These celebrities have openly gone under the needle and knife.
One of the last great Hollywood taboos is celebrity plastic surgery. Whether it’s just a little jab of Botox or a more severe cosmetic procedure like breast implants or a face lift, stars have long since been going under the needle and the knife in complete denial. But times are changing, and a handful of brave celebrities are opening up about their experiences — both good and bad — with plastic surgery and cosmetic injectables.
Bella Hadid
In her 2022 Vogue cover story, Hadid shared that she regrets her nose job at 14. “I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors,” she said. “I think I would have grown into it.”
She also added that the procedure is all she has done. “People think I fully fucked with my face because of one picture of me as a teenager looking puffy. I’m pretty sure you don’t look the same now as you did at 13, right? I have never used filler. Let’s just put an end to that. I have no issue with it, but it’s not for me.” Instead, she said, her lifted appearance is an illusion: “Whoever thinks I’ve gotten my eyes lifted or whatever it’s called — it’s face tape! The oldest trick in the book.”
Kim Kardashian
“A little bit of Botox,” Kardashian told Allure of what she has had done to her face during her 2022 cover interview. “But I’ve chilled, actually.”
The star even claimed she’s never even had eyelash extensions. “I’ve never done anything. I have a drop of mascara on today. I’ve never filled my cheeks. I’ve never filled my lips.”
Amy Schumer
Schumer revealed in 2022 that she had liposuction following the birth of her son. In an Instagram caption, she shared, “I feel good. Finally. It’s been a journey thanks for helping me get my strength back @seckinmd (endo) @jordanternermd (lipo),” she captioned several photos of herself in a one-piece bathing suit at the beach, noting that she now weighed 170 pounds. “Never thought i would do anything but talk to me after your uterus doesn’t contract for 2.5 years and you turn 40.”
A few months later, she shared a photo of herself in a corset, writing “C section. Hysterectomy. Lipo. This summer is about letting the love in. Trying to be healthy and strong for myself and my family. I want to feel hot too. In my prime. Let’s go. Who’s with me?”
Chrissy Teigen
“I had an armpit sucked out, which was one of the best things,” Teigen told Refinery29 in May 2017. “It’s a big secret, but I don’t care. It was nine years ago or so. And I had two inches to my armpit. Now it’s back though, so now I’ve gotta pay for [liposuction] again. It was so easy. It made me feel better in dresses, I felt more confident. It was the dumbest, stupidest thing I’ve ever done. The dumbest, but I like it, whatever. I have no regrets, honestly.”
In 2019, Teigen also announced via an Instagram post that she would be removing her breast implants. “They’ve been great to me for many years but I’m just over it. I’d like to be able to zip a dress in my size, lay on my belly with pure comfort! No biggie!” she explained. “So don’t worry about me! All good. I’ll still have boobs, they’ll just be pure fat. Which is all a tit is in the first place. A dumb, miraculous bag of fat.”
And in 2021, Teigen shared that she had fat removed from her cheeks. “I did that Dr. Diamond buccal fat removal thing here,” she said on Instagram while pointing to her cheek. “And since I quit drinking, I’m really seeing the results, and I like it. Yeah, I did it, what?” Teigen added in her caption, “No shame in my Dr. Diamond game.”
Khloe Kardashian
“For me, everyone says, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s had her third face transplant,’ but I’ve had one nose job,” Kardashian admitted during the KUWTK series finale reunion. “And everyone gets so upset, like, why don’t I talk about it. No one’s ever asked me.” On her talk show Kocktails With Khloe, the star also admitted to having facial fillers dissolved. “My face was so fucked I had to go and get this whole thing dissolved,” she said. “It was a bummer and now I’m afraid to do it again. And I’m almost like, I swear things are still in my face.”
Dolly Parton
“It is true that I look artificial, but I believe that I’m totally real,” Parton told CBS Sunday Morning back in 2019. “My look is really based on a country girl’s idea of glam. I wasn’t naturally pretty, so I make the most of anything I’ve got.” The country legend has admitted to a few cosmetic procedures, including breast implants, a brow lift, and eyelid surgery.
Katy Perry
“I’ve done lasers and got [filler] injections under my eyes for the hollowing — which I’d recommend for everyone who wants a solution for their dark circles — but all of my assets are real, Perry told Refinery29. “People tend to think they are fake, but it doesn’t really matter.”
Yolanda Hadid
“Fifty five and smiling from the inside out…finally back to the original 1964,” Yolanda Hadid wrote in an Instagram caption. “Living in a body free of breast implants, fillers, botox, extensions and all the bullshit I thought I needed in order to keep up with what society conditioned me to believe what a sexy woman should look like until the toxicity of it all almost killed me,” she wrote. Hadid has previously spoken out about how she stopped getting Botox injections and dermal fillers years ago after being diagnosed with Lyme.
Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter had a breast reduction to ease unnecessary pain — but she won’t stand for social media trolls accusing her of going under the knife for more than just that. “You’re also wrong about all of it by the way 🙂 one breast reduction and I lost weight but you do you boo,” she commented back to a follower who accused her multiple surgeries.
Britney Spears
In a 2013 cover story interview with InStyle, the singer opened about a small cosmetic tweak. “A doctor I see, [Beverly Hills plastic surgeon] Dr. [Raj] Kanodia, does fun stuff to me sometimes — I’ve had lip injections before,” she said.
Cardi B
The superstar has been vocal about her choice to undergo various plastic surgery treatments in the past. In addition to a breast augmentation, Cardi B admitted in an interview to getting illegal injections in her butt. “In order to get lipo, where they put the fat transfer in your ass and it gets bigger, you need to have fat. I did not have no type of fat,” she said. “But I was desperate to have a bigger ass.”
Gwyneth Paltrow
“I use organic products, but I get lasers. It’s what makes life interesting, finding the balance between cigarettes and tofu. I’ve probably tried everything,” Paltrow told BAZAAR in 2013. “I would be scared to go under the knife, but you know, talk to me when I’m 50. I’ll try anything. Except I won’t do Botox again, because I looked crazy. I looked like Joan Rivers!”
Botox may have been out of the question, but Paltrow did change her tune on injectables, signing on as the face of Xeomin in 2021.
Nicole Kidman
“I did try Botox, unfortunately, but I got out of it and now I can finally move my face again,” Kidman told La Repubblica, reported by The Huffington Post, in January 2013.
Kourtney Kardashian
“I have had breast implants, but it’s so funny ’cause it’s not a secret, I could care less,” Kardashian told Nightline in May 2010.
Kylie Jenner
“I’m not against plastic surgery. I’ve only been under [anesthesia] once before, when I went to the dentist and I didn’t react well; it really scared me,” the makeup mogul wrote on her eponymous app back in 2016. “I threw up and I was SO nauseous the next day. But as of now, I only have lip fillers…But I’m also someone who says ‘never say never.’ If, down the line, I get to a point where I’m really uncomfortable with something on my body, I’m not against changing it.”
Iggy Azalea
“I love them so much I had to talk about them…I’d feel better not to have some secret. It’s much freer to say it and then you don’t have to worry someone will dig it up,” the rapper told E! about her breast augmentation back in March 2015.
Kelly Rowland
“I wanted to get breast implants when I was 18, but my mom and Beyoncé’s mom told me to really think about it first,” the former Destiny’s Child singer told Shape magazine. “I took their advice and waited 10 years.
Kaley Cuoco
The Big Bang Theory star told Women’s Health that she had a nose job, breast augmentation (“the best thing I ever did,” she said), and a round of fillers. “As much as you want to love your inner self, I’m sorry, you also want to look good,” she said. “I don’t think you should do it for a man or anyone else, but if it makes you feel confident, that’s amazing.”
Lisa Kudrow
The Friends star called her rhinoplasty at the age of 16 “life-altering” in a 2013 interview with The Saturday Evening Post. “I went from, in my mind, hideous, to not hideous. I did it the summer before going to a new high school,” she said. “So there were plenty of people who wouldn’t know how hideous I looked before. That was a good, good, good change.”
Kelly Ripa
“I got Botox because people kept saying ‘Are you okay?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m fine, why?’” Ripa told Michael Strahan, her Live co-host in 2015. ‘You look like you’re angry.’ I was like, ‘Then it’s time to get Botox.’”
Linda Evangelista
“I was the first person to ever admit that I did Botox, and my Mom was upset,” Evangelista told BAZAAR.com. “I said, ‘Mom everybody does it,’ and she was like, ‘Yeah but they don’t say it.’ So if I was the first one to tell the truth about using it then, why would I lie about it now?