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In her ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 podcast Young Again, journalist and broadcaster Kirsty Young takes her guests back to meet their younger selves and asks the question: if you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently?

In this episode Kirsty meets one of the original supermodels, Linda Evangelista, and they talk about her life and career, from her early experiences in the fashion industry to her treatment for cancer, plus that $10,000 quote.

Here are seven things we learned…

1. Linda wanted to be a model from an early age

The signs that Linda would end up as one of the most famous models of her generation were there from an early age. She was 5’8” at the age of 12 with a keen interest in clothes.

Linda’s mother was keen that she take part in lots of activities outside of school like ice skating and figure skating when the two of them spotted an advert for a local modelling school.

She was accepted and spent the next few years modelling around her hometown. A few years later Linda was spotted in the Miss Teen Niagara Beauty Pageant by a scout from the Elite agency in New York.

But it wasn’t until after she’d graduated that her mother said, “Why don't you try modelling? Why don't we call this man and see?”

“We did and he took my pictures and he sent them to New York. And they were very interested in me,” says Linda with typical understatement.

2. Linda is terrified of drugs

“This is a crazy story,” says Linda remembering an early job in Italy. “It was at a house outside of Milan and there were lots of people there and lots of models. And then at night these parties would start. And I remember seeing cocaine for the first time,” recalls Linda.

“They counted us, and on the coffee table they drew 12 lines of coke and at the end, there's this line left over, and they said, ‘Who didn't do their line?’”

“And I said: ‘Yeah, who didn't do their line?' Because it was me and I didn't want them to know, it wasn't me. Oh my God, it scared me, it just scared me... It was everywhere, but I managed never to try [it].”

3. She prefers the old days of analogue fashion shoots

“We had a giggle going back and reminiscing about each of the shoots because back then there was no retouching,” Linda says talking about the book collaboration she’s just done with fashion photographer Steven Meisel.

“What you saw was what you got. People were holding reflectors to take care of under eye bags. And we were pinned to death and the wind machines were going.”

"And we didn't know if we had the picture... the photographer would [only] find out after he developed them, and then he didn't retouch them.”

4. Linda had a cosmetic procedure she now regrets

Linda had thought as it was a non-invasive procedure to reduce body size it would be risk free.

“It went horribly wrong,” says Linda. “It wasn't me anymore and then I had two liposuctions, which made it an invasive procedure...”

“To try to correct the thing that had gone wrong,” adds Kirsty.

"But it didn't correct it and so here I am having been put out with anaesthesia, I mean having to wear girdles for eight weeks, head-to-toe girdles strapped under my chin, not going out and then it not being successful. I just went into a downward spiral. I was never going to have my body back.”

“And how are you with that?” asks Kirsty.

“Now I work at it when I'm in therapy,” replies Linda. “I just want, you know, to love myself and I'm working on it.”

5. She doesn’t worry about her scars

"See, I love scars because scars are trophies and I have plenty of those,” says Linda.

Linda has had cancer twice. She underwent a double mastectomy after her first diagnosis with breast cancer in 2018.

“I've never been myself even crazy about breasts. I find that they look cumbersome. I love my new, little, tiny 180cc [the size of the gel implant] breasts that I never have to wear a bra, so I'll never have the bra flap hanging out,” says Linda with a laugh.

“I can run and jump on my trampoline and they don't move, so I'm delighted.”

6. Does the $10,000 quote still haunt her?

In the October 1990 issue of Vogue, Linda was quoted as saying, "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day" when describing the life of a supermodel. It was seen by many as brash and arrogant.

“The way I said it,” reflects Linda, “it wasn't meant to come off the way it came off, it was all wrong. And if I could have taken it back at the time, I would have.”

“But it was another way of saying, ‘I know my worth.’”

“There are a lot of celebrities, athletes, musicians, they show their wealth, they wear it, they flaunt it. I just said it, and I didn't say it to the excessive amount that they are saying it.”

Kirsty replies: “If a famous footballer had said, ‘Well, you know, I don't go on the pitch for less than... that's just the way it is.’ People would have thought, ‘Well, clever you.’”

“But I think a young, beautiful woman saying, ‘Well, we don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day’ - there was humour in that, there was honesty in that. And I think it stuck in a lot of people's throats because you were a young woman.”

7. Linda’s genes were both a blessing and a curse

“Those genes, the genetic good fortune that allowed me to be in this business, has also backfired on me,” says Linda.

“I have two genetic diseases: the cancer and I have another one, and so genes can work for you and they can work against you.”

“I remember having a conversation with someone. And I said, ‘I've never had a cavity’ and they were like, ‘You're that genetically gifted that you've never had a cavity,’ and I said, ‘Oh, but my lungs are full of holes.’ But, I mean, it's just ironic.”