Christie Brinkley revealed she recently had hip replacement surgery to deal with pain from a past injury.
The supermodel, 66, shared a series of photos of herself on Instagram on a snorkeling trip after recovering from the procedure.
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“New Year, New Hip! Yes that’s a band aid on my hip,” she wrote in the caption. “I injured my hip in a back country skiing helicopter crash on a mountaintop in Telluride many years ago. The pain in my hip got a little bit worse each year. 12 years ago I was told it needed to be replaced but the surgery was daunting ! And I had things to do!”
However, she said during quarantine she decided to finally “do something about the pain that had progressively influenced my decisions.”
“I wanted to be ready to be able to say yes to opportunity,” she wrote. “I had my surgery at Thanksgiving and I was dancing in my kitchen by New Years Eve and today I put on my long fins and explored the coral reefs propelled by my new hip! I’m writing all this to say If you’ve been putting something off that could improve your well-being but hesitate out of some sort of fear, I suggest learning as much as you can about the process and the results and expectations."
“Now I can focus on getting back in shape and rebuilding my strength,” she added. “Never (too) old to get hip!”
Brinkley has spoken in the past about her near-fatal 1994 helicopter crash in Colorado, saying it changed her outlook on life.
“I celebrate every birthday. I celebrate every day. I was in a terrible helicopter crash, and I really thought I was dying,” she told TODAY Style in 2018. “When I made it through that, I really have looked at every single day of my life as a gift.”
She also marked the 25th anniversary of the crash on Instagram in April 2019, sharing a throwback People magazine cover about her accident.
“This happened 25 years ago today and not a day goes by that I have not counted my blessing for being alive,” she wrote in the caption. “I know for a fact that tomorrow is not a guarantee and that each day is a gift and an opportunity to make sure that everybody we love knows it!”