Linda Evangelista revealed in a new interview that over the past five years, she had been diagnosed with breast cancer twice and was learning to live with it and recover.
The cover star of WSJ. Magazine's Fall Men's Style Issue spoke candidly with renowned fashion photographer and close friend Steven Meisel about her health and life as a cancer survivor.
"I've kept it quiet. Only a handful of people knew," the supermodel, 58, shared. "And I'm just not one of those people who has to share everything. I thought to myself, I will share this one day but while I am going through it, absolutely not."
She revealed that the first time she had been diagnosed was in 2018, saying: "It was detected in my annual mammogram. The margins were not good, and due to other health factors, without hesitation, because I wanted to put everything behind me and not to have to deal with this, I opted for a bilateral mastectomy.
"[I was] thinking I was good and set for life. Breast cancer was not going to kill me."
The Canadian runway star revealed, however, that she was diagnosed a second time once again in July 2022. Upon learning of the second diagnosis, she recalled telling her doctor: "Dig a hole in my chest.
"I don't want it to look pretty. I want you to excavate. I want to see a hole in my chest when you're done. Do you understand me? I'm not dying from this."
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Of her treatment, Linda added: "I just went into this mode that I know how to do – just do what you've got to do and get through it. And that's what I did." She also revealed that she lost her hair after her second round of chemotherapy, and candidly shared: "This is all new hair.
"It came back very dark. It's even curlier than it used to be. The first time, I lost all the hair on top of my head, like my grandfather did."
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Linda mentioned that her post-cancer care oncologist told her that her prognosis was looking good, although she responded: "Not 'great'? Why isn't it great?"
"Well, once it's come back, there's a chance," was what she recalled the doctor telling her. She got real about growing to appreciate life even more after her diagnoses. "I know I have one foot in the grave, but I'm totally in celebration mode."
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Linda revealed also that she was working on a collaborative book project with Steven, 69, simply titled Linda Evangelista Photographed by Steven Meisel, an exploration of their decades of work together. All the proceeds from the book will go to a breast cancer research organization, which is yet to be determined.