Former supermodel Linda Evangelista, who claims a fat-reducing procedure gone bad “destroyed” her livelihood and turned her into a recluse, revealed details of her alleged income loss in a $50 million lawsuit against Zeltiq for its CoolSculpting process.
Evangelista accused the company of negligence, misleading advertising and not warning of potential adverse effects, Reuters reported Thursday.
She said her famous peers’ careers were still “thriving” while she could not work.
The lawsuit cited some specifics among the “significant modeling engagements” she was “forced to decline,” People reported.
Evangelista, 56, said she couldn’t reunite with fellow ’90s supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni and Claudia Schiffer for a Versace fashion show in 2017.
She also turned down an “Original Supermodels” reunion assignment for Dolce & Gabbana due to injuries and disfigurement that couldn’t be corrected by surgeries, People reported of the suit.
Evangelista, who graced hundreds of magazine covers in the 1990s and starred in George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” music video, was treated several times in 2015 and 2016 to reduce fat on her thighs, abdomen and chin, according to the court papers obtained by Reuters.
But as Evangelista reiterated in an Instagram post, the so-called “fat-freezing” technique backfired and instead increased the fat as a result of “paradoxical adipose hyperplasia.” She claimed to be “brutally disfigured” and “permanently deformed.”
HuffPost has not heard back from Allergan, which acquired Zeltiq, in repeated requests for comment.
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