Once the most photographed model in the world, Linda Evangelista has spent the past five years away from the spotlight due to a cosmetic procedure she considers a “fail”.
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For the first time since that dark episode in his life, The one she talked about three months ago on her InstagramAnd She agreed to be photographed for People magazine.
The 56-year-old also recounted the psychological and physical pain caused by the operation, in a long report for the US publication.
Evangelista used “CoolSculpting,” a FDA-approved procedure in the US that’s intended as a non-invasive alternative to liposuction.
Deeming herself was damaged, and her appearance completely destroyed by the procedure, the model filed a lawsuit in September against CoolSculpting’s parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. for $50 million in compensation. She claims that she has not been able to function since undergoing seven sessions of CoolSculpting (cryolipolysis) in a dermatologist’s office between August 2015 and February 2016.
“I loved being on the stage. Now I’m afraid to meet someone I know,” she told People in an interview.
“I can no longer live like this, in secrecy and shame. I can’t live with this pain anymore. I finally want to speak.”
Within three months of starting the treatment, she began noticing bulges on her chin, thighs, and bra. The same areas that wanted to shrink were suddenly growing and hardening. Then numbness appeared.
Concerned, she tried to correct the situation by doing more exercises and dieting, we learn in her interview.
“I came not to eat at all. I thought I was losing my mind.”
At the end of June 2016 she decided to go see her doctor. Diagnose her with paradoxical lip hyperplasia. “He told me no diet or physical activity could fix.”
Listen to Anaïs Guertin-Lacroix’s cultural record on QUB Radio:
Paradoxical sebaceous hyperplasia is a rare side effect affecting less than 1% of CoolSculpting patients, in which the freezing process causes the affected fat tissue to thicken and expand.
Linda Evangelista had to have two liposuctions to try to restore her original appearance, but these new procedures didn’t work.
“If I walked without a belt in a dress, I would get so irritated that I almost bleed. Because it’s not like rubbing soft fat, it’s like rubbing hard fat,” she explains.
She says her situation has also been affected.
“Why do we feel the need to do these things with our bodies? I always knew I was going to grow up. I know the body goes through many trials. But I didn’t think I would look like this,” she says, adding that she has lost her identity.
“I don’t recognize myself physically, but I don’t recognize myself as a person either. Linda Evangelista, the model is kind of gone.”
She remains optimistic that sharing her trauma will bring relief to others in similar situations.