Supermodel Paulina Porizkova recently underwent hip replacement surgery and she is not hesitating to embrace—and accept—the resulting scars. Having recently turned 59, Porizkova is showing her one million Instagram followers that the scars represent conquering old pain.
Porizkova rose to international prominence as a supermodel in the ‘80s and ‘90s. She got her big break on the covers of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1984 and 1985. This made her the second woman, after Christie Brinkley, to be featured on the swimsuit issue’s front cover in consecutive years. Now, she’s showing the world that she’s just as beautiful as she was decades ago.
Paulina Porizkova opens up about her hip replacement and initial fear of surgery scars
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Back in February, Porizkova shared a health update after she had to undergo hip replacement surgery. By the end of January, she had undergone the procedure and revealed that she was walking hours after the operation, though the recovery—and IV insertion and removal—were still painful.
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“As a child of medical professionals, I went doctor shopping when I realized I had run out of all non surgical options,” Porizkova admitted. She further revealed that a bilateral procedure was necessary because “on a scale of 1-10, my right hip was a 9, and my left was …11!”
But there was a cosmetic element to this that Porizkova couldn’t stop thinking about. “Going into this surgery, I couldn’t help but think about scars,” she explained in a follow-up post. “The ones I have, I embrace. But I have no desire to make new ones. On our vacation, I kept saying goodbye to the smooth skin across my hip bones, even as I felt guilty for being vain.”
She pursued the path she needed for quality pain relief
At the one-week mark after her procedure, Porizkova said she knew “the incisions will soon become a part of me,” adding, “They will be a reminder of old pain and new victories. They will become a part of what constitutes the map of me. And like all other scars on my outside and inside, I will accept them. I will be proud of them.”
However, she added, “I have no intention of courting new ones.”
Now, her selfies include two new additions, especially when the outfit of choice is a bathing suit: her surgery scars. By mid-March, Porizkova shared a photo of herself standing proudly in a black-and-white polka dot bikini with her scars visible. “Here I am feeling pretty confident, with my 5 week old hip replacement scars and all,” she captioned the sunny, summery post.
Porizkova’s public journey has received words of support from her fans online. “You stated this beautifully,” one of her followers gushed. “We don’t always want the pain we endure, but the scars they leave become part of who we are. We’ve grown and healed from them, and they’ve made us better though we couldn’t have seen it at the time. You will wear those scars so beautifully also.”
Another shared, “I am getting ready to go through this and it has been a major help to me and many others to follow her journey.” A different fan also noted, “I respect and admire you for sharing your fears with the rest of us, and we can learn from them as well.”
