Linda Evangelista‘s unnerving perfection didn’t come easily. In a new interview, the supermodel, 58, admitted to starvation diets, cleanses, and more in an effort to stay impossibly thin during her high-profile modeling days. Specifically, she says she attended fasting retreats in Palm Springs, California. “You just do liquids, mostly water with lemon and mints and teas and you get a glass of juice a day and you get a diluted watered-down vegetable once a day called a soup,” she said during a November 14 episode of the Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast “But it’s basically a starvation diet. I will never do the deprivation; I won’t do that again.”
She also confessed to various cleanses in order to maintain her weight. “’I started doing cleanses all the time and I loved doing these cleanses, but I think they were very harmful to me,” she told host Ruth Rodgers. “I did the Master Cleanse quite a few times, but I would do medicinal cleanses, like a powder drink, or the rice base.”
The stunning model, who rose to fame alongside supermodel peers Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, and Christy Turlington, said she had a “crazy” metabolism and didn’t have to work out until she neared the age of 30. “I think it started to slow down close to 30,” she said of her metabolism. “I started working out when I was 27, 28, cos I was like, ‘Oh, things are a little different.’ And back then if you overindulged for too long if you cut back on everything for three days, you would drop five pounds. Now, it is very easy to gain five pounds in a weekend.”
These days, the mom of one admits she no longer limits herself, except to make sure what she eats is “high quality.” “If I’m going to eat pasta, that’s like an indulgence for me, because I try and watch my weight and be healthy,” she explained. “I always have. If I’m going to eat pasta, it’s got to be great. If I’m going to eat a steak, I mean I eat everything, it can’t be a crappy steak. It has to be, like, the best steak.”