‘Disfigured’ Linda Evangelista shares photos of ‘bulging body’

Linda Evangelista has said she’s “done hiding” after being left “unrecognisable” from a fat-freezing procedure she alleges went horribly wrong.

Linda Evangelista has shared photos of her body for the first time after claiming she was left “brutally disfigured” by a popular cosmetic procedure.

The Canadian supermodel, who rose to prominence in the 1990s, revealed in September she hasn’t been working in the industry, allegedly due to the shocking effects of a fat freezing service.

The 56-year-old alleged in a US$50 million ($68 million) damages lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics, the company behind CoolSculpting – a fat-freezing procedure performed globally, including here in Australia – that she developed paradoxical adipose hyperplasia or PAH, a risk she says she wasn’t made aware of before she had the CoolSculpting procedure.

“I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,” Evangelista claimed in a post.

“It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries.”

Now Linda has been pictured for the first time since claiming she was “unrecognisable” to her former self, telling PEOPLE: “I won’t hide anymore”.

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“I loved being up on the catwalk. Now I dread running into someone I know,” she told the publication through tears.

“I can’t live like this anymore, in hiding and shame. I just couldn’t live in this pain any longer. I’m willing to finally speak.”

In one photo, Linda shows a “protrusion hanging off my body” while wearing a brown camisole top, the matching cardigan hung low on her shoulders.

In another snap, she’s wearing tight activewear pants, her stomach appearing to hang over in a muffin top type effect.

As a result, Linda told the US outlet she doesn’t look in the mirror because “it doesn’t look like me” explaining the “bulges” are painful and prevent her from walking with ease because they are 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,” she claimed.

Linda said that within three months of having the series of treatments, she began to notice bulges at her chin, thighs and bra area, the PEOPLE report states.

These were the same areas she’d had treated with CoolScuplting she told the publication, who wrote they grew and hardened before finally “turning numb”.

“I tried to fix it myself, thinking I was doing something wrong,” Linda said, stating she turned to dieting and exercising more.

“I got to where I wasn’t eating at all. I thought I was losing my mind.”

Linda pictured in 2005 at the height of her modelling fame. Picture: Evan Agostini/Getty Images

It was at a point of desperation and “starvation” where Linda went to see her doctor where while “bawling” her eyes out she was diagnosed with PAH – much to her shock.

PAH is a rare complication after cryolipolysis (fat freezing) that causes the area to become larger rather than smaller in the weeks after the procedure, Science Daily reports.

“Based on data from the manufacturer of the cryolipolysis equipment, PAH has been estimated to occur in one out of every 4000 treatment cycles, for an incidence of 0.025 per cent,” it states.

PAH can be treated with liposuction, but patients must wait a few months before treatment, the report explains.

“Surgeons must be extremely sensitive when dealing with patients who have PAH, both when explaining the problem and when offering them a potential surgical solution.”

The now 56-year-old claims she’s lost work as a result of her alleged botched procedure’. Picture: Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)

She described painful ‘protrusions’ on her body – seen here in 2015. Picture: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Fragrance Foundation

Linda alleges CoolSculpting offered her liposuction after her doctor informed them of her PAH, but on the eve of the surgery they asked her to sign a confidentiality agreement – which she said she refused to do.

Instead she paid for two rounds of liposuction herself in June 2016 that she said did nothing to alleviate her painful PAH symptoms.

On Instagram, Linda told her 1.1 million followers she was hoping sharing her story and the photos of her “disfigured” body and her “CoolSculpting ordeal” would help others.

“I’m not done telling my story, and I will continue sharing my experience to rid myself of shame, learn to love myself again, and hopefully help others in the process,” she wrote on Wednesday.

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