Linda Evangelista has admitted she was “so depressed” she “hated” herself following a CoolSculpting procedure that left her feeling “deformed”.
Linda Evangelista has admitted she was ‘so depressed’ she ‘hated’ herself following a CoolSculpting procedure that left her feeling ‘deformed‘.
The model, 57, told in a cover interview for the September issue of British Vogue the faulty procedure caused her to lose her livelihood and left her with things “protruding” from her body.
She was keen to make clear make-up artist Pat McGrath gently drew her face, jaw and neck back with tape and elastics for the magazine’s photoshoot.
Linda said: “That’s not my jaw and neck in real life – and I can’t walk around with tape and elastics everywhere.
“You know what, I’m trying to love myself as I am, but for the photos. Look, for photos I always think we’re here to create fantasies. We’re creating dreams. I think it’s allowed. Also, all my insecurities are taken care of in these pictures, so I got to do what I love to do.”
She was almost entirely covered in the photoshoot with a scarf around her neck.
In September last year, Linda took to her Instagram to announce that she had filed a lawsuit, now settled, in New York against Zeltiq Aesthetics for grievous injuries.
The mum-of-one, whose exes include former husband and ‘Blue Velvet’ actor Kyle McLachlan, 63, said: “If I had known side effects may include losing your livelihood and you’ll end up so depressed that you hate yourself… I wouldn’t have taken that risk.
“Am I cured mentally? Absolutely not. But I’m so grateful for the support I got from my friends and from my industry… you’re not going to see me in a swimsuit, that’s for sure.
“It’s going to be difficult to find jobs with things protruding from me; without retouching, or squeezing into things, or taping things or compressing or tricking.”
Linda said she decided to have the CoolSculpting procedure done after watching advertisements on TV, adding: “Those CoolSculpting commercials were on all the time, on CNN, on MSNBC, over and over, and they would ask, ‘Do you like what you see in the mirror?’
“They were speaking to me. It was about stubborn fat in areas that wouldn't budge. It said no downtime, no surgery and… I drank the magic potion, and I would because I’m a little vain. So I went for it – and it backfired.”
As one of the world’s most famous supermodels in the world, Linda racked up more than 60 magazine covers during her career.
She added: “How did I keep going? This is the truth: I was young. You could go out and eat salty fried food and drink champagne, sleep at 3am and be up again at 5am.
“Drugs were offered to me, but I never touched them, I’m not saying I was an angel… but I was terrified of drugs.”
She added about one traumatic moment in modelling during a shoot in Japan: “I went to the agency and it was all, ‘Take your clothes off, we need your measurements’, but they already had my measurements.
“They wanted me naked and it wasn’t a, ‘Would you do nudes?’ conversation, it was a, ‘You will do nudes’.
“I left and called my mother and she said, ‘Get out now and get to the embassy’. “So that's what I did, and they got me home.”
In July, Linda settled her $50 million (£42 million) CoolSculpting lawsuit after claiming a rare reaction to a fa-treduction procedure six years ago left her “deformed”.
The September issue of British Vogue is available on newsstands and via digital download from Tuesday 23 August.
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