Yahoo Lifestyle "I Am The Perfect Poster Child For What Not To Do On A Whim": 14 Celebrities Who Opened Up About The Negative Effects Of Their Cosmetic Procedures
Warning: This post mentions body dysmorphia and substance abuse.
The decision to get cosmetic work done is personal, but in Hollywood, there can be a lot of pressure surrounding it — especially for women. While they may be pleased with the results at first, some celebs who get work done end up regretting it because of the side effects.
Here are 14 celebs who've been extremely candid about the negative side effects of their cosmetic procedures:
1.On a 2024 episode of her podcast Workin' On It, Meghan Trainor said that, after getting a lip flip (where filler's injected above your top lip), she "cannot smile anymore."
She said, "My face hurts to smile...It taught me that my smile does light up a room. And when it’s not there, it’s a dim light."
2.In 2022, Linda Evangelista told People that, three months after getting CoolSculpting, she began to notice bulges around her bra, thighs, and chin, which grew, hardened, and numbed. After attempting to "fix" it herself with extreme dieting and exercising, she saw a doctor, who diagnosed her with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (where the "fat freezing" process causes the fat cells to get larger and thicker).
PAH reportedly affects less than one percent of CoolScultping recipients.
A CoolSculpting representative told People that it "has been well studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide" and that rare side effects, including PAH, "continue to be well-documented in the CoolSculpting information for patients and health care providers."
3.In a 2024 TikTok, Simone Biles said that, for her 27th birthday, she got "baby Botox" in her T-zone, but she "did not like it." She said, "That's because I would be, like, standing at practice, and my eyebrow would be slowly going up..."
She said, "I could not get my brow to stay down...It would go back down in, like, 20 seconds, and it would randomly do that!"
So, she decided to not get baby Botox again.
4.In a 2015 HuffPost essay about his experiences with body dysmorphia, Modern Family actor Reid Ewing said that, starting at 19, he began getting multiple cosmetic procedures, such as cheek and chin implants, with four different doctors. He said, "Each procedure would cause a new problem that I would have to fix with another procedure."
He wrote, "At the beginning of 2012, all the isolation, secrecy, depression, and self-hate became too much to bear. I vowed I would never get cosmetic surgery again even though I was still deeply insecure about my looks. It took me about six months before I was comfortable with people even looking at me.
Of the four doctors who worked on me, not one had mental health screenings in place for their patients, except for asking if I had a history of depression, which I said I did, and that was that. My history with eating disorders and the cases of obsessive compulsive disorder in my family never came up. None of the doctors suggested I consult a psychologist for what was clearly a psychological issue rather than a cosmetic one or warn me about the potential for addiction.
People with body dysmorphic disorder often become addicted to cosmetic surgery. Gambling with your looks, paired with all the pain meds doctors load you up on, make it a highly addictive experience. It's a problem that is rarely taken seriously because of the public shaming of those who have had work done. The secrecy that surrounds cosmetic surgery keeps the unethical work practiced by many of these doctors from ever coming to light. I think people often choose cosmetic surgery in order to be accepted, but it usually leaves them feeling even more like an outsider. We don't hear enough stories about cosmetic surgery from this perspective."
According to the Addiction Center, people with body dysmorphic disorder have a higher likelihood of plastic surgery addiction.
5.In 2009, Heidi Montag infamously underwent ten cosmetic procedures in a single day. Four years later, she removed her breast implants because "they were so heavy they were falling through the skin."
In 2016, she told People, "It was just too heavy for my body, and I was in pain and uncomfortable all the time. I thought, 'What do I need this big of breasts for?'"
6.In 2023, The Bachelorette Season 16 star Clare Crawley told ABC News that, after getting breast implants, she got rashes across her body. For the next eight years, she continued to experience more health issues that her doctors couldn't diagnose.
She said, "I was diagnosed with everything probably except breast implant illness because that wasn't a thing then," she said. "And I actually asked my doctors pretty far into it, 'Could [my implants] be causing this? This is the only thing that is the constant in my body.'"
So, in 2021, she decided to get explant surgery.
According to the FDA, many people who've gotten breast implants have reported experiencing symptoms of "breast implant illness." However, it's not recognized as a formal medical diagnosis, and research is still ongoing.
7.In a 2020 Instagram post, Ashley Tisdale said, " Years ago I underwent breast enhancement surgery. Prior to the surgery, I constantly felt my body was less than, and thought this change would make me feel more whole and more secure about myself. And for a short period of time…it did. But little by little I began struggling with minor health issues that just were not adding up—food sensitivities as well as gut issues...that I thought could be caused by my implants. So, last winter I decided to undergo implant removal."
"This journey has been one of growth, self discovery, self acceptance and most importantly self-love," she said.
8.In 1996, former Playboy model Karen McDougal got breast implants. However, in 2003, she began developing allergies, adrenal and thyroid issues, and frequent bouts of sickness. In 2017, she told People, "[Last January] I started having vision disturbances, blacking out, dizzy spells. Then July came, and it just became so bad that I was passing out, and I was afraid to leave the house. In October 2016, I was on bed rest. I couldn't drive, I was having panic attacks, I couldn't see. I had hearing sensitivity, I couldn't stand noise, I couldn't tolerate light, I had joint pain, brain fog — the list goes on and on."
After her friend's wife told her about breast implant illness, she decided to research it herself. Eventually, she decided to get her implants removed.
She said, "I noticed right away that I had no more blurry vision, I wasn't blacking out or passing out, I didn't have the severe migraines, my joint pain was gone, my sound sensitivity was better. It took me 20 years to get 'poisoned,' so it's not going to be an overnight process."
9.In a 2016 Facebook post, Crystal Hefner said that her breast implants "slowly poisoned" her. She said, "Intolerance to foods and beverages, unexplained back pain, constant neck and shoulder pain, cognitive dysfunction (brain fog, memory loss), stunted hair growth, incapacitating fatigue, burning bladder pain, low immunity, recurring infections and problems with my thyroid and adrenals."
She continued, "The mildest of those symptoms started a few years back. The aches, the bladder pain, brain fog, fatigue. I ignored it, labeling myself a hypochondriac, despite truly worrying that there was something wrong with me. I joked about losing my memory to age, and about getting 'lazy'. I began to cancel appointments and shoots because everything exhausted me. Before everything went downhill I was at the gym five days a week, and always shooting and working.
I had to miss my Summer DJ residency at my favorite Vegas spot, the Rehab pool at The Hard Rock Hotel. The fatigue was so severe that I could barely leave the house or drive. I was afraid to get up there in front of a crowd and go blank with brain fog."
She said that, after learning about and researching breast implant illness, she decided to get explant surgery.
10.On a 2011 episode of Good Morning America, Tori Spelling said, "I got my boobs done in my early 20s, and if I had known it would or could possibly impact production of milk, I would never had had them done."
She also later learned that her implants were "expired and recalled," but she put off a removal for years. However, her daughter, Stella, encouraged her to go through with it because she was worried about her.
On Jeff Lewis Live, Tori said, "I got them when I was really young. And I didn't know that at a certain point they would have an expiration. I didn't know that you would have to do it again...It really hit home for me when my daughter came to me, and she's like, 'Mom, I'm concerned. You have put this off. You told me for years now that you need to get your boobs redone.'"
According to John Hopkins Medicine, getting breast implants doesn't prevent one from breastfeeding, but "there is no guarantee that the mother will have a full supply of milk."
Additionally, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, breast implants aren't a "lifetime device," and many recipients remove them after 10-20 years.
11.In a 2023 TikTok video, JoJo said, "A few months ago, maybe three months ago, right before I came to New York, I got my lip filler dissolved because it had started to migrate. Huh? I didn’t know it could do that. I thought it was just going to 'metabolize' and dissolve. Like, I thought it was just going to go away over time, you know? No, it got, like, lumpy underneath [my upper lip], and I would run my tongue along it and be like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’"
She continued, "So anyway, I had my lip filler dissolved, and I'm really glad I did because even if there's some remnant of something in there, which I don't think that, there is there probably is, I'm very happy with the way it looks because this is, like, the kind of natural...I don't know, I still have small lips, but you know, it's my face. It's me."
12.Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis decided to dissolve his decades-old lip filler after his dermatologist refused to do any work on him until they "fixed" his lips. During a 2022 appearance on Sirius XM, he said, "What happened was the filler [from] 20 years ago…it migrated into both sides of my upper lip and created, like, two balls."
He continued, "Now, I didn't know it was filler; I thought it might be silicone, I didn't know. Over the years, I haven't liked it, but I thought, 'They're gonna have to cut open my lip and take it out.'"
13.When Lisa Rinna was 25, seeing Barbara Hershey's lips in Beaches inspired her to get permanent fillers in hers. However, 10 years later, the silicone caused hard and bumpy scar tissue, then 12 more years later, she felt she "was crazy to even touch them in the first place." So, she found a surgeon who could reduce the volume and reconstruct her upper lip.
She told People, "I don't regret [the initial fillers] for a second. It's made me who I am. I am the perfect poster child for what not to do on a whim. With all that's happened with the lip, I can show them that you need to love yourself for who you are and embrace how you look."
14.And finally, in 2021, Jamie Lee Curtis told Fast Company, "I tried plastic surgery and it didn’t work. It got me addicted to Vicodin. I’m 22 years sober now."
"The current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering, and the things that we do to adjust our appearance on Zoom are wiping out generations of beauty. Once you mess with your face, you can’t get it back," she said.
Have you ever had a negative experience with cosmetic procedures or a side effect you think more people should be aware of? Share your experiences in the comments.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
The National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.
