Linda Evangelista has opened up about the ‘horrible’ medication she has to take to suppress her hormones following her two cancer diagnoses in the last five years, claiming it makes her ‘feel old’.
The 58-year-old supermodel confirmed last month that she quietly underwent a double mastectomy after a routine mammogram detected the disease in December 2018. Doctors then discovered cancer in her pectoral muscle last year.
She required more surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy – and was told she would need to take medication for five years.
Appearing on Thursday’s episode of The View, as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Linda gave a candid update on her health, and revealed that after multiple surgeries she believed she could ‘tackle anything’ – until she underwent chemotherapy.
Linda Evangelista has revealed that she’s still taking ‘horrible’ medication that makes her ‘feel old’ following her cancer diagnoses in 2018 and 2022
Linda appeared on Thursday’s episode of The View and spoke to the hosts including Sunny Hostin (right)
Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) listened intently as the 58-year-old opened up about her cancer journey
‘I’m on fantastic meds for five years, they make you feel so good,’ she said sarcastically. ‘They’re horrible… the hormone suppressors, they make you feel old.’
Joy Behar, 81, asked: ‘I guess after you’ve been very ill, you just value life even more, am I right?’
Linda replied: ‘True. I’ve had so many surgeries and I thought I could tackle anything, but nothing like chemo to put you in your…’
Asked if she ‘welcomes’ her scars, she said: ‘Oh, I’m okay with scars. I think scars are trophies, I’m good with scars.’
Whoopi Goldberg, 67, asked if her two experiences with the disease were ‘different’, to which Linda replied: ‘I think everybody’s experience is going to be different. Well, it started out with my routine mammogram. I know we don’t like doing our mammograms and I’m the biggest procrastinator, but that’s one thing I was really faithful to.’
She explained how she was called back so that doctors could take a second look, adding: ‘It was an early DCIS [Ductal carcinoma in situ]. I have another disease that involves my lungs and a lumpectomy that wasn’t so great and so it ended up being a double mastectomy.’
Linda stressed it was ‘the right decision for me’ stating that it simply wasn’t an option for her to ‘die of breast cancer’, as she opened up about her second experience with the disease.
‘There’s a little, little chance it comes back and my oncologist said, “you know your body so well”, because I went back with a little… I’ll call it a bump, not a lump, and it’s up here in my pec muscle,’ she explained.
‘Everybody’s story is going to be nuanced and mine ended up being, “we’ll just get it out and give you some radiation”, but I had a really bad Oncotype score. It’s a score that tells you your probability of getting the cancer again, and they take into account many, many things including genetics.’
The brunette has fought cancer twice after finding a ‘bump’ in her pec muscle in 2022
The supermodel confirmed she is on meds that ‘suppress’ her hormones for five years
Designer Kim Jones reached out to Linda after she opened up to the world about her failed cosmetic procedure
‘Mine was bad, so I had to have the chemo,’ she said.
Alyssa Farah Griffin turned talk to the complications Linda suffered after undergoing a cosmetic fat removal procedure.
‘When I came out and spoke about my issues with this cosmetic procedure – that was not plastic surgery… I had a rare complication and and I tried to fix it surgically twice and those failed,’ she said.
‘But when I came out, it was because I wanted to live again. I didn’t want to stay hiding in my apartment, and I just wanted to live life again, and I cannot believe the love and support I got from my industry.’
The star spent six years ‘in hiding’ after suffering from a rare reaction to the procedure known as CoolSculpting, which was designed to decrease her fat cells, but instead, made them become enlarged.
The model previously told Vogue that she was ‘so depressed’ that she ‘hated’ herself following the procedure.
She claimed the faulty procedure caused her to lose her livelihood and left her with things ‘protruding’ from her body.
Linda had two liposuction surgeries in an attempt to fix the problem, and announced back in February 2022 she was done living in ‘shame.’
