Linda Evangelista isn’t hiding anymore.
The supermodel was snapped for the first time without a face mask on Thursday in New York City after claiming she had been left “permanently deformed” following botched fat-freezing procedures.
The 56-year-old model was pictured in a pullover black sweater with black pants and boots as she walked around Chelsea Market.
Evangelista claimed that four months after the surgeries she was diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH). PAH is a rare side effect where the fatty tissue expands instead of contracts in response to CoolSculpting.
The mother of one filed a lawsuit against CoolSculpting’s parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., in September 2021 for $50 million in damages, claiming that the rare side-effect was a “risk” that hadn’t been made aware to her prior to the treatments.
Last September, the Vogue cover alum claimed on Instagram that she had been “brutally disfigured” by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure, which after seven sessions, alleges did the opposite of what was promised by increasing, not decreasing her fat cells.
She added that two “painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries” followed which sent her “into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing,” adding, “In the process, I have become a recluse.”
Last week, the Canadian-born stunner posed for the cover of People magazine and showed off her body for the first time.
“I loved being up on the catwalk. Now I dread running into someone I know,” she explained of why she’s finally speaking out. “I can’t live like this anymore, in hiding and shame. I just couldn’t live in this pain any longer.”
A spokesperson for CoolSculpting told People that the treatment, “has been well studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide” and that side effects, including PAH “continue to be well-documented in the CoolSculpting information for patients and health care providers.”
Evangelista posted an image from her People story on Instagram writing alongside it: “I’m not done telling my story, and I will continue sharing my experience to rid myself of shame, learn to love myself again, and hopefully help others in the process.”
