Why I still swear by the fat-freezing that ruined star model’s face

MARYLEBONE Cricket Club now insists that batsmen be called ‘batters’ and the Man of the Match be ‘Hero of the Match’. But what next? A maiden over turns into ‘they/them over’ and dolly is a ‘gender-neutral catch’? Sadly, the boys’ game is still more exciting than the girls’. Sorry, bat-ladies!

Back in the 1990s, Linda Evangelista was the catwalk queen with her posse of supermodel peers — Naomi campbell, cindy crawford, christy Turlington and claudia Schiffer.

They were so fabulously paid they refused to get out of bed for less than $10,000, or so the myth had it.

They were born with supernatural beauty and bodies to make mortals gasp. Women envied them; men wanted them; everyone knew them.

and yet, we now see, even the most alluring are victims of the same insecurities as the rest of us. This week Linda, 56, revealed that five years ago she underwent the cosmetic procedure coolSculpting: a treatment that freezes fat cells to break them down.

a rare reaction has changed her appearance to such an extent she has become a virtual hermit: she is now, she says, ‘permanently deformed’ and is suing the company behind the procedure.

What possessed her to do it, when nature had already blessed her with perfection? and what chance for the rest of us when Linda can afford the most expensive clinics and still ends up disfigured and despairing?

The cosmetic procedure industry in the Uk alone is worth £4billion, globally almost £50billion — which means millions of women, and many men, are taking up not the age-denying but the age-defying challenge.

I have written for years about the non-surgical treatments I’ve had, even Linda’s controversial coolSculpting. For me, nothing but great results and no regrets. Yes, it hurts a bit — but if it’s good enough for Jennifer aniston, who swears by it, then it’s good enough for me.

Sparingly used, these procedures can be transformative for mind as well as body. all but one of my girlfriends is regularly having ‘something done’. None would admit to it publicly, some not even to their husbands.

Luckless Linda is one of the few who has admitted to it — yet only because it went so horribly wrong. In a way, she has done us a service. and in a world where women are still judged on their looks, who can blame them?

There but for the grace of God go so many of us, Linda. I’m sorry it had to be you.