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Linda Evangelista in 2005: "No income from modeling"
Photo: Hindustan Times / Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Her beauty was once her capital. But now Linda Evangelista no longer sees herself in a position to "earn an income as a model". After an apparently botched beauty treatment, the former supermodel sued the manufacturer of the device used for 50 million dollars (42.6 million euros) in damages. In its complaint, which is available to the AFP news agency, Evangelista accuses the Zeltiq Aesthetics company of having concealed possible side effects - or at least not having given sufficient warning about them.
The 56-year-old Canadian filed a lawsuit against the company in federal court in New York this week.
So far, it has not commented publicly on this.
In the complaint, the former model icon justified the demanded amount with "permanent injury and disfigurement, pain and suffering, severe emotional stress and anguish and economic losses."
The fat reduction that went wrong five years ago "ruined her career and her body," they say.
Since the interventions in 2016, the Canadian has reportedly "no longer generated any income from modeling" - with the exception of a subsequent payment for an earlier advertising campaign for a perfume.
"Does the opposite of what he promised"
The lawsuit states that Evangelista had seven treatments from August 2015 to February 2016 to break down fat cells in the abdomen, back and chest, on the inner thighs and chin.
Evangelista said on Wednesday in the online service Instagram that she had been "brutally disfigured" by an intervention to reduce fat caused by the cold.
The use of so-called "CoolSculpting" backfired and "did the opposite of what it promised": It increased your fat cells instead of reducing them "and permanently deformed me."
The operation led to a disease called paradoxical obesity hyperplasia.
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Even two painful, unsuccessful corrective operations would not have changed that: "As the media have described it, I am 'unrecognizable,'" explained the former supermodel, who ran the catwalks of New York and Paris had shaped.
She has therefore withdrawn from the limelight in recent years.
The botched operation turned her into a depressed, self-loathed hermit whose livelihood has been destroyed, Evangelista said.
“I'm so tired of living like this.
I want to walk out the door with my head held high, even though I don't look like myself anymore. ”Evangelista has received a lot of praise from famous models and actresses for her honesty.
jus / AFP