Linda Evangelista Admits She ‘Still’ Doesn’t Look in the Mirror After CoolSculpting Trauma

• Linda Evangelista is opening up about the mental impacts of the CoolSculpting procedure that left her “disfigured,” 10 years later
• The supermodel was diagnosed with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), “a very rare but serious side effect” where fat cells targeted in the treatment grow bigger instead of becoming smaller
• “I still don’t look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see myself because I didn’t love myself or like myself,” she shared

Linda Evangelista is still dealing with the mental impacts of her cosmetic procedure that left her “disfigured,” almost 10 years later.

In a Harper’s Bazaar cover story published on Thursday, April 24, the supermodel, 59, spoke about the several health struggles she’s faced over the past decade, including surgeries like a double mastectomy, the removal of a lump from her chest, keloids and her cosmetic CoolSculpting procedure.

“My double mastectomy, I’m fine with it,” she told the magazine. “I did put in very small implants. What they took out, I put in, cc-wise. I’ve had all those lung surgeries, oh my God, and my keloids and all the chest-tube scars and my C-section scar.”

“There were a lot of surgeries,” Evangelista continued. “I’m cool. I’m fine with those. I won. I’m here. I won.”

The star also opened up about the cosmetic procedure that ended in a lawsuit, which she and CoolSculpting settled in 2022.

“I have to go through therapy to like what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still don’t look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see myself because I didn’t love myself or like myself,” she shared. “I’m doing the work, and I’m trying to get to the place where I like myself, flaws and all, and trying to love myself.”

Evangelista first shared her story with CoolSculpting — a popular, FDA-cleared “fat-freezing” procedure that’s been promoted as a noninvasive alternative to liposuction — on Instagram in 2021. She wrote in a lengthy statement that it left her “permanently deformed” and “brutally disfigured.”

She later opened up to PEOPLE in 2022 about the emotional and physical pain she endured following her multiple rounds of CoolSculpting from 2015 to 2016. According to the model, she began to notice that her skin was bulging and becoming hard in the areas where she had the treatment done. She sued for $50 million in damages, alleging that she was unable to work.

“I tried to fix it myself, thinking I was doing something wrong,” Evangelista told PEOPLE at the time, sharing that she began dieting and exercising more. “I got to where I wasn’t eating at all. I thought I was losing my mind.”

By June 2016, her doctor had diagnosed her with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), “a very rare but serious side effect” where the targeted fat cells in the treatment site grow bigger instead of becoming smaller. Healthline states that it is more common in men.

“I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ And he told me no amount of dieting, and no amount of exercise was ever going to fix it,” she told PEOPLE.

In the lawsuit, filed against CoolSculpting’s parent company Zeltiq Aesthetics, she alleged that the procedure “increased, not decreased” her fat cells, causing her to be “permanently deformed even after two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries.”

In an Instagram post shared when she originally filed the lawsuit in 2021, Evangelista wrote that she hoped to “[move] 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.”

Elsewhere in her conversation with Harper’s Bazaar, Evangelista shared that despite her insecurities stemming from her surgeries and cosmetic procedures, she’s looking forward to aging.

“I don’t care how I age. I just want to age,” she shared. “It doesn’t have to be gracefully. I really, really, really don’t want to die. I have still so much to do. I’m finally getting comfortable with myself and with everything, and now I want to enjoy it.”