Linda Evangelista Reveals Trauma and Therapy After Botched CoolSculpting Procedure

Iconic supermodel Linda Evangelista has opened up about the lasting trauma she suffered after a CoolSculpting cosmetic procedure left her physically disfigured and emotionally scarred.

Back in 2015, Evangelista decided to try CoolSculpting—a fat-freezing procedure marketed as a non-invasive solution for stubborn body fat. But instead of the smooth results she expected, the model was left with hardened fat pockets on her abdomen, thighs, and underarms, a condition she has described as "brutally disfiguring." The experience was so damaging, she sought therapy to cope with the changes to her body and self-image.

Evangelista recently told Harper's Bazaar, "I have to go through therapy to like what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still don’t look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see myself because I didn’t love myself or like myself." The emotional toll from the botched procedure has been immense—she hasn’t dated since and says she’s "not interested" in romantic relationships at this point.

Despite the ordeal, Evangelista admitted she might have considered cosmetic procedures again—if only she could be sure there would be no consequences. "Would you drink the magic potion knowing it comes with these repercussions? Obviously, no, because you saw the repercussions," she said. "But if there were no repercussions, of course you’d drink the magic potion if you could afford it, and it’s there for you, and other people have used it successfully." It’s the ultimate “if only” scenario—beauty without the bite.

Therapy has helped Evangelista begin to accept her new reality. "I’m doing the work, and I’m trying to get to the place where I like myself, flaws and all, and trying to love myself," she shared. These days, she’s more at peace with aging, saying, "I don’t care how I age. I just want to age. It doesn’t have to be gracefully. I really, really, really don’t want to die. I have still so much to do. I’m finally getting comfortable with myself and with everything, and now I want to enjoy it."

The model first revealed her ordeal in a 2021 Instagram post, confessing she had hidden from the world for five years. She later learned her condition was Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH), a rare side effect from CoolSculpting affecting less than 1% of patients, where the fat actually thickens and expands instead of disappearing. If she’d known about PAH beforehand, she said, she never would have touched the treatment with a ten-foot pole (or an ice pack).

Evangelista sued CoolSculpting’s parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., for $50 million, claiming she’d been unable to work since undergoing seven sessions between August 2015 and February 2016. The lawsuit has since been settled, but her story remains a stark warning about the risks that can come with procedures promising easy beauty fixes.