Fernanda Motta: beauty and strength after cancer –

It was after 2 pm in Brazil, but almost 8 pm in Capri, Italy, from where Fernanda Motta spoke. After a troubled day, with delayed flights and a hell of a rush, the model and presenter opened the camera to our conversation in great humor, while — deservedly — tasting the delicacies in her hotel room, a way to deceive hunger even , in fact, manage to eat right.

For 40 minutes, our conversation went through the main topics that surround the top model’s life today: from the diagnosis, treatment and cure of a breast cancer, her relationship with her body and beauty, what she prioritizes in terms of food and physical exercises, to the new directions of her career. All this in a chat with a lot of people like us.

Below, you can find our entire conversation, with all the most inspiring things that Fernanda offered us on the other side of the Atlantic.

Fernanda, you’ve been through a lot in the last few years. Tell us: what does well-being mean to you today?

Wow, a wonderful question! Well-being is a set, it’s being well physically and emotionally, it’s a combo. Mainly health. Up-to-date health is true well-being, because without health we have nothing in life. But well-being is a combination of body and mind. I learned a lot of this from the things I went through and, I think that’s it, the balance that we are trying to find every day.

You spent 11 months battling breast cancer… How did that experience shape the way you see yourself today?

A diagnosis of a disease like this is a very strong thing. I had to cling to a very strong force to keep me very well psychologically and physically to face cancer treatment. It is a serious, heavy treatment, chemo is a heavy, strong treatment, it has the emotional part…

I’ve always been a positive person, but I think facing this disease made me triple everything. With all this I managed to get stronger, to have more faith. The disease confirmed to me what we can do when we believe a lot, have a lot of faith, have strength and when we see the positive side, even in difficult times. The head accounts for at least 50% of a cure.

The disease made me even stronger, and proved how strong we can be and face a situation with a certain lightness, looking for well-being in the disease itself.

– (Adilson Santos/)

Did going through cancer also change your relationship with your body?

In a way, we end up loving the body a lot. I always try to convey something to people, very particular to me: when I was undergoing chemo, I would thank the cells that were going away. They were changing my life.

And my body… At no point did I have a “Why me?” thing. I don’t have that DNA of “why?”, of regretting a lot. I complain, but I’m not sorry! But I think I love my body more, because it’s healthy, because it’s mine. When the person goes through a very serious, life-threatening illness, you are so grateful for what you have. Not only physically, but internally – I talk to my cells and my body, because it’s fine.

God has given us our body as our church. I’ve always had to take care of him because he’s my sanctuary. Without him, I’m nobody. After that, my relationship was more of love, because care, I always had. It’s a relationship to love.

You underwent a total mastectomy… in addition to all the difficulties that the disease presents, how did this surgery affect your self-esteem?

I’m a very practical person. We have to learn to love what we have. I was very blessed because, despite having a more aggressive and rare cancer, having undergone a lot of chemotherapy, having had a mastectomy, I had the chance to reconstruct the breast in the same surgery – it was 9 hours of surgery.

I didn’t have to do without the silicone, that’s different. Honestly, of course the breasts turned out different, but I think they are beautiful, I love them anyway. I didn’t have this problem, I see that I’ve passed, that I’ve won, that there’s nothing else. It didn’t stay like it was before. For me, they are perfect, so it didn’t shake me at all.

You lose the fat on your entire chest, it’s different when you sleep, when you lean over, you get used to it. My scars are pretty ok, but they don’t mean much. Really, it’s a readaptation thing, you’re born again. And that’s okay. Don’t we learn to like everything? Learn to like what you have, it’s all right.

You usually talk a lot about this phase of your life… What is your objective with this and how do you feel it impacts the people who accompany you?

I have no problem talking about it. I share all my experience, as many millions of times as necessary. But I don’t live to talk about it – my life is not the cancer I had, but what I live. I’m sure it helps a lot of people, every day I receive millions of messages and emails, people who ask for my help or are inspired by what happened to me – not me, but my situation. When they see me, they see that it is possible to beat cancer and change your life.

I’m not a person who just talks about it, it’s not my purpose. If anyone needs me, if I can speak, if anyone needs my testimony and my opinion, my story, I’ll be there to tell them. There are often things that we don’t know and that we will only know by living, but I can help shorten the path for these people for some reason.

Nothing is by chance in life. I didn’t have a new cancer, being a public person, who dealt with beauty my whole life, for nothing. The least I can do is share my story. But it’s not an obsession thing. It’s just something I do with the greatest pleasure and affection to help people because it has to be that way.

– (Adilson Santos/)

Speaking of the body and the relationship with the body, nowadays, what do you prioritize when it comes to physical exercise?

I have been doing little exercise. I’ve always done a lot of aerobics, walking, I’m very mind and body, all together. Brisk walking, endorphins and the thought was therapy, along with the exercise. And I’ve always done pilates, my whole life.

Before the pandemic, I had surgery on my spine, I had cancer treatment, and, after 11 months of chemo, I still had an operation, I had oral chemo… Then, everything happened again and I came back more or less. I’m not very active, but I try to do as much as I can.

I still do pilates twice a week. If I can go once, I will. I’m not the type of person who travels and works out on the trip. I like to take care of the body for all the reasons, I like to stand firm. Pilates does a lot of good for the spine, to keep me happier, because every exercise makes people produce endorphins. I really like exercising, really feeling well, that in the end you say “yummy, it was great!”. He is present there.

– (Adilson Santos/)

And how is your relationship with food? Can you talk a little bit about it?

I’m not much of a sweet tooth, I never was, I’m not used to it. I really like eating real food: rice, beans, chicken, vegetables, casserole, home cooking. I’m a big fan of home cooking! I’m crazy about Japanese, I eat a lot.

I eat a lot. But I eat well! I don’t eat a lot of junk food, I’m not much of a hot dog person, those things… My diet can be considered very good. I am a person who likes to eat.

As a 40+ woman, model and presenter, what do you prioritize when it comes to skin care?

I’ve always been a skin care person my whole life, even when I didn’t have financial conditions. I’ve always understood about feeling skin, and many things in my life have proven this to me – that people’s skin needs a lot of hydration, internally and externally.

I’m 41 years old and I consider myself a person who is doing very well, because I took precautions. And everything in life, when you prevent it, you are one step ahead. I love everything that has to do with body and skin care, I’ve never been much for sunbathing.

The suitcase comes almost an extra weight just for the cream that we bring! Obviously, if you get less sun, your skin doesn’t get so “scorched” and, you can see, everything I’ve ever read, stretch marks, wrinkles, is when the skin stretches and doesn’t have the elasticity to come back. I believe that if I keep my skin hydrated, it won’t stretch too hard, and I’ve done that my whole life, since I was young I’ve had this thought. It’s working! For someone who is 41 years old, I should be much more finished, and I think I’m doing really well, because prevention and hydration are essential parts of this care.

– (Adilson Santos/)

Coming back to the conversation a little bit about well-being, what was and has been the role of your family in your journey so far?

My family and friends were essential throughout this journey, Roger my daughter’s father, everyone who lived with me all this time… I think they were essential for the simple fact that they understood very well what I wanted and needed, since when I operated .

They understood and respected my way of thinking. I have always believed that we cannot be shaken to the point of interfering in a treatment, in our well-being, in our life. Even in the spine operation, then in the chemo, I always made it very clear that I didn’t want anyone to suffer. I needed everyone to be very well and positive and believing, that, for me, was very important. They had a perfect role, first, because they were always with me. Second, because they were doing the same thing as me, living life, enjoying it, travelling… Many times I didn’t even tell them, I would go alone for the treatment and come back. It’s not superwoman: again, head, body, environment, everything has to be on the same energy level, for sure.

If everyone was fine, thinking it was going to work, there was no reason not to. We did everything, lived everything that had to be lived, which is something I say a lot to people who are going through this difficult time: the chance is much greater when your family members believe.

You are doing a very serious treatment, then people look at you crying. Automatically you feel bad, then comes the problem of the head, and the head governs all the cells that should be happy to fight the sick cells.

My parents, friends, everyone in my family were very respectful and got on the bandwagon with me and it worked out really well. I was doing chemotherapy by gossip! It’s not a bed of roses, but it helped a lot, and it helps a lot. Family, when it’s positive, is essential.

– (Adilson Santos/)

Let’s talk about career? What do you have in mind for the future?

Our! There’s so much going on! People ask: what do you have to do? Everyone is full of plans, but I’m really going through a phase with a lot of plans and…