Photo: Steven Meisel
Linda Evangelistais ready to model again, but she knows it’s going to be a journey.
In her cover story forBritish Vogue’s September issue, published on Thursday, the supermodel, 57, got candid on what’s to come of her career after taking a break for five years due to a CoolSculpting accident thatleft her body “brutally disfigured.”
“I miss my work so much, but honestly, what can I do? It isn’t going to be easy,” she admitted to the outlet, believing that people have forgotten her legacy as one of the ’90s most coveted faces.
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Steven Meisel
While not entirely reflective of her current state, she noted that photos like these are rooted in creating “fantasies” and “dreams.” “Also, all my insecurities are taken care of in these pictures, so I got to do what I love to do,” she said.
Although the former runway star says she isn’t “cured mentally” from the latter, she’s “grateful” for the support she’s had from her industry colleagues and friends.
From 2015 to 2016, Evangelista participated in seven CoolSculpting fat-freezing sessions that she expected to be a noninvasive alternative to liposuction. Instead, she said the treatments increased and expanded her fat cells. The result was a diagnosis of paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), a rare side effect that affects less than 1 percent of CoolSculpting patients.
In 2021, she went public with an update onInstagram, revealing that she was also filing a lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics — the parent company of CoolSculpting.
“If I had known side effects may include losing your livelihood and you’ll end up so depressed that you hate yourself…” she confessed toBritish Vogue. “I wouldn’t have taken that risk.”
But, something she is ready to embrace with open arms is aging. “Bring it on. I just want to be here to see it all. I’m not done, I want to see Augie turn into a man,” she said, referring to her 15-year-old son Augustin, whom she shares with François-Henri Pinault.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Inan exclusive interview with PEOPLEin February, the Canadian model got candid about her relationship with Augustin, particularly when it came to opening up to him about her condition. “I should not be a burden to my child,” she said. “He shouldn’t have to be supporting me. That’s not his job.”
Throughout all of this, Evangelista is teaching her son the concept of true beauty (in that physical appearance shouldn’t sum up someone’s worth) — even though it’s a hard lesson learned in her eyes.
“It is very important for me to raise him knowing that he is beautiful and knowing that everyone is beautiful,” she revealed. “It’s so messed up that I truly believe that except it doesn’t pertain to me.”
See the full feature in the September issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday, August 23.
source: people.com
