Linda Evangelista made a very chic appearance at the National Breast Cancer Coalition New York gala on Tuesday night.
The charity honoured the iconic model for her dedication to breast cancer research and awareness, having survived breast cancer twice.
And the honoree made the night a family affair as she brought her son Augustin, 18, along.
Linda wowed in her chic look of a black oversized blazer and trousers as she posed with her son and friends including British model Karen Elson.
The nineties icon looked full of confidence after admitting in a new interview released this week that she still needs therapy to ‘see what she looks like in the mirror’ after she revealed in 2021 that she had been left ‘permanently deformed’ following rare side effect to a cosmetic procedure.
The iconic model, 59, graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar’s May 2025 Beauty issue, and in an interview with the publication, shared how she’s changed her approach to her appearance, following a double mastectomy in 2018.
Linda Evangelista made a very chic appearance at the National Breast Cancer Coalition New York gala on Tuesday night, arriving hand in hand with her son Augustin, 18
The nineties icon looked full of confidence after admitting in a new interview released this week that s he still needs therapy to ‘see what she looks like in the mirror’
The model suffered from a rare reaction to the procedure known as CoolSculpting, which was designed to decrease her fat cells, but instead, made them become enlarged (pictured left in her nineties modelling heyday and right in 2022 after her ‘botched’ surgery)
Linda admitted that she ‘still doesn’t look in the mirror’ after a fat-freezing procedure back in 2016 left her ‘permanently deformed.’
She explained: ‘I have to go through therapy to like what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still don’t look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see myself because I didn’t love myself or like myself.’
Breaking down in tears, she added: ‘I really think beauty is something you earn. I think of my grandmothers’ faces and what the war did to them, the toll it took on them … just wearing their hardships. They wore it, and they were so gorgeous. It had nothing to do with perfection or youth.’
Evangelista previously revealed in 2021 that she decided to retreat from the public eye after she developed a rare reaction to a cosmetic procedure in 2016.
The cryolipolysis procedure, called CoolSculpting, was designed to decrease fat cells, but instead, it made her cells become enlarged. She said she soon began developing ‘bulges’ all over her body, which made her worry that she was losing her mind.
‘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 Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,’ she wrote at the time.
‘It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media described, ‘unrecognizable.”
During the Harper’s Bazaar interview, Linda also revealed that she’s ‘fine’ with her appearance now after she quietly underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnsed with breast cancer in 2018.
She said: ‘My double mastectomy, I’m fine with it. I did put in very small implants. What they took out, I put in, cc-wise.
Linda wowed in her chic look of a black oversized blazer and trousers, posing confidentally on the red carpet
She posed with her son and friends including British model Karen Elson
The charity honoured the iconic model for her dedication to breast cancer research and awareness, having survived breast cancer twice
Linda was joined by some model pals at her big night, sharing drinks with Trish Goff and Karen
‘I’ve had all those lung surgeries, oh my God, and my keloids and all the chest-tube scars and my C-section scar. There were a lot of surgeries. I’m cool. I’m fine with those. I won. I’m here. I won.’
She added that in the wake of her ordeal, she’s become more at-peace with the prospect of ageing, saying: ‘I don’t care how I age. I just want to age. It doesn’t have to be gracefully. I really, really, really don’t want to die.
‘I have still so much to do. I’m finally getting comfortable with myself and with everything, and now I want to enjoy it.’
