Linda Evangelista Shares First Photos of Herself After Being Left ‘Permanently Deformed’ by Fat-Reduction Procedure
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Linda Evangelista has shared the first photos of herself after claiming she was left “permanently deformed” by a popular fat-reduction procedure called CoolSculpting.
Evangelista, who was one of the most in-demand supermodels in the 1990s, first spoke out against the procedure in September 2021, revealing that she was suing Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting for leaving her “brutally disfigured.”
The supermodel said that she had developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH) from the procedure, which according to Healthline, is seen in less than one percent of patients.
While CoolSculpting is “a noninvasive, nonsurgical medical procedure that helps to remove extra fat cells from beneath the skin,” those who develop PAH instead see the affected fatty tissue thicken and expand.
Evangelista is now speaking out on the procedure once again, sitting down with People magazine for her first interview since breaking her silence this fall.
“I loved being up on the catwalk,” she said. “Now I dread running into someone I know. 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.”
The interview also included the first official photos of her since the procedure, as she declared she is “done hiding” after five years away from the public eye.
She went on to share that she was diagnosed with PAH in June 2016 and that her doctor revealed “no amount of dieting, and no amount of exercise was ever going to fix it.”
In an attempt to repair the damages caused by PAH, Evangelista underwent two full-body liposuction surgeries.
“It wasn’t even a little bit better,” she said of her body post-surgery. “The bulges are protrusions. And they’re hard. 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.”
She added that she can no longer “put my arms flat along my side,” referring to PAH protruding from under her arm.
“I don’t look in the mirror,” she said. “It doesn’t look like me.”
According to People, Zeltiq declined to comment on Evangelista’s allegations due to the pending litigation.
