Linda Evangelista gushes over lookalike son as he turns 16: 'My heart. My light'

Linda Evangelista was considered one of the top models of her time. In fact, the term 'supermodel' was coined partly with her in mind before she stepped away from the spotlight to concentrate on raising her only child.

Now Augustin has turned 16, and the notoriously private Evangelista is celebrating with a trip down memory lane with her lookalike son.

Evangelista, 57, celebrated her son's milestone birthday overnight by posting a series of photos to her Instagram account.

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The first is a recent photo of the pair. Evangelista still looks every bit the supermodel as she reclines on a chair, resplendent in an aqua Fendi outfit. Her son is seated behind her and leans in close to his famous mum, who is reaching back to stroke his face.

Their features are almost identical. He has the same brown hair, high cheekbones, cleft chin and slightly upturned nose.

The second image is a close-up of Augustin as a toddler, his face smeared with berries. He has the same piercing blue-green eyes as his mother. The third photo, taken in a street when he was a young boy, shows him dapper in a hat and smart clothes.

While the fourth and final photo is a mirror selfie with his mum. He is laughing as his smiling mum, who is wrapped in a towel, takes the pic.

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Evangelista uploaded the images with the comment, "My heart. My light. 16."

Her friends were among those to comment.

Fellow '90s supermodel Helena Christensen wrote, "Happy birthday to your handsome boy," while Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, another former model who went on to become first lady of Italy, wrote, "Happy birthday."

Fashion designer Marc Jacobs said, "Happy Birthday Auggie," while actress January Jones wrote, ️"Happy birth day mumma."

Augustin's father is billionaire Frenchman François-Henri Pinault, who went on to marry actress Salma Hayek.

The two reportedly split before Augustin was born and his paternity only came to light when Evangelista took him to court over unpaid child support.

Prior to that, Evangelista fell pregnant to French football player Fabien Barthez, but the child they were expecting was stillborn when she was six months along.

Last year, Evangelista claimed she was left "brutally disfigured" by a fat-freezing procedure she underwent in 2015.

She told PEOPLE she turned into a recluse in the wake of a rare side effect she suffered, and tried to shield her son from what happened, so as to "not be a burden to my child."

The model said he would ask her "Do you remember when you used to be fun? Remember when you used to laugh all the time? How come you don't laugh anymore?" and she hated "what this has done to my relationship with him."

She has since reached a settlement with the company behind the procedure.