Karen Mulder, once one of the world’s most famous supermodels, was arrested in Paris for threatening her plastic surgeon. According to reports, the surgeon refused to reverse a procedure, resulting in Mulder becoming hysterical and making wild, violent threats against her.

Fallen supermodel Karen Mulder was arrested in Paris today after allegedly threatening to attack her plastic surgeon. The 39-year-old is being held at a police station in the French capital following ‘vicious telephone calls’ directed at the female medic. Dutch-born Mulder, who made her name in the nineties alongside Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen and Kate Moss, was thought to have asked for a previous operation to be reversed.

A detective said: ‘She was screaming and shouting about the operation and became extremely threatening. There were repeated calls to the female surgeon who was extremely scared. The suspect is being interviewed.’ Mulder was arrested at around 10am and is being kept in a cell in the eight arrondissement, the epi-centre of Paris haute couture.

Mulder modelled for all the big fashion houses including Chanel, Valentino, Céline and Versace. Dubbed ‘The Blonde with Class’ by Vogue magazine, she was at one point earning up to £10,000-a-day before retiring. Appearances in a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and work for the Victoria’s Secret catalogue made her a household name. But in 2001 she claimed she and other models had been used as sex slaves by senior politicians and policeman, even falsely claiming she had been raped by Prince Albert of Monaco. She attended a psychiatric hospital suffering from chronic depression, blaming it on drug addiction during her modeling days. A year later she attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills and was only saved by friends…

[From the Daily Mail via the Huffington Post]

Obviously Mulder has an extensive psychiatric history, so there’s no reason to believe whatever the cosmetic surgeon did was so horrible that it set her off. She sounds like someone who probably has extremely complex mental health issues. Verbal threats can be considered a serious crime in several European countries – a good example being when Christian Bale was arrested for arguing with his mother and sister a year ago. However it sounds like Mulder was deemed to be some sort of a threat either to herself or the doctor since she was held overnight according to other reports.

Aging is hard on all of us to different degrees, but I imagine it must be particularly disheartening if you worked as a model. Most of Karen’s self esteem probably lays in her looks, and as time naturally marches on surgeons can only do so much. It might create a different sort of panic and anxiety in someone with her history than it would in an average person. Hopefully she’s safe now and will get some help.

Here’s Karen Mulder (far right) with Prince Albert of Monaco, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell at the Sporting Club of the Principality in Monte Carlo on November 7, 2001. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.