Linda Evangelista, “disfigured” by cosmetic procedure, files lawsuit

Canadian former top model Linda Evangelista has filed a lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics, a Californian cosmetic treatment company, demanding $50 million (€42.61 million) in compensation following a procedure that has left her “brutally disfigured” and isolated.

Evangelista, one of the leading fashion models of the 1980s-90s, has brought charges before the Federal Court in New York for negligence, misleading advertising, loss of income and emotional distress, claiming that Zeltiq Aesthetics failed to notify its customers of the procedure's possible side effects.

Evangelista, 56, posted on Thursday on her Instagram account that about five years ago she underwent a fat-elimination procedure that has had disastrous consequences.

Zeltiq Aesthetics's ‘CoolSculpting’ treatment is designed to destroy fat by cryolipolysis, a cell-freezing process.

“To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working, while my peers' careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by the Zeltiq CoolSculpting procedure, which has had effects contrary to those promised,” wrote Evangelista, who said she has been living like a recluse for five years.

She explained she has suffered a rare side effect after the procedure called paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), which causes swelling in the treated areas.

“PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing. In this descent to hell, I was very isolated,” she said.

Contacted by telephone, neither Zeltiq Aesthetics, a subsidiary of Allergan Aesthetics, nor its parent company AbbVie, wished to comment.

The lawsuit states that Evangelista underwent multiple procedures between 2015 and 2016 to reduce localized fat in the thighs, abdomen, back, hips and chin. Restorative surgery has failed to improved her condition.

(Reporter: Jill Serjeant; French version: Khadija Adda-rezig, edited by Sophie Louet