Linda Evangelista Faces Twitter Backlash Over Zeltiq CoolSculpting Photos Of ‘Permanently Deformed’ Body

Supermodel Linda Evangelista is facing backlash after sharing photos of her “permanently deformed” body following a Zeltiq CoolSculpting procedure.

On Wednesday, People published an interview with Evangelista detailing how the fat freezing procedure, which left her “permanently deformed” and “brutally disfigured,” caused her to become isolated from others.

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

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Following three months of CoolSculpting Evangelista, 56, noticed bulges in her chin, bra area, and thighs. The areas she was hoping to shrink began growing, hardening, and eventually turning numb.

Evangelista eventually learned she was suffering from Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), a rare side effect of CoolSculpting that was not disclosed to her before receiving the procedure.

PAH develops weeks after the freezing procedure and causes the fatty tissue in the treated area to thicken and expand.

The cover story also featured photos of Evangelista’s body parts following the procedure, however, the model began receiving backlash over the images. Some Twitter users suggested the model’s body looked the same as a regular middle-aged woman.

“I really never thought I would sit down and read an article where Linda Evangelista calls herself disfigured bc she has backfat and bulging inner thighs lmao. Welcome to life with the rest of us honey,” one person wrote.

The Cool Sculpting clearly altered parts of Linda Evangelista’s body in a way she did not want and that is not normal for her. She has every right to be horrified. But I still feel weird that what she considers “disfigured” is how many American women in their 50s look naturally.
— 🌻Budini🌻 (@Budini) February 16, 2022

She still looks better than 90% of the 56 year olds out there, welcome to the real worldhttps://t.co/tKO8VC2Av2
— DEMISE (@PlanetDemise) February 16, 2022

Looking at the pictures from People mag, I am not being snarky at all when I say that I am not 100 sure what Linda Evangelista means when she says she was disfigured b/c she looks (to me) like she aged normally. But I don't doubt that her trauma is very real to her
— elisabeth sherman (@shermanelis) February 16, 2022

Meanwhile, one fan argued that Evangelista’s story was significant because it pointed out the dangers of beauty procedures.

“Linda Evangelista’s size is not the point of her Coolsculpting story. It’s whistleblowing that a popular beauty procedure touted as ‘non-invasive’ can cause a specific, unadvertised, physically painful, permanent change to your body, and the risk is known yet not being disclosed,” the individual wrote.

In September 2021, Evangelista filed a lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., the parent company of CoolSculpting for $50 million in damages. After undergoing several sessions of the procedure from August 2015 to February 2016, she claimed she has been unable to work.