Linda Evangelista on dating: I don’t want to hear breathing

Linda Evangelista isn’t dating for many reasons, including ‘I don’t want to hear somebody breathing’

Linda Evangelista wears a white turtleneck and a black blazer, with short hair and sparkly earrings.

Nov. 27, 2023 6:47 PM PT

Linda Evangelista won’t let romance get in the way of her quiet time.

The supermodel sat down with the Sunday Times for a profile published this weekend, and when asked about dating, Evangelista said she’s “not interested.” The self-proclaimed germophobe told the outlet that she suffers from misophonia, a disorder Harvard Health describes as one in which common sounds (such as breathing, yawning or chewing) can affect a person emotionally, creating a fight-or-flight response that triggers anger and a desire to escape.

“I have that disorder where when people make noises it hurts me,” she said. “Like at the movies? That loud popcorn chewing or the rustling of the wrappers. I don’t go to the movies for that reason.”

So when it comes to dating, Evangelista, 58, says it’s off the table at this point in her life. “Not interested. I don’t want to sleep with anybody anymore. I don’t want to hear somebody breathing.”

The supermodel, who’s graced the cover of more than 700 magazines over the course of her career, couldn’t even remember the last time she’d dated. But she knows it was “definitely before” the CoolSculpting, a reference to her experience in 2015-2016, when she underwent a non-invasive procedure provided by Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., now a subsidiary of Allergan, that’s been approved by the FDA to reduce visible bulges under the chin and jaw and on the thighs, abdomen, flanks and back.

In September 2021, Evangelista claimed via Instagram that her body had been “brutally disfigured” by the CoolSculpting procedure, which “did the opposite of what it promised.” The ‘90s fashion icon went so far as to file a lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics, saying the procedure increased, rather than decreased, the size of her fat cells and left her “permanently deformed” to the point of appearing “unrecognizable.”

A representative for AbbVie, which acquired Allergan in 2020, did not respond to The Times’ request for comment on Evangelista’s statement at the time. In July 2022, Evangelista revealed she settled her lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics for an undisclosed amount.

In summer 2022, Evangelista returned to modeling for the first time since making her CoolSculpting claims. Evangelista shared an image from her collaboration with the Fendi fashion empire, which tapped her for the 25th anniversary celebration of its baguette handbag, designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi. And this year, she graced the cover of Vogue’s September issue, alongside fellow ’90s supermodels Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell, ahead of the Apple TV+ docuseries “The Super Models,” which premiered later that month.

In the four-part docuseries, Evangelista opened up about her “abusive” marriage with Elite Model Management executive Gérald Marie. “He knew not to touch my face, not to touch the moneymaker, you know?” she recounted emotionally.

“I learned that maybe I was in the wrong relationship,” she said in the third episode. “It’s easier said than done to leave an abusive relationship. I understand that concept because I lived it. If it was a matter of just saying, ‘I want a divorce, see ya,’ it doesn’t work that way.”

The two were married between 1987 and 1993. “I married him when I was 22 and I got out when I was 27, and he let me out as long as he got everything. But I was safe and I got my freedom.”

In response to Evangelista’s allegations in “The Super Models,” Marie’s lawyer Céline Bekerman said in a statement obtained by the Hollywood Reporter that her client “firmly objects to the defamatory and false allegations made against him. He refuses to participate in this dishonest media controversy.”

When the Sunday Times asked Evangelista what she spent her supermodel earnings on, she said: “Getting out of my marriage.”

Times staff writer Christi Carras contributed to this report.