Linda Evangelista no longer blames herself for the consequences of her CoolSculpting procedures.
The 58-year-old Canadian model has previously spoken out about the “fat freezing” treatment – which was promoted as a non-invasive alternative to liposuction – which she says left her “permanently disfigured” and “brutally disfigured”. Now, in a new interview with The Sunday TimesEvangelista revealed she was “no longer hard on myself” after undergoing sessions from August 2015 to February 2016 and later settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.
“It still bothers me a little bit what people think of me, but it used to bother me a lot. Now I know I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “For the longest time I thought I was.”
“I haven’t completely gotten rid of it, but I’m working hard to get rid of the guilt and shame,” she added. “And I’m not letting it ruin my life. I wouldn’t have stayed locked up if I’d known how much people cared.”
Linda Evangelista at the Fendi Spring Summer 2024 fashion show in September 2023.
Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Fendi
Why Linda Evangelista Waited to Tell Son About Fat Freezing Trauma: ‘You Shouldn’t Support Me’
The fashion icon ended up suing Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. for $50 million in damages after she alleged she was unable to work after being diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH). A rare complication of the FDA-approved procedure left bumps on the body. The lawsuit was settled in July 2022.
“I don’t look in the mirror,” Evangelista said The Sunday Times. “My son will sometimes say to me, ‘Maybe you’d like to know that you have a pimple on your chin.’ And I’m like, what? But life is better without mirrors.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Evangelista – who is mother to 17-year-old Augustine James – also opened an outlet about being a two-time breast cancer survivor, as she was diagnosed in both December 2018 and July 2020.
As she explained, her biggest goal is to “stay alive”, but she doesn’t want to complain. “When I hear other people’s stories, I think, ‘Oh God, I have no right to complain,'” she said.
Linda Evangelista says her scars are trophies after surviving breast cancer twice
Evangelista previously spoke with PEOPLE about the CoolSculpting procedure and how she feels she lives in “hiding and shame” because of her PAH. She added that she hopes to help others by sharing her own story.
“I hope that I can get rid of some of the shame and help other people who are in the same situation as me,” she said in an interview in 2022. – That is my goal.
A representative for CoolSculpting told PEOPLE in a statement at the time that the procedure is “well-studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide” and that rare side effects “remain well documented” for patients and healthcare providers.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education