On Wednesday, February 19th, the supermodel spoke about the moment she revealed her mastectomy scars to her friends during the Shiseido “Potential Has No Age” Summit, organized in partnership with Forbes.

Evangelista participated in the panel titled Facing the Pressures to Look Youthful, alongside Jenna Lyons and Agnes Landau, the head of marketing at Shiseido.

When asked about a moment she felt most beautiful, Evangelista recalled her February 2024 photoshoot for Zeit magazine, where she was photographed by Cass Bird, topless in a denim jacket.

“My friends were with me that day. Jenna Lyons, do you remember?” she addressed one of her fellow panelists. “When I was changing, they asked me: ‘Can we see…?’ I don’t remember exactly what you said, whether it was my chest or something else. I had a double mastectomy, and I had never shown anyone but my family.”

After showing them the marks from her surgery, Evangelista recalled how they told her she looked “so beautiful.”

At the time, she noted that she felt significant uncertainty about her appearance and was greatly reassured by her friends’ words. “I had to see myself in the mirror. I needed to know it was beautiful, but I didn’t feel that way. And they made me feel beautiful,” she shared.

After that sweet interaction, Evangelista agreed to remove her shirt for the photoshoot. “I’m beautiful, but I had to hear it from someone else,” she explained. “So I really believe it’s important for women to support each other and lift each other up. I think we’re all in this together.”

In September 2023, Evangelista shared with WSJ. Magazine that she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 after a routine mammogram. She revealed that “the margins weren’t good” and chose to undergo a double mastectomy. A few years later, in July 2022, the model learned the cancer had returned.

Following her second diagnosis, she told her oncologist, “Dig a hole in my chest. I don’t want it to look pretty. I want you to dig. I want to see a hole in my chest when you’re done. Do you understand me? I’m not going to die from this.”

Evangelista later told The View, “I’m okay with the scars. I think scars are trophies. I’m okay with the scars.”

Her Beauty Routine During the same panel, Evangelista also shared her beauty routine. “I wear sunscreen every day, even if it’s winter,” she stated. “In the winter, it’ll be incorporated into my moisturizer.” She also added that she “pays attention to how I eat and exercise.”

However, her ultimate skincare advice is to “finish the bottle” when trying new products.

“I get to have access to amazing skincare products. But I think everyone has access to great skincare. My advice is just to finish the bottle. I’m guilty of this, because something new always excites me more. I feel like we owe it to these companies to finish the contents of the bottles at least to see the results they promise,” she said.