Linda Evangelista, 60 Years a Winner: “I’m Alive and I’ll Do What I Have to Do. I’m Not Done”

During the reign of supermodels in the 1990s, Linda Evangelista was the embodiment of beauty; some have called her the Platonic idea of ​​a model and, we might add, of the power that comes with it. Yet, she says in an interview with the American magazine Harpers' Bazaar, which dedicated her May cover: "I was never told I was beautiful, and I didn't think so. The attention was on the work, not the person. . I was told: 'Your hair is beautiful.' Or: 'The foot works. The foot is good.' But no one ever said to me: 'Linda, you are beautiful.'" As incredible as it may seem to us humans, that's how it went, and now Linda confides that she feels the urge to tell everyone: "I tell my grandchildren, I tell my friends and above all I tell my son how beautiful he is, because I think it's important to hear it."

On the other hand, Evangelista is also the one who uttered the sentence:

“I don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.”

A statement worthy of Marie Antoinette, which she regretted, judging it arrogant, but which can certainly be reread in a perspective of recognition of her own value, even if she admits: "There are different ways of saying 'I appreciate myself and I ask for my services because I am worth it' than how I said it".

"There have been many interventions"

In her 50s, Linda Evangelista has experienced what the film The Substance has described in an extreme but effective way: the side effects of procedures to not age. Four years ago, with a post on Instagram, she revealed that she had been disfigured by a seemingly routine non-surgical procedure. She had received a "CoolSculpting" treatment (cryolipolysis) which causes non-invasive reduction of body fat through localized skin cooling, unfortunately it had side effects for her to the point of leaving her unrecognizable. The model fell into a state of deep depression. An unimaginable damage for a person who has made beauty her career and her identity: "I have to go to therapy - she later told People - to appreciate what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still don't look in the mirror".

Then life threw something even more challenging in her path: cancer and a subsequent double mastectomy. She faced it with unyielding courage, as she told D in 2023: “I don’t know if this is a motto, but my mantra is, ‘You’re not suffering, you’re fighting.’ I persevered. I could have felt half dead so many times over the past few years, but I wasn’t suffering. I was fighting. Suffering is optional. That’s my mantra, and I stick to it.”

Today, at 60, he takes stock. And it is a complete victory.

"My double mastectomy, I'm fine with it. There were a lot of surgeries. I'm fine. I'm fine with it. I won. I'm here. I won."

"I'm alive. I'm not finished"

On her relationship with beauty, she says today, "I used to feel like people were watching me. Now I don't feel them anymore. And I'm okay with that. It wasn't sustainable, whatever it was in the heyday, and I'm really glad I'm not living that life anymore." In the interview, she says she had her fillers dissolved, but she still got Botox. "I didn't look like myself anymore," she explained.

The supermodel seems to have truly found a new dimension and is keen to state it forcefully: "I don't care how I age. I just want to age. It doesn't have to be elegant. I really, really, really don't want to die. I still have so much to do. I'm finally feeling comfortable with myself and everything, and now I want to enjoy it."

An example of what is called resilience, which has made her change profoundly. Today her beauty is also evident in her statements: "I am alive. I am alive. I am alive and I will do what I have to do. I will fight because I do not want it to be different. I am not finished."