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Linda Evangelista performing at »New York Fashion Week« 2022
Photo: Randy Brooke / WireImage / Getty Images
Former top model Linda Evangelista has breast cancer for the second time and has been battling the disease for several years. The 58-year-old made the diagnosis public in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
After a routine check-up in December 2018, she was told for the first time that she had breast cancer, Evangelista said in the conversation. Subsequently, according to her own statements, she had a mastectomy performed, i.e. a removal of the entire breast tissue.
»Ready for life«
After that, she thought she was "ready for life." But in July last year, she felt a lump on her breast again. She has been back in treatment for a year now and has undergone surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Their prognosis is now "good, but not outstanding".
"Only a handful of people knew about it. I'm just not one of those people who share everything," Evangelista said. She didn't want tabloids waiting on her doorstep while she was in a bad way.
»brutally disfigured« by plastic surgery
Only last year, the former top model had shown herself for the first time after a failed cosmetic surgery in public. She was "brutally disfigured" by fat reduction surgery in 2015 and 2016, Evangelista said at the time.
In so-called CoolSculpting, fat accumulations are actually supposed to be removed with the help of cold. However, the procedure had the opposite effect on her, Evangelista said. The consequences of the treatment would not only have destroyed their existence. As a result, she was also "plunged into a cycle of deep depression, deep sadness and deepest self-hatred".
At the moment, her mental health seems to be more stable again. Evangelista told the Wall Street Journal: "I know I have one foot in the grave, but I'm absolutely in a celebratory mood."
lmd