the [Sports Illustrated] family has been such a positive thing in my life, personally,” she stated. “[Sports Illustrated] helped me feel a little bit more comfortable with myself, because that was all they were promoting, like diversity... whatever you are, embrace it, own it. That’s what my cover said: ‘Own it.’”

After her cover feature, Herrington posed for the magazine the following three years, traveling to Costa Rica, Wyoming and Hollywood, Fla. Four days after wrapping her 2021 shoot, the Compton, Calif., native learned she was pregnant (her partner is model Geron McKinley). Their son was born in August 2021.

Below are eight of our favorite images from Herrington's cover photo shoot in Harbour Island, Bahamas, with photographer Ben Watts.

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Published
Cara O’Bleness

CARA O’BLENESS

Cara is a trending news writer/editor for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. A passionate writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience in print and online media, she loves storytelling and believes that words have the power to change the world. Prior to joining the team, Cara worked as a writer and editor across a number of content verticals, including food, lifestyle, health and wellness, and small business and entrepreneurship. In her free time, Cara loves reading, spending time with her family and making her way through Michigan’s many microbreweries. She is a graduate of Michigan State University's School of Journalism.