Linda Evangelista became one of fashion’s defining faces in the late 1980s and 1990s, rising alongside Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford in what the industry calls the “Golden Age” of supermodels. Known for her chameleonic ability to change her look, she appeared on over 700 magazine covers, worked as the longtime muse of photographer Steven Meisel, and became famous for the line that she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

Around 2016, she largely disappeared from public life. In 2021, she revealed that a CoolSculpting procedure had “brutally disfigured” her, triggering a rare side effect that increased rather than reduced fat cells, leaving her “permanently deformed” even after two failed corrective surgeries.

Rather than hide, Evangelista turned that experience into a comeback. Since a surprise 2022 Fendi campaign, she’s appeared on covers for British Vogue, WSJ Magazine and The Sunday Times Style, starred in the Apple TV+ docuseries The Super Models, and posed for Zeit Magazin in 2024 baring her mastectomy scars rather than concealing them. In her sixties, her “look” is less about a beauty routine and more about visible resilience, choosing minimal retouching and letting her scars show, while keeping her signature sharp styling, dark hair and striking bone structure.

Evangelista has one son, Augustin James, born in 2006, with Kering chairman François-Henri Pinault, whose identity she kept private until 2011. Pinault later married actress Salma Hayek, and the two families remain close, often appearing together at Augustin’s milestones, including his 2025 high school graduation. Evangelista is also a breast cancer survivor who underwent a double mastectomy. In 2023, she told The Sunday Times she has no interest in dating anyone right now, saying her focus these days is on her son and her career revival.