I was mauled by leopard during an erotic photoshoot – I’ve gone under the knife for the THIRD time after horror injuries
A MODEL who was seriously injured after being attacked by a leopard during an erotic photoshoot is finally able to see properly after going under the knife for a third time.
Jessica Leidolph, 37, from Germany, was mauled by a 16-year-old leopard named Troja when she entered the big cat’s enclosure during photo sessions for an erotic calendar in August 2021.
The model’s face was ripped open by the beast leaving her with horror injuries to her eye and face at a home for retired show animals.
Jessica – who is also known as Lady Butterfly – was airlifted to a clinic after the incident in which she suffered severe facial wounds.
She told local media at the time: “It repeatedly kept biting my cheek, ear and head.”
Since the terrifying ordeal, Jessica has undergone three major surgeries – the most recent to repair her blurred vision and restore her eyesight by repositioning her eyeball.
After having removed two metal plates from her head last year, surgeons now slightly lifted her left eye and carefully shifted it forward.
Jessica called the latest operation “a task in which millimetres matter.”
The model, composer of piano music and physiotherapist told Bild newspaper: “I’ve experienced double vision each time I looked to the ground. When I turned right or left, my vision became blurred.”
“This seriously impaired my professional obligations as a physiotherapist.
“It also meant I could not take smaller animals onto my lap at my animal sanctuary.
“Everything’s still badly swollen and my eye keeps tearing. But apart from that, it seems as if all went well. Two years on, that’s what I call a happy ending!”
LEOPARD ATTACK
Troja and another leopard called Paris, 18, had once graced TV screens in an advert for multinational electronics giant Panasonic.
But they were later moved to the retirement home in the village of Wangen in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt where the attack happened.
Jessica says she holds no grudges against the wild animal and that she has learned to live with her scars.
She even appealed to the authorities to abstain from putting the leopard which attacked her down.
She told local media: “I don’t want the animal to be killed, it just followed its instincts.”
Jessica recently delighted her Facebook followers by posting a photo sporting nothing but leopard-patterned tights. Holding a cushion of the same design in front of her cleavage.
Jessica captioned the image: “Be wild and wonderful!”
Reflecting on her horror ordeal, she said: “I’ve stopped being mad at the leopard a long time ago. It didn’t attack me intentionally.
“It just wanted to play. It simply acted the way big cats do.”
In December 2022, she even decided to pay a visit to Troja as part of her recovery.
She told local media back: “I made a conscious decision to take this step. That I’m standing here today is part of my therapy which should help me to come to terms with the accident. Fortunately, my face is healing well.”
Jessica reportedly calls up the leopard’s carers on a regular basis to hear how the animal is doing.
In late 2022, Jessica disclosed that she and her mum Juana, 62, had opened a shelter for birds and small mammals in the city of Potsdam, Brandenburg, 17 miles southeast of Berlin.
She said back then: “I leased a piece of land half the size of a football field – with mature nut, apple and conifer trees.”