Linda Evangelista has settled a $50 million lawsuit with a company that she claims botched a liposuction-type of procure and left her "deformed."
The former supermodel, 57, announced the news on Instagram.
"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."
Linda made headlines last year after claiming she underwent CoolSculpting, a "fat-freezing" procedure that acts as a liposuction alternative, in a dermatologist's office in 2015 and 2016. The procedure was botched, she alleged, leaving her "permanently deformed" and "brutally disfigured." Because of her physical looks, she lived in seclusion for almost five years.
In a cover story with People magazine in February, Linda said she was diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia after the surgery (PAH, which causes affected fatty tissue to thicken and expand, is a rare side effect that affects less than 1% of CoolSculpting patients.) Her doctor told her "no amount of dieting and no amount of exercise was ever going to fix it," she said.
Terms of the new settlement are not known.
With the lessons learned, Linda now preaches body acceptance.
"Why do we feel the need to do these things [to our bodies]? I always knew I would age. And I know that there are things a body goes through. But I just didn't think I would look like this," she says of her body protrusions, which developed after the procedures. "I don't recognize myself physically, but I don't recognize me as a person any longer either."
The image people have of Linda the supermodel is "gone," she said, adding, "I hope I can shed myself of some of the shame and help other people who are in the same situation as me. That's my goal."