LI supermodel Carol Alt returns to the runway after 3-year absence

She’s back: Carol Alt, 58, the iconic supermodel once crowned “the most beautiful woman in the world” by Playboy magazine, has returned to the runway after being out of the limelight for three years because of a serious injury. She walked Monday at designer Dennis Basso’s afternoon show at Cipriani during New York Fashion Week.

“I haven’t told anybody but I was in an accident three years ago,” Alt said backstage before the show. “I didn’t think I would ever walk [in a show] again, but then Dennis came to me and was so generous and kind of spirit and his clothes are so beautiful that I said to myself, ‘you know it’s time I take that chance.’ ” Wearing a coppery ballroom skirt with an off-the-shoulder velvet top, the model closed the show walking the long runway arm-in-arm with the designer.

Alt said her injuries were sustained during a massage. “I kept this very private, but I had a massage and someone stuck their elbow in my back, broke my rib and it ripped all the fascia from my back, and released my ribs to attack my organs. Thank God for Northwell Health,” she said.  

The model, who was raised in East Williston, was discovered waiting tables during her freshman year at Hofstra University and lived in Old Westbury for many years. She said she was feeling great — and looked it. Everybody's saying, ‘how come you look so good?’ and I tell them, it’s because I’m single,” she said, laughing. Alt divorced from former New York Rangers defenseman Ron Greschner in 2001 and more recently ended a long-term relationship with former New York Islanders center Alexei Yashin.

She’ll be celebrating Valentine’s Day, she says, “with the girls. We’re having lunch at a new place — Maison Vivienne [on Manhattan's Upper East Side] — it’s Gal-entine’s Day for me.”