Linda Evangelista has celebrated National Son Day by calling her 14-year-old son Augustin James the 'light of my life'.
In a rare social media appearance, the supermodel, 56, shared an older picture of her son as a small child on the beach standing next to a love heart etched in the sand with the words "Augie + Mommy".
It comes after Linda, who shares her son with French businessman François-Henri Pinault, revealed on Instagram that she's been left "brutally disfigured" from a cosmetic procedure she had five years ago.
Linda's tribute to her son is her first post since she opened up about her looks in an emotional post.
The 55-year-old supermodel rose to fame alongside the likes of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington but she has remained largely out of the spotlight for the past few years.
Linda has admitted this is partly due to her 'no longer looking' like herself after undergoing Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure, which she says did the 'opposite' of what she had hoped.
The process is designed to decrease fat cells, but Linda claims for her the treatment went the other way leaving her "permanently deformed".
Breaking her silence on Instagram, Linda described two corrective surgeries that had attempted to undo the damage as 'painful' and 'unsuccessful.'
"Today I took a big step towards righting a wrong that I have suffered and have kept myself for over five years," Linda started her post to her 900,000 followers.
"To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers’ careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised.
"It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, 'unrecognisable.'"
Linda says she has now developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH), which is described as the overgrowth of fatty adipose tissue and is a rare side effect of the procedure she underwent.
She added: "I have developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia or PAH, a risk of which I was not made aware of before I had the procedures."
"PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness and the lowest depths of self-loathing. In the process, I have become a recluse," she continued.
"With the lawsuit, I am moving forward to rid myself of my shame, and going public with my story."
