Canadian model Linda Evangelista, who commanded catwalks and magazine covers in the 1990s, is opening up about her private struggles with what she characterizes as a cosmetic treatment gone wrong.
Supermodel Linda Evangelista has said she has been left “permanently deformed” due to an adverse reaction to a fat reduction procedure.
The St. Catharines, Ont., native wrote in an Instagram post that she’s suffered financially and psychologically for five years after undergoing a fat-reduction procedure that she says had the opposite of its desired effect.
In her social media post, the star said she wanted to tell her story publicly in order to move on with her life, and suggested she would be suing the company she said was responsible.
“I’m so tired of living this way,” she continued. “I would like to walk out my door with my head held high, despite not looking like myself any longer.”
The 56-year-old revealed she had experienced a rare cosmetic side effect of the treatment five years ago which actually increased her fat cells.
“I have been left, as the media has described, ‘unrecognisable’,” she told her 900,000 Instagram followers.
Evangelista explained it was the reason she’d disappeared from the public eye.
The Canadian model went on to say she had undergone “two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries” after the slimming procedure – also known as body contouring – had had the opposite effect.
“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… [a procedure] which did the opposite of what it promised,” Evangelista explained.
The non-surgical procedure, which has grown in popularity in recent years, uses cold temperatures to reduce fat deposits in certain areas of the body.
“It has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness and the lowest depths of self-loathing,” she said. “In the process, I have become a recluse.”
Describing the “very rare but serious side effect” she had experienced, Evangelista said it “means the fat cells in the treatment site grow larger rather than smaller”, adding: “It’s not fully understood why this occurs.”
On the CoolSculpting website, the manufacturer said this side-effect is “rare” and can be remedied through surgery, such as liposuction.
Canadian model Linda Evangelista, who commanded catwalks and magazine covers in the 1990s, is opening up about her private struggles with what she characterizes as a cosmetic treatment gone wrong.
