Inside the Dark, Sometimes Deadly World of Cosmetic Surgery

The ’90s icon developed paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH)—a reported side effect of the body-contouring procedure, in which the fat cells grow instead of shrink, per Healthline.

“I have incisions all over my body,” Linda said of the two liposuction procedures she underwent to remove her protruding skin. “I have had stitches, I have worn compression garments under my chin, I’ve had my entire body tightly girdled for eight weeks—nothing helped.” 

As she attempted everything from temporarily starving herself to going under the knife, desperate to fix herself, “I was losing my mind.”

And yet, despite her cosmetic procedure nightmare, the 58-year-old revealed she’s still drawn to the allure of being beautiful. “I want wrinkles,” she told Vogue in August, “but I Botox my forehead so I am a hypocrite.”

Linda is hardly alone in her experience, as other celebrities like Sharon Osbourne, Heidi Montag and Tara Reid have succumbed to the pressures of needing to maintain their appearance.

Sharon recently told E! News that she’s made so many enhancements to herself over the years, she could be an example of what not to do.

“If anybody should do an advisory on plastic surgery, it should be me,” she said in a Sept. 7 interview. “There’s not one part of my body I haven’t had twisted, lifted, elongated. I’ve been messed up many times.”

Heidi, who famously underwent 10 cosmetic procedures in one day back in 2009, admitted that her beauty makeover almost landed her six feet under.

“I died for a minute,” The Hills star revealed to PAPER in 2018, reflecting on the time she got a chin reduction, brow-lifts, ear pinnings, a second rhinoplasty and a second breast augmentation, among others. “With that much surgery, I had to have 24-hour nurse care.”

The whole time, she said, husband Spencer Pratt “didn’t want to leave my side.”

After her brush with death, she noted, “Cutting yourself up isn’t something I’d recommend.”