Linda Evangelista stopped eating after cosmetic procedure left her 'disfigured'

Linda Evangelista stopped eating for a period of time after she was left "brutally disfigured" by a cosmetic procedure over five years ago.

Last September, the supermodel took to Instagram to share a candid post in which she revealed that she was suing executives at Zeltiq.

She alleged she had been left "permanently deformed" after undergoing the fat-reduction procedure CoolSculpting, but last month, it was announced that she had settled the lawsuit.

In a new interview for the September 2022 issue of British Vogue, Evangelista revealed that she ate next to nothing at the height of her desperation.

"I was so embarrassed, I'd just spent all this money and the only way I could think of to fix it was zero calories, and so I just drank water," she admitted. "Or sometimes I would have a stick of celery or one apple. I was losing my mind."

Evangelista alleged Zeltiq's CoolSculpting procedure did the opposite of what it promised, and increased, rather than decreased, fat cells. Eventually, her doctor diagnosed her with Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH), and she underwent liposuction twice to try and correct the issue.

"I have incisions all over my body. I have had stitches, I have worn compression garments under my chin, I've had my entire body tightly girdled for eight weeks - nothing helped," the 57-year-old continued.

Evangelista recently made her fashion comeback with a Fendi campaign, and while she is excited to be modelling again, she acknowledged that she won't feel comfortable posing in a swimsuit anytime soon.

"I miss my work so much, but honestly, what can I do? It isn't going to be easy," she added. "You're not going to see me in a swimsuit, that's for sure. It's going to be difficult to find jobs with things protruding from me; without retouching, or squeezing into things, or taping things or compressing or tricking..."