Heidi Klum has made an odd move in confirming her relationship with her bodyguard (ex-bodyguard? I’ll get to that in a minute), Martin Kristen, by releasing some details in a new exclusive with People. To recap, some photos surfaced last month of Heidi and Martin looking awfully cozy during a vacation with Heidi and Seal’s children. In the aftermath, Seal popped off to TMZ about how he expected much better from Heidi than for her to “fornicate with the help,” and he wished that Heidi “would have shown a little more class and at least wait until we separated first.” He ended his rant with “I guess you all now have the answer that you’ve been waiting for for the past seven months.” The obvious implication there was that Heidi and Seal divorced because she was banging the bodyguard on the side, but of course, Seal tried to backtrack and say he didn’t mean it like that. Whatever.

A few days later, Heidi spoke out, but she kept it vague by saying “Seal has moved on and so have I,” which was a statement that seemed to inform the world that she might be banging Martin, but she definitely wasn’t doing so while they were married. Now People has the “inside story” that includes details from Heidi’s appearance on the new Katie Couric talk show but also, creepily, word from some Klum insiders about why she and Martin are so good together. I’m illustrating the story with some photos of Heidi and Martin over the past few years. They seem like they’d be an odd couple, but I guess that’s a non-issue now that we know they’re together:

When rumors surfaced that relations between Heidi Klum and her bodyguard of four years, Martin Kirsten, weren’t strictly professional, it was unclear what was really going on. “It’s complicated,” a friend of Klum’s tells PEOPLE, explaining that Kirsten, also 39, is Klum’s “no. 1 confidante.”

Well, someone cue Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” because it seems like Klum is singing a different tune: On Wednesday’s episode of Katie Couric’s new daytime talk show, Klum, 39, admits, “[Martin]’s a great man and recently we just got to know each other from a completely different side.”

“He’s been with our family for the last four years. He’s cared for our four children and helped us tremendously,” Klum also said during her Katie interview. “I trust him with my children’s life.” And her happiness, too, apparently. “He was always her rock,” says an insider. “While everything was crumbling in her personal life he was there for her.”

In addition, “he shows real care and concern for her and her children,” adds the Klum pal. “She relies on him. It’s a little bit of cliché with The Bodyguard movie. I don’t know what will happen in their lives.”

Why They Work
After seeing photos of the model-mogul and the South African bodyguard on a recent beach vacation to Sardinia with Klum’s family, the attraction between the pair isn’t hard to figure out.

“Tall and handsome are very accurate words for him,” says a source. “He can be funny and light but he’s also very professional, which is why I’m really surprised” by the relationship.

Trained in private personal protection with weapons, “Martin takes his job very seriously,” echoes another family source. “It’s not like him to cross the line with a client. At the same time it’s totally understandable. Martin is very loyal to Heidi. They had a friendship that turned romantic.”

For a person like Klum, who is not a regular in the Hollywood social scene, it’s easy to understand why she would fall for a guy close to home. “If there’s someone around who knows your children and knows everything around you, it’s pretty comfortable and easy to connect,” says the Klum friend.

One person who wasn’t thrilled with the news? Klum’s estranged husband Seal, 49, who declared his dismay in a now infamous TMZ video in which he said he wished Klum “waited until we separated before deciding to fornicate with the help.”

“He’s upset,” says a source close to the singer, who only learned of the budding relationship when the rumors made headlines. “What really bothers Seal was this guy was a dear friend. They called each other ‘brother.’ He feels betrayed.”

[From People]

Isn’t that a nice little detail at the end about why Klum’s people believe that Seal is upset? Such maneuvering has occurred on both sides of this divorce. Meanwhile, other details from Heidi’s interview with Couric leaked earlier this week, most notably with Heidi claiming that nothing happened with Martin when she was with Seal: “When we were together, I never looked at another man.” In addition, this week’s issue of In Touch reveals that Heidi has hired a new bodyguard, who was apparently at her side on Sept. 4 and 7 during a trip to NYC. Who knows if this means that Martin is no longer employed by Heidi, but I’m guessing that he probably is. This new bodyguard is probably just there for the damage control because, yeah, it looks bad for Heidi to be sleeping with anyone that she pays. It’s kind of a Gosselin move.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet