Linda Evangelista
Her ordeal also strained her relationship with her son
Linda Evangelista has finally found the courage to go public again.
Linda Evangelista recently made her first public appearance in years. Now the former supermodel reveals how much the messed-up beauty interventions have strained the relationship with her son Augustin.
Linda Evangelista, 56, was one of the most famous and sought-after models in the 1990s. While fellow campaigners like Naomi Campbell, 51, or Cindy Crawford, 55, are still in the public eye today, Evangelista withdrew further and further until she finally disappeared from the scene completely. Now she’s back and revealed in an interview with “People” magazine that several beauty procedures “disfigured” her.
She didn’t want to show herself to anyone like that, she explains. A difficult time that put extreme psychological strain on the model. The relationship with her beloved son Augustin, called Augie, was also affected.
Linda Evangelista: “I didn’t want to be a burden to my child”
In 2015, Linda Evangelista underwent CoolSculpting several times. This is a non-invasive fat reduction procedure. After the interventions, a paradoxical adipose hyperplasia developed. This extremely rare side effect manifests itself in the fat tissue thickening and expanding when it freezes, rather than disappearing. Now she has hard bumps all over her body, some of which rub, rub and bleed, she explains to “People”. Because of her “brutally disfigured” appearance, as she calls it, she hardly dared to go outside.
She became a “hermit”, living in secret for the past five years. She also concealed her condition from the people closest to her, including her now 15-year-old son Augustin. “I didn’t want to be a burden to my child,” she says. “He shouldn’t have to support me. That’s not his job.” Therefore, she preferred to face her ordeal in complete seclusion.
“I hate what this has done to my relationship with him”
For a long time, she only left her house in New York for school events with Augie, whose father is Francois-Henri Pinault, 59, or to walk her dog. She couldn’t always be there for her son, a heavy burden for the 56-year-old. Even if she told Augie late, he is said to have noticed that his mother was not doing well. “[Augie] always said, ‘Mom, remember when you had fun?'” says Evangelista. “‘Remember how you used to laugh? Why aren’t you laughing anymore?’ I hate what this has done to my relationship with him.”
These are words that get under your skin. She finds it difficult to deal with the fact that not only her body and soul, but also her relationship with her son has suffered as a result of the surgery. But Augustin is by his mother’s side: Before she went public with her story, she warned Augie that he could soon hear “a few things” about his mother. “He said he doesn’t care and he’s there for me.”
Linda Evangelista emphasizes that she taught her son from an early age that appearances do not equate to real beauty. A lesson she never learned herself. “It’s very important for me to raise him to know that he’s beautiful and that everyone is beautiful,” she says, adding through tears, “It’s so screwed up that I really believe it, but to myself do not claim.”
Source used: people.com