Supermodel Linda Evangelista has shared a raw and emotional update on her ongoing healing journey, revealing she still requires therapy to accept her reflection after a devastating reaction to a cosmetic procedure left her "permanently deformed."

In an intimate interview for the May 2025 Beauty issue of Harper's Bazaar, the 59-year-old fashion icon discussed how the traumatic experience reshaped her relationship with her body, as well as how she's come to redefine beauty through pain, age, and survival.

Evangelista first spoke out in 2021 about the effects of CoolSculpting, a fat-freezing treatment she underwent in 2016 that triggered a rare side effect known as paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), as reported by Daily Mail UK.

Instead of reducing fat, the procedure caused the growth of hard, enlarged fat deposits in various parts of her body, ultimately leading to disfigurement.

"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 CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised," she wrote in a candid Instagram post in 2021. "It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful corrective surgeries."


In the new interview, Evangelista bravely admitted, "I still don't look in the mirror. I didn't want to see myself because I didn't love myself or like myself. I have to go through therapy to like what I see when I look in the mirror."

Fighting back tears, she reflected on the deeper meaning of beauty, far removed from the glossy perfection of her modeling days: "I really think beauty is something you earn. I think of my grandmothers' faces and what the war did to them... they wore their hardships. They were so gorgeous. It had nothing to do with perfection or youth."

In 2024, she discussed how her rise to supermodel status wasn't as swift as some of her peers. During a recent presentation at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, Evangelista opened up about the challenges she faced early in her career, attributing her slower ascent to a lack of self-confidence rather than a lack of talent.

"My rise to success working with incredible photographers and magazines and campaigns didn't happen overnight – it took like three years," she shared. "Some of the other models went straight to the top, and my rise was so slow because what I was lacking was confidence."

The Canadian-born model explained that, unlike some of her contemporaries, she didn't have a clear sense of who she was "supposed to be" in the industry, which delayed her breakthrough. Evangelista's candid reflection serves as a reminder that success in the highly competitive world of modeling is often a journey marked by personal growth and perseverance.