Linda Evangelista Opens Up About Disastrous Cosmetic Procedure

For popular talent in the fashion industry known as "supermodels," the title was born with the help of names like Linda Evangelista during the fashion boom of the 1990s. Evangelista, alongside other '90s supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, shaped the fashion industry and are now considered some of the most photographed people in the world. However, just five years ago, Evangelista walked away from the flashing lights and glamorous events due to a disastrous cosmetic procedure.

In an exclusive interview with People, Evangelista, now 56, spoke about how this cosmetic ordeal has profoundly affected her in recent years; causing a lot of pain, both physical and emotional. According to her, CoolSculpting, a trend among celebrities in recent years, is a non-invasive procedure that promises to reduce body fat by freezing it. However, the procedure left her body permanently deformed and made it impossible for her to continue her work.

Because of this, the model filed a lawsuit against the company responsible for the equipment asking for $50 million in damages. The procedures would have been carried out during seven sessions between August 2015 and February 2016.

Evangelista told the magazine, "I loved being on the runway. Now I'm afraid to meet someone I know. I can't live like this anymore, hiding and ashamed. I just couldn't live with this pain anymore. I'm willing to finally speak up."

She began to notice problems months after finishing treatment. After seeing a doctor, she was diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, meaning that the fat that should have been eliminated became more resistant to treatments. 

In September 2021, the model opened up on Instagram for the first time about why she's been so absent from the spotlight in recent years. She wrote, "To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers’ careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised. It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I was left, as the media described it, 'unrecognizable.'"