Linda Evangelista claims she was forced to turn down her return to the Versace catwalk alongside fellow 90s supermodels due to a ‘deformity’ allegedly caused by a fat removal procedure.
The legendary supermodel is suing Zeltiq Aesthetics, the parent company of CoolSculpting, after alleged damage from the fat-freezing CoolSculpting procedure left her ‘brutally disfigured’.
In filings against the company, the 56-year-old claims that she has been ‘forced to decline significant modelling engagements’ since she underwent the procedure five years ago.
One of these modelling engagements was allegedly a headline-making Versace show in September 2017, where Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni and Claudia Schiffer reunited on the runway.
Evangelista had been considered one of the ‘Big Five’ supermodels of the 90s, alongside Campbell, Crawford, Schiffer and Christy Turlington.
Court documents claim that Evangelista missed ‘walking the runway during fashion week with the other Original Supermodels for Versace in September 2017 and walking the runway with the other Original Supermodels during a Dolce & Gabbana show due to the physical injuries and disfigurement that she suffered as a result of using ZELTIQ’s CoolSculpting and the multiple, invasive procedures and surgeries that she underwent at ZELTIQ’s direction to try to correct those injuries’.
Evangelista is suing Zeltiq Aesthetics in the hopes of ‘ridding herself of shame’ and walking with her head held high.
The model went public with her claims on Instagram, claiming she had not been warned about the risks of Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia or PAH, which she was diagnosed with after the procedure.
It’s believed the condition has a rate incidence of 0.0051% out of the 1.5million CoolSculpting procedures that go ahead across the globe.
It is a side effect of a cryolipolysis procedure – a body sculpting method – that uses a device, with a temperature of below freezing, that targets fat deposits.
Evangelista alleged: ‘It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, unrecognisable”.’
She continued: ‘PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing. In the process, I have become a recluse.’
Evangelista’s fellow supermodels showed support under the post, with Christy Turlington writing: ‘You are loved.’
Helena Christensen wrote: ‘It would’ve taken immense courage and strength to write these words. I can honestly say that I broke down in tears reading this. Not only because I knew in my heart you somehow had been quietly going through something deeply personal and disturbing but also because I thought of all the scars life leaves on us all, whether physical or emotional and how long we suffer mostly in silence and alone. It is so important and beautiful when someone steps out of the shadow and are brutally honest and real. Thank you for being beautiful inside and out.’
Cindy Crawford added: ’Linda—your strength and true essence are forever recognizable and iconic! Bravo!’
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