Supermodel Linda Evangelista has opened up about how a cosmetic surgery has physically and emotionally damaged her, and her fans are showing their support.
This past September, Evangelista, 56, shared an Instagram post about how she got Cryolipolysis, also known as CoolSculpting, a cosmetic procedure that removes body fat through a freezing technique, per Mayo Clinic. However, the results of this procedure were the opposite of what she was expecting.
“It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries,” her post reads. “I have been left, as the media has described, “unrecognizable.””
Speaking to People on 16 February, Evangelista, 56, discussed the last few years of her life and details about the procedure.
Evangelista underwent seven sessions of CoolSculpting from August 2015 to February 2016. However, three months later, she noticed bulges in her thighs, chin, and bra area, the areas she wanted to shrink. Aside from growing, these parts of her body also just ended up feeling numb.
“I tried to fix it myself, thinking I was doing something wrong,” she said. “I got to where I wasn’t eating at all. I thought I was losing my mind.” She also started dieting and exercising more at the time.
By June 2016, she decided to go to the doctor and get her body checked out. She was then diagnosed with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), a rare side effect of CoolSculpting that causes patients’ fat to thicken rather than shrink, as noted by JAMA Dermatology.
“I dropped my robe for him,” she recalled. “I was bawling, and I said, ‘I haven’t eaten, I’m starving. What am I doing wrong?’”
“I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’” she asked, in response to her diagnosis. “And he told me no amount of dieting, and no amount of exercise was ever going to fix it.”
Due to the results of this procedure, Evangelista said that she filed a lawsuit this past September against Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., CoolSculpting’s parent company, for $50 million. She claimed that she’s been unable to work since she first underwent CoolSculpting in 2015.
“I loved being up on the catwalk. Now I dread running into someone I know,” she told People. “I can’t live like this anymore, in hiding and shame. I just couldn’t live in this pain any longer. I’m willing to finally speak.”
She claims that the CoolSculpting company wanted to “make it right” and offered to perform a liposuction for free. However, the night before this surgery, she was informed that she had to sign a confidentiality agreement. She refused and paid for her first two full-body liposuctions in 2016.
Ultimately, her PAH symptoms came back in 2017, after a second liposuction. “The bulges are protrusions. And they’re hard,” she explained. “If I walk without a girdle in a dress, I will have chafing to the point of almost bleeding. Because it’s not like soft fat rubbing, it’s like hard fat rubbing.”
Despite her experience with this cosmetic procedure, Evangelista is doing what she can, with the help of the lawsuit, to gain her confidence back.
“Why do we feel the need to do these things [to our bodies]? I always knew I would age,” she said. “And I know that there are things a body goes through. But I just didn’t think I would look like this. I don’t recognize myself physically, but I don’t recognize me as a person any longer either.”
“I hope I can shed myself of some of the shame and help other people who are in the same situation as me,” she added. “That’s my goal.”
On social media, many of Evangelista’s fans have been supporting her health journey and applauding her for sharing her story.
“I just Googled those photos from 2017 having never seen them before,” one Twitter user wrote. “Unrecognizable?! Not that face! My God the woman is still incredibly beautiful, she’s just older and larger. She [needs to] have no shame.”
“Let’s not make fun of her,” another Tweet reads. “She’s a human being who makes a living off her looks. She went in for a routine procedure and it went sideways. I hope she gets some help for her condition.”
Other Twitter users noted how much pressure there can be when working in the modeling industry and that Evangelista is still a major success in her career.
“So sad for her,” one wrote. “Modeling industry is not kind to women.”
“Doesn’t matter, she will always be one of the best models in history of High fashion,” another fan wrote. “The amount & quality of work she has done is astounding.”
