Linda Evangelista settled a lawsuit over a “botched” cosmetic procedure that she claimed left her “deformed.”
The supermodel, 57, announced on Instagram Tuesday that the saga was over after suing CoolSculpting’s parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., for $50 million in damages.
“I’m pleased to have settled the CoolSculpting case,” she wrote in a statement.
“I look forward to the next chapter of my life with friends and family, and am happy to put this matter behind me. I am truly grateful for the support I have received from those who have reached out.”
The terms of the settlement were not immediately clear.
Evangelista first revealed the results of the procedure on social media in September 2021.
She claimed at the time that CoolSculpting — an FDA-approved “fat-freezing” procedure described as a noninvasive liposuction alternative — had left her “brutally disfigured” and “permanently deformed.”
The supermodel filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Zeltiq corporation after revealing she’d been out of the spotlight after being diagnosed with Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia, which she attributed to several Zeltiq CoolSculpting sessions.
According to the Mayo Clinic, CoolSculpting is an FDA-cleared procedure that uses “controlled cooling to safely target and eliminate diet- and exercise-resistant fat.”
Evangelista later posed for a People photo shoot and opened up about the emotional and physical toll she endured after seven sessions of the procedure, which took place from August 2015 to February 2016.
“Do you see the angle of my arms? I can’t put them next to my body,” she told the magazine in February.
“I loved being up on the catwalk. Now I dread running into someone I know. I can’t live like this anymore, in hiding and shame. I just couldn’t live in this pain any longer.”
Evangelista, who was later diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), said she thought she was “losing [her] mind.”
“I tried to fix it myself, thinking I was doing something wrong. I got to where I wasn’t eating at all,” she admitted.
“[The doctor] told me no amount of dieting, and no amount of exercise was ever going to fix it.”
