Linda Evangelista ‘Nonetheless’ Would not Look within the Mirror After CoolSculpting Trauma

• Linda Evangelista is opening up concerning the psychological impacts of the CoolSculpting process that left her “disfigured,” 10 years later
• The supermodel was identified with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), “a really uncommon however severe facet impact” the place fats cells focused within the therapy develop greater as a substitute of turning into smaller
• “I nonetheless don’t look within the mirror. I didn’t need to see myself as a result of I didn’t love myself or like myself,” she shared

Linda Evangelista continues to be coping with the psychological impacts of her beauty process that left her “disfigured,” virtually 10 years later.

In a Harper’s Bazaar cowl story printed on Thursday, April 24, the supermodel, 59, spoke concerning the a number of well being struggles she’s confronted over the previous decade, together with surgical procedures like a double mastectomy, the elimination of a lump from her chest, keloids and her beauty CoolSculpting process.

“My double mastectomy, I’m advantageous with it,” she instructed the journal. “I did put in very small implants. What they took out, I put in, cc-wise. I’ve had all these lung surgical procedures, oh my God, and my keloids and all of the chest-tube scars and my C-section scar.”

“There have been numerous surgical procedures,” Evangelista continued. “I’m cool. I’m advantageous with these. I received. I’m right here. I received.”

The star additionally opened up concerning the beauty process that resulted in a lawsuit, which she and CoolSculpting settled in 2022.

“I’ve to undergo remedy to love what I see once I look within the mirror, and I nonetheless don’t look within the mirror. I didn’t need to see myself as a result of I didn’t love myself or like myself,” she shared. “I’m doing the work, and I’m attempting to get to the place the place I like myself, flaws and all, and attempting to like myself.”

Evangelista first shared her story with CoolSculpting — a well-liked, FDA-cleared “fat-freezing” process that is been promoted as a noninvasive various to liposuction — on Instagram in 2021. She wrote in a prolonged assertion that it left her “completely deformed” and “brutally disfigured.”

She later opened as much as PEOPLE in 2022 concerning the emotional and bodily ache she endured following her a number of rounds of CoolSculpting from 2015 to 2016. Based on the mannequin, she started to note that her pores and skin was bulging and turning into onerous within the areas the place she had the therapy finished. She sued for $50 million in damages, alleging that she was unable to work.

“I attempted to repair it myself, pondering I used to be doing one thing mistaken,” Evangelista instructed PEOPLE on the time, sharing that she started weight-reduction plan and exercising extra. “I obtained to the place I wasn’t consuming in any respect. I assumed I used to be shedding my thoughts.”

By June 2016, her physician had identified her with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), “a really uncommon however severe facet impact” the place the focused fats cells within the therapy website develop greater as a substitute of turning into smaller. Healthline states that it’s extra widespread in males.

“I used to be like, ‘What the hell is that?’ And he instructed me no quantity of weight-reduction plan, and no quantity of train was ever going to repair it,” she instructed PEOPLE.

Within the lawsuit, filed in opposition to CoolSculpting’s mum or dad firm Zeltiq Aesthetics, she alleged that the process “elevated, not decreased” her fats cells, inflicting her to be “completely deformed even after two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgical procedures.”

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free day by day publication to remain up-to-date on the very best of what PEOPLE has to supply​​, from celeb information to driving human curiosity tales.

In an Instagram publish shared when she initially filed the lawsuit in 2021, Evangelista wrote that she hoped to “[move] ahead to rid myself of my disgrace, and going public with my story. I’m so uninterested in dwelling this fashion. I wish to stroll out my door with my head excessive, regardless of not wanting like myself any longer.”

Elsewhere in her dialog with Harper’s Bazaar, Evangelista shared that regardless of her insecurities stemming from her surgical procedures and beauty procedures, she’s wanting ahead to growing older.

“I don’t care how I age. I simply need to age,” she shared. “It doesn’t need to be gracefully. I actually, actually, actually don’t need to die. I’ve nonetheless a lot to do. I’m lastly getting snug with myself and with every little thing, and now I need to get pleasure from it.”

“I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m alive, and I’m going to do what I’ve to do. I’m going to battle as a result of I don’t need it every other method,” Evangelista completed. “I’m not finished.”