Who begged for salvation on "Botched"?
Or pounded all the pizza?
Or feels like a fat kid 24/7?
We're not throwing shade — we're just saying these famous models don't look anything like
they used to.
Even Linda Evangelista thinks she looks nothing like she did at the height of her career in
the '80s and '90s.
Once one of the most famous models on earth, she's also admitted to feeling different on
the inside as well.
And as a result, she has skirted the spotlight in recent years.
"Maybe I had to go through all that hysteria to get to where I am today."
So, what happened?
A bad experience with CoolSculpting.
Post-procedure, Evangelista was diagnosed with a rare side effect associated with the
treatment.
As ScienceDaily noted,
"The treated area actually becomes larger rather than smaller in the weeks after the
procedure, leaving a painless, visibly enlarged, firm, well-demarcated mass under the skin."
Evangelista had undergone the treatment seven times between August 2015 and February 2016.
Eventually, she saw her thighs, chin, and underarms become much larger.
As she admitted to People,
"I loved being up on the catwalk.
Now I dread running into someone I know.
I can't live like this anymore, in hiding and shame.
I'm willing to finally speak."
If you look at the many Vogue issues that Janice Dickinson has covered in her career,
it's night and day compared to what she looks like now.
And the most obvious difference has to do with Dickinson getting her share of cosmetic
surgery over the years, which she's spoken freely about.
Like in 2014, when she admitted to In Touch,
"I live for plastic surgery."
And that, she did.
Dickinson had so many procedures done, the cost became part of the reason that she filed
for bankruptcy at one point.
She told the outlet,
"[I dealt with] press whore doctors that offered to give me Botox and fix my teeth for free
and then slapped me with bills."
But ironically, during an interview with Radar, the woman who dubbed herself the world's "first
supermodel" claimed that when it comes to more cosmetic surgery, she could take it or
leave it.
She explained,
"People everywhere seem to think I'm addicted to plastic surgery, but the true people that
know me are my fiancé and thousands of young girls that I've helped through my book."
Perhaps she was referring to her 2004 novel, "Everything About Me Is Fake — And I'm Perfect"
just ahead of her Season 1 appearance on "Botched."
"I get to be me another ninety years with a great pair of breasts."
Even now, when it comes to the modeling industry, thin is still in.
But Maggie Greene celebrated gaining 30 pounds, after previously struggling with body issues.
In January of 2018, the self-described "Tennessee girl" revealed her story in an article for
Harper's Bazaar.
She also posted to Instagram:
"The picture on the left was taken two years ago this month, and the picture on the right
was taken a few weeks ago.
Two years ago, I was seriously unhappy.
I would look in the mirror and think I looked fat.
I'd sit at home and cry because I felt like I couldn't eat anything.
It was the lowest point for me, but I wanted to be a model so bad.
I wanted to be glamorized for being so thin even though I was miserable."
One reason Greene gained the weight was that she was signed to Wilhelmina's Curve division,
so she had to be heavier.
The other reason involved her happiness.
As she recalled with Today in 2018,
"It truly was a breakdown to breakthrough.
I was miserable restricting my diet and counting every calorie."
Kate Moss most certainly influenced the look of high fashion modeling in the '90s.
During her heyday, the press commonly used the term "waif" to describe her.
But eventually, that word would no longer apply.
Everything changed when she appeared looking fuller-figured in a photo published by The
Sun in 2018.
But four years before the image surfaced, Moss spoke about her younger, skinnier days,
telling Elle,
"I think I was just really young and thin.
That's what happens.
I mean my daughter's tiny.
I was working and in fashion, back in the day, they didn't feed you."
As she told SHOWstudio, Moss says she never dieted until after her daughter was born.
While she didn't lose too much sleep over gaining a little weight, Moss told The Guardian
that there were points in her career when she worried that she looked too thin.
Her advice to aspiring models is not to strive for the so-called "waif" look, but to aim
for the industry standard to be more diverse.
She explained to SHOWstudio,
"You have to be yourself, as models come in all sorts of shapes and sizes."
"You can't do anything about what people think of you."
Model, life coach, and TV personality Rosie Mercado lost almost 240 pounds.
But while she was happy about her transformation, outsiders didn't exactly share in her excitement.
Apparently, in her opinion, quote "fat activists" misunderstood what she was trying to accomplish
with her new healthy lifestyle.
She revealed to TMZ in 2016,
"There was a group of people that resented [me], that I was losing weight because they
thought that diet equals being size zero.
I got hate mail.
Not so much from the other [plus] size models but just fans.
They told me to go jump off a bridge and kill myself for losing weight."
Mercado also claimed that some of the backlash resulted because she shared her weight loss
journey on social media.
Nevertheless, the model shook off the hate and continued with her new lifestyle and career.
Explaining more on her decision to get a gastric sleeve in 2015, she told Us Weekly,
"I thought, 'I'm so dedicated, I'm doing this.
I'm sick and tired of the same thing.
I'm making this decision and I'm changing my life.'
And it was the best decision of my life."
"Just have an outlook.
That landscape of the future — what you want the end result to be."
Long before he became a professional rugby player, then a ripped model, Aussie Kris Smith
was a chubby little kid.
And even though he's now widely known for having a supremely chiseled physique, it's
still hard for him to see his own body in a positive light.
And a lot of that has to do with being relentlessly teased about his weight by classmates in his
younger years.
As he admitted during an interview with New Idea,
"When I walk down the catwalk for Myer in Speedos, I'm still that fat kid."
"I have these insecurities still.
I've always had body insecurities.
I've never known if I'm ever good enough."
Smith then echoed the sentiment in 2022, admitting that despite his success in the industry,
he still has his vulnerable moments.
He shared with Body+Soul,
"I'm not comfortable shirtless.
Learning to love the skin you're in is a constant battle for me."
While he has struggled to overcome body image issues throughout his life, he's also working
to make sure that his own kids don't live out the same story.
He explained,
"My priority is to show that 'healthy' is the best-looking body you can have — and
that's different for everyone."
In a photo that accompanied a 2016 Vogue interview, Swiss model Tamy Glauser sported short black
hair, which fit the androgynous look that they became famous for.
But five years later, in 2021, they looked entirely different on Instagram, rocking long
locks with highlights.
Glauser has modeled both men's and women's clothing, so the different looks weren't a
total surprise for fans.
But their shifting appearance makes them an ideal fit for this list.
Still, Glauser's chameleon-like versatility wasn't something that was always welcome in
the womenswear industry, early in their career.
When the model was rocking a buzz cut before it was a trend, they recalled that people
didn't know how to work with them — simply because they didn't have hair.
Revealing the deep psychological differences when it comes to modeling in the men's or
women's categories, Glauser explained to The Brander,
"I have to work to put myself into a woman's mindset to be able to express the movements
authentically.
With the guys, it just kind of happens naturally."
In 2021, the model shared another snap featuring even longer hair than fans had seen — proving
yet again that Glauser's look is always fully free to flow.
"There's been times where I had my lips so big I looked like Daffy Duck."
As British reality star and former model Katie Price once described plastic surgery to The
Sun,
"It's like a car ... If you get a scratch or a dent, you fix it, and that's how I feel
with my body."
"I love this bit.
Yaaaay!"
Over the years, she certainly indulged in her share of tweaking.
She underwent a face lift, full body lipo, more than one boob job, a Brazilian butt lift,
lipo under her chin, as well as a brand new set of veneers.
Price even shared a YouTube video that showed her regular teeth looking pretty much nonexistent
after they were shaved down so her new teeth could fit.
Fans and tabloids have been calling the "Celebrity Big Brother" winner "unrecognizable" compared
to when she appeared in The Sun back in the day.
But the model isn't shy about being very vocal in regard to her cosmetic history.
She spoke about the surgeries she's had on "Steph's Packed Lunch" in 2021, revealing
that she got her first breast augmentation surgery at the age of 18.
She does confess that she wishes she had waited a couple more years.
Explaining that she didn't get Botox until her later twenties, she did say she felt the
pressure of having started her career before Photoshop and Instagram filters had gone mainstream.
When Renee Alway competed on "America's Next Top Model" in 2007, she made her industry
debut as a youthful blonde who wouldn't seem out of place on a runway or magazine cover.
But by 2013 she appeared in a less glamorous light.
When her mugshot surfaced, Alway was only recognizable by her blue eyes.
And the rest of her face revealed a shocking new reality.
After coming in third on "Top Model," Alway had become addicted to drugs.
She was then arrested in Palm Springs, California, after being found in a vacant house carrying
a gun, according to TMZ.
Alway was charged with suspicion of burglary, possession of narcotics, carrying counterfeit
money, and other crimes.
She was sentenced to 12 years in prison but got out in 2018, after serving five years
at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
Even so, the former model was arrested again in 2019 for domestic violence, according to
the outlet.
As for why she turned to substances to face her daily life, Alway described a devastating
string of rejections after "Top Model," admitting to ABC News in 2013,
"I couldn't get past the reality TV stigma that had been put on me."
In the '90s and early 2000s, the spotlight was shining bright on former model and professional
dancer Suzy Pérez.
She reportedly performed with Jennifer Lopez, as well as Reggaetón artist Daddy Yankee.
She also appeared in several music videos, including the Glenn Lewis video for "Back
For More."
But sadly, the star's career in entertainment ended abruptly.
And according to Univision, that was because she became addicted to drugs.
As of 2019, she was living in the streets of New York City and looking completely unlike
she once did during her glory days.
Pérez explained that her troubles started when she took the loss of her mother especially
hard.
She also said that she became disabled after suffering a violent attack.
In 2019, Univision released an emotional video that shows Pérez reuniting with her child,
Senna Celestino, whom she had lost custody of.
Senna said that loved ones had been giving Pérez money to help her out, but discovered
that she'd been using it all to buy drugs.
According to Mamás Latinas, Senna also started a GoFundMe for Suzy, and there had been at
least one attempt to intervene and take her to rehab.
"She was buying the money with — buying drugs with the money that I gave her and I
just felt really guilty."
Pérez looked healthier and happier in images posted to a private Instagram account she
created in 2020.
But later that year, Senna shared a since-deleted update on Twitter saying that Pérez was refusing
help and had chosen to live on the streets.
At the time, Distractify reported that she was using money from fans to fund her addiction.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).