Linda Evangelista Opens Up About CoolSculpting Lawsuit After Being ‘Disfigured’
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Linda Evangelista announced she has settled her $50 million lawsuit against CoolScultping.
The model developed a rare side effect of the cosmetic procedure called Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH) that she says “permanently deformed” her.
Evangelista says she is done hiding and is working with Fendi for a new campaign.
After five years of hiding from cameras, supermodel Linda Evangelista is ready to return to the catwalk. The 57-year-old posted an Instagram picture Tuesday with a message to followers that she had finally settled her lawsuit against CoolScultping (an FDA-approved procedure that freezes fat cells in an effort to shrink them without the need for surgery) and was preparing to move forward with her life. Though, the terms of the settlement have yet to be disclosed.
“I’m pleased to have settled the CoolScultping case,” she wrote. “I look forward to the next chapter of my life with friends and family, and I am happy to put this matter behind me.”
She continued, “I am truly grateful for the support I have received from those who have reached out.”
The incident that the supermodel was referring to occurred back in 2015 when she experienced a cosmetic procedure gone wrong. Evangelista went to seven CoolSculpting sessions in 2015 and 2016 to target her chin, thighs, and bra area. But the model soon realized the procedure wasn’t working as she had hoped and left her “permanently deformed,” she told People. Instead, she was left with what she described as hard, numb bulges.
Evangelista eventually received the diagnosis of Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH), a rare side effect of CoolScultping where the fatty tissue grows instead of shrinks.
In September, Evangelista shared her side of the story on her Instagram account. “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 CoolScultping procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,” she wrote in the post. “It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed after undergoing two, painful, unsuccessful corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, ‘unrecognizable.’”
She continued, “I have developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia or PAH, a risk of which I was not made aware before I had the procedures. 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 finished the announcement by telling followers she was suing the company and working on her own self-confidence.
Ultimately, she filed a lawsuit against CoolScultping’s parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetic Inc., for $50 million in damages because she was unable to work due to her condition. CoolScultping currently includes PAH on its list of possible side effects.
The model later had two liposuction surgeries to correct the deformities, one in 2016 and another in 2017, but says the PAH came back after each. “I wasn’t even a little bit better,” she said in a previous interview. “The bulges are protrusions. And they’re hard. If I walk without a girdle in a dress, I will have chafing to the point of almost bleeding. Because it’s not like soft fat rubbing, it’s like hard fat rubbing.”
In early 2022, the model decided she was “not going to hide anymore,” and hoped to share her story with others who may have similar situations. She is expected to return to the catwalk this September in New York City and model for Fendi.
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