Linda Evangelista has made a strong return to modeling after a seven-year hiatus, starring in a striking photoshoot.
The ’90s supermodel, 58, looked incredibly beautiful in a series of shots taken by photographer Steven Klein. V Magazine Spring New Issue.
It’s a heartbreaking moment for Linda, who has spent years “hiding her shame” after a botched fat-freezing surgery in 2016 left her “permanently disfigured”.
Linda’s neck was cleverly covered in many of the images after a rare reaction left her with enlarged fat cells and surgery left her with a “brutally disfigured” condition.
Linda was a fashion chameleon through and through, rocking a series of different looks from designers including Ocean Savage, Dolce & Gabbana, and Prada.
The catwalk icon posed in a series of poses in a gold-embossed dress coated in gold and wearing an orange wig.
In other shots, Linda wore a black lace catsuit and a dramatic red cape, and a large padded coat and leopard print dress.
Linda also channeled her inner queen by taking a photo of herself grabbing a shirtless man’s face while posing in a plastic jacket.
The supermodel says she’s tired of living like a recluse and has been making a comeback to the fashion scene in recent months.
In September 2021, Linda revealed in a shocking Instagram post that the reason she decided to withdraw from public life was because she had an unusual reaction to cosmetic surgery.
The cryolipolysis procedure performed by CoolSculpting was designed to reduce fat cells, but instead caused her cells to enlarge.
She said she soon started developing “bulges” all over her body that became “unrecognizable.”
“To all my followers who are wondering why I am not working while the careers of my colleagues are progressing well, the reason is that Zeltiq Cool Sculpt did the opposite of what it promised. “The treatment left me brutally disfigured,” she wrote at the time.
“It increased my fat cells instead of decreasing them, and after two painful and botched corrective surgeries, I was left permanently deformed. is placed in an “unrecognized” state. ”
talk to people In the magazine, the former runway star describes how she nearly went crazy and “stopped eating” when tumors started appearing on her chin, thighs and bust area, and for decades Now, he spoke in detail about whether he is “afraid of meeting people he knows.” As a catwalk sensation.
But then, she said, “I’m done hiding.” She told the media, “I can no longer live like this, hiding and feeling shame.” I couldn’t live in this pain anymore. Lastly, I would like to talk about this. ”
In this procedure, a device set at subzero temperatures is applied to fat deposits, causing cell death within the tissue.
However, Evangelista soon developed a condition called paradoxical fat hyperplasia. This is a rare side effect of cryolipolysis, which he reports in 0.0051 percent of his 1.5 million CoolSculpting procedures performed worldwide.
In 2022, the supermodel settled a $50 million lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics, although the amount of the settlement was not disclosed.
During her seven years out of the spotlight, Linda battled breast cancer twice.
Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 and underwent a double mastectomy.
Doctors then discovered cancer in her pectoral muscle in 2022.
She was told she would need further surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and would need to take medication for five years.
Speaking about her battle on The View, she said: “Scars are okay. I think scars are trophies, I’m good at scars.”
“I think everyone’s experience is going to be different. Well, it started with my regular mammograms. I know we don’t like doing mammography exams, and I’m one of the first… I’m a procrastinator, but that’s one thing I’ve been really loyal to.”
She explained how the doctor called her back to see her again, adding, “It was early DCIS.” [Ductal carcinoma in situ]. I had another lung-related illness and had a lumpectomy, but it didn’t go well, so I ended up having a double mastectomy. ”
Linda opened up about her experience with breast cancer for the second time, saying that “dying from breast cancer” was not an option for her, and stressed that it was “the right decision for me.”
“There’s very little chance of recurrence. My oncologist said, ‘You know your body very well.’ Because I came back with a little bit of symptoms…I call them bumps, not lumps. That’s my pectoral muscle right here,” she explained.
“Everyone’s story is going to be a little nuanced, and mine ended up being, ‘Let’s take it out and do radiation therapy,’ but my Oncotype score was really bad. This is a score that tells you how likely your cancer is to come back, and it takes into account a huge number of things, including genetics. ”
“My symptoms were so bad that I had to undergo chemotherapy,” she said.
V146, starring Linda Evangelista, is available for pre-order now at shop.vmagazine.com and will be on newsstands worldwide starting January 12th.