1990s runway icon Linda Evangelista, 57, graced the first magazine cover since her face was deformed after a botched procedure. The model, who went into hiding for five years because of the blemishes, decided to go back to work but explained it wasn’t her true colors.
To star in the photoshoot, the model agreed to tie up part of her face with ties and keep the area hidden throughout all of the photos.
Six years ago, Linda underwent a fat freezing procedure that she said left her “brutally disfigured”. The model filed a lawsuit against the company responsible for the aesthetic surgery, with the lawsuit ending last month after both parties reached an agreement. In the lawsuit, she sought US$50 million (R$260 million at the current price) in damages, but the amount received was not disclosed.
“That’s not my real chin and neck — and I can’t go all over the place with duct tape and rubber bands — to alter her own reality as she tries to regain her confidence,” she told Vogue UK.
“You know what, I’m trying to love myself for who I am but for the pictures? I always think we’re here to create fantasies. We create dreams. I think that’s allowed. [mudar o visual para as fotos]. Also, all my insecurities are resolved in these photos, so I have to do what I love to do.”
She decided the only way out was to tell her story. “I couldn’t live with this pain anymore,” he said. “I knew I had to change something and the only change was to speak my truth,” he added.
In September last year, she shared on Instagram that she suffered an adverse reaction after the cosmetic procedure. Rather than making the fat cells smaller, the procedure made them larger, causing her face and body parts to become larger and harder, rendering the model almost “unrecognizable.”
“If I knew the side effects could be losing your livelihood and getting so depressed that you hate yourself?” she insisted, pausing as her eyes filled with tears. “I wouldn’t have taken that risk,” he said.
The decision to have cosmetic surgery came after seeing so many commercials about enhancements to her body that she felt were aimed at the model and appealed to her.
“They asked, ‘Do you like what you see in the mirror?’. You spoke to me. It was about the stubborn fat because I’m a bit cocky.” admitted. “So I went ahead and it backfired,” he explained.
After the side effects, Linda tried twice to correct it with liposuction. “I have surgeries all over my body. I had stitches, I wore compression stockings under my chin, I had my whole body secured tightly for eight weeks but nothing helped,” he said.
At the height of her desperation, she said she even stopped eating. “I was so embarrassed I just spent all that money and the only way I could think of to fix it was zero calories so I drank water. Or sometimes I ate a stick of celery or an apple,” she confided. “I’ve lost my mind,” he lamented.