Linda Evangelista is revealing why she has been so private these past few years.
This past week, the 56-year-old supermodel admitted in a post on Instagram how she underwent a CoolSculpting fat-reduction procedure five years ago that she says left her “permanently deformed.”
“Today I took a big step towards righting a wrong that I have suffered and have kept to myself for over five years.”
“To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers’ careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,” she continues in the post.
Allegedly, the procedure “increased, not decreased” her fat cells, allegedly causing her to be “permanently deformed even after two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries.”
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The supermodel says she’s “been left, as the media has described, ‘unrecognizable.'”
Evangelista went on to reveal how she “developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia or PAH.” It is “a very rare but serious side effect” where the targeted fat cells in the treatment site grow bigger instead of becoming smaller. The model states she was not made aware of this “risk” ahead of her procedure.
“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,” Evangelista continues.
“This is my attorney’s statement about my case,” she shared in another post to Instagram. “The truth of my horrific ordeal will be told through the legal system and I offer my sympathy to anyone suffering, as I do, from PAH’s painful, hardened masses which protrude from the skin wherever CoolSculpting was performed.”
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“In the process, I have become a recluse,” Evangelista adds. “With this lawsuit, I am moving forward to rid myself of my shame, and going public with my story. I am so tired of living this way. I would like to walk out my door with my head high, despite not looking like myself any longer.”
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the lawsuit states that Evangelista has suffered “severe and permanent personal injuries and disfigurement” causing her “pain and suffering, severe emotional distress and mental anguish.”
The lawsuit also states that the “disfigurement” the supermodel has experienced “economic losses” due to being “being rendered unemployable and unable to earn an income as a model.”
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