Linda Evangelista Says She Doesn't 'Blame' Herself for CoolSculpting Incident: 'I Didn't Do Anything Wrong'

"I’m not completely rid of it, but I work hard at getting rid of the guilt and the shame," the model told 'The Sunday Times'

Linda Evangelista no longer blames herself for the aftermath of her CoolSculpting procedures.

The 58-year-old Canadian model has previously spoken about the "fat-freezing" treatment — which had been promoted as a noninvasive liposuction alternative — that she says left her "permanently deformed" and "brutally disfigured." Now, in a new interview with The Sunday Times, Evangelista has revealed that she's "not hard on myself any longer" after undergoing sessions from August 2015 to February 2016 and later settling a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

"How people feel about me still bothers me a little bit, but it used to bother me a lot. I know now that I didn’t do anything wrong," she said. "For the longest time I thought I did."

"I’m not completely rid of it, but I work hard at getting rid of the guilt and the shame," she added. "And I’m not letting it ruin my life. I wouldn’t have stayed locked up if I’d known how many people cared.”

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The fashion icon eventually sued Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. for $50 million in damages after alleging that she was unable to work after being diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH). The rare complication of the FDA-cleared procedure left her with bulges on her body. The lawsuit was settled in July 2022.

"I don’t look in the mirror," Evangelista told The Sunday Times. "My son will say to me sometimes, ‘You might want to know that you have a pimple on your chin.’ And I’m like, what? But life is better without mirrors.”

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Evangelista — who is mother to 17-year-old Augustin James — also opened up to the outlet about being a two-time breast cancer survivor, as she was diagnosed in both December 2018 and July 2020.

As she explained, her greatest goal is “to stay alive," but she doesn't want to complain. “When I hear other people’s stories, I think, 'Oh God, I have no right to complain,'" she said.

Related: Linda Evangelista Says Her 'Scars Are Trophies' After Surviving Breast Cancer Twice

Evangelista previously spoke to PEOPLE about the CoolSculpting procedure and how she felt she was living in "hiding and shame" due to her PAH. She added that she hoped to help others by sharing her own story.

"I hope I can shed myself of some of the shame and help other people who are in the same situation as me," she said in a 2022 interview. "That's my goal."

A representative for CoolSculpting told PEOPLE in a statement at the time that the procedure was "well studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide" and that rare side effects "continue to be well-documented" for patients and health care providers.

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