Which Stars Are Honest About Their Plastic Surgery? 22 Celebs Open Up About Going Under the Knife (2024)

Kelly Ripa

During the Live with Kelly and Ryan! host's latest Fashion Finder segment on Instagram TV, Ripa revealed that she visited a plastic surgeon to address an issue with her earlobes.

"I had gauges, like hanging gauges," Ripa said in the clip.

"See these holes up here," she continued, pointing to where her earrings were placed on her ears. "These were my earholes that tore all the way through. So I had to go to a plastic surgeon."

"There's a piece of my earlobe that's not there because he had to sew it together," she shared.

Ripa, who has four piercings on her left ear and three on her right ear, said she developed "gauges" after wearing hanging earrings, which tore through her lobes over time. "This one really recovered very nicely. This one is perfect," she added about her left ear. "[The right one] was just way worse. The damage was worse."

Fortunately, Ripa's reconstructive surgery allows her to still wear sparkly ear candy.

Sarah Ferguson

The ex-wife of Prince Andrew has opened up about her cosmetic procedures revealing, "I've had a lot of help to look like this at 60."

Ferguson, more affectionately known as Fergie, told the U.K.'s Daily Mail that she has had procedures done on her face and her feet in an effort to look more youthful.

The duch*ess explained, "I don't like the frozen look. I'm so animated and I like to be myself. I don't like the thought of needle and am very glad if I look well and happy — I'm really happy to be open about what I've had done."

The duch*ess of York has recently started treatments for a non-invasive laser facelift, something she also underwent last year before her daughter Princess Eugenie's royal wedding. Before finding the non-invasive procedure, Fergie admits that she had done Botox and mesotherapy (which involves injections of vitamins, minerals and amino acids) in the past.

"I need to repair the damage that was done on the beach when I was a child," she said. "It's why I had the mesotherapy, the vitamin co*cktail to hydrate and boost the skin."

In addition to those procedures, Ferguson also had a facial thread lift. "It's like garden trellising for sweat peas. You insert the threads under the skin with a fine needle and they hold everything up," she explained. "They also encourage collagen production. It takes a couple of months, then the sweet peas bloom!"

Earlier this year, Fergie decided to travel to the Bahamas to have pioneering regenerative stem cell therapy on her feet.

She explained, "I think my toes were ruined by all the riding I did when I was young." The procedure involved shaving the bone on her big toe "and implanting stem cells, 20 million of them taken from my midriff, into my feet to make new cartilage. It takes about six months to heal but now I can walk in heels!"

Jane Fonda

The Oscar-winning actress and activist, who once launched a workout video empire (and famously battled bulimia for much of her younger years), admits her looks are not all good genes and good luck.

"I'm glad I look good for my age, but I've had plastic surgery," she says in a new HBO documentary about her life, titled Jane Fonda in Five Acts. "I'm not going to lie about that."

Fonda has been open in the past about why she got work done on her eyes and jawline. "I got tired of looking tired when I wasn't," she's said. Still, in the documentary, she admits she feels bad about wanting to do it.

"On one level, I hate the fact that I've had the need to alter myself physically to feel that I'm OK," she says. "I wish I wasn't like that. I love older faces. I love lived-in faces. I loved Vanessa Redgrave's face. I wish I was braver. But I am what I am."

Anna Faris

Though the actress thought she'd "never, ever" get plastic surgery, the breast augmentation she had after she turned 30 turned out to be "f------ awesome." "[I] always thought plastic surgery was caving in to 'the man,' you know? But it came down to a really simple thing: I wanted to fill out a bikini," she told Women's Health.

Cardi B

While the rapper doesn't regret getting butt injections at the age of 21, she did admit that the $800 procedure was "the craziest pain" she ever experienced. "They don't numb your ass with anything," Cardi B told GQ about getting the injections done in a basem*nt in Queens. "I felt like I was gonna pass out ... And it leaks for, like, five days."

Tyra Banks

Banks has never been afraid to tell it like it is, and when it comes to plastic surgery, she doesn't shy away from the truth. "I get really uncomfortable when women who are these natural beauties judge anybody who does anything to themselves," she told PEOPLE. In the memoir she cowrote with her mother, Perfect Is Boring, the supermodel opened up about getting a nose job early in her career. "I could breathe fine, but I added cosmetic surgery. I admit it! Fake hair, and I did my nose. I feel I have a responsibility to tell the truth."

Jax Taylor

The Vanderpump Rules star, who has been open about his three nose jobs, is surprisingly candid about his relationship to plastic surgery. "I embrace it," Taylor told PEOPLE. "Huge fan, not afraid to talk about it." (His costar, Scheana Marie, feels the same way, opening up about getting Botox every two-and-a-half months. "I can't stand having forehead wrinkles on camera," she said.)

Kaley Cuoco

The Big Bang Theory star is done hiding her past plastic surgeries — and wants people to know she doesn't regret it. Cuoco opened up to Women's Health about her past procedures, telling the magazine that she's had rhinoplasty, a breast augmentation and fillers in her neck. She said getting the surgeries was the "best thing I ever did." Cuoco stressed that you should only do it for yourself, but that it can make a person feel great. "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."

Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi

The Jersey Shore star refuses to be ashamed of her decision to get breast implants and a breast lift. "Being a mom, your boobs are destroyed after having kids, especially breastfeeding," she said in a #MomsWithAttitudeVideo. "I want to be hot for my husband, but I also want to feel great about myself, and it was an insecurity that I had." The mom of three revealed that she's now a "nice full C." (She didn't want to go as big as pal and fellow mom JWoww; "She's the p*rn star, and I'm just the regular cute person," Polizzi said.)

Courteney Cox

While she didn't admit to any specific procedures, the former Friends star got surprisingly candid about aging and the pressure to keep up her appearance. "I have done things that I regret and luckily there are things that dissolve and go away. So that's good because it's not always been my best look," Cox said on Running Wild with Bear Grylls. Her new philosophy is simple: "Now I have a new motto, just let it be," she said.

Christie Brinkley

The fashion industry icon, who recently launched a skincare line, has openly admitted to undergoing a few procedures over the years, including fillers. To Brinkley, the key is not taking it too far. "If you want to look refreshed, it has to be with a light hand," she told NewBeauty. "It's one of the biggest mistakes when people deliberately go for that 'done' appearance — to each his own, obviously, but that's not good." Choosing a doctor you feel comfortable with is also essential, she said. "It's important to choose the right doctor if you want to do anything along those lines. Don't change your face; maybe just change a wrinkle or two that's bothering you. You still should look like you."

Kim Zolciak-Biermann

The Don't Be Tardy star no longer feels like hiding her plastic surgery past. "I will always nip and tuck if I feel the need to do so," she told E! News. "I'm open about it. I don't care." Zolciak-Biermann said she's had a boob job, tummy tuck and Botox injections. Recently, Zolciak-Biermann was spotted with a pair of new lips, after having documented a visit to her Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr. Kassabian, on Snapchat.

Heidi Pratt

"I was in way over my head with the surgeries," the former Hills star, who once admitted to undergoing 10 cosmetic procedures in one day, told PEOPLE. "I had no idea what I was getting into or that it was a lifelong commitment. It was very challenging both physically, emotionally spiritually, mentally, on my husband and on our lives." But Pratt has come to terms with all the procedures: "I don't want to say I regret it 100 percent because I've tried to grow from it."

Iggy Azalea

In 2015, the Australian rapper opened up about her breast enhancement surgery — and why she decided to go public with it. "I'd feel better not to have some secret," she said. "I just feel it's freer to just say it, and then you don't have to worry about if anyone is gonna dig up things." Azalea recently shared a photo of the Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr. Ashkan Ghavami, who is responsible for her breast augmentation. "He is the reason I have fabulously perky boobs … (LOL)," she captioned the post.

Ashley Tisdale

The actress, who had plastic surgery to correct a deviated septum that interfered with her breathing, wanted her fans to know she had the procedure exclusively for health-related reasons. Rather than denying the mounting rumors, Tisdale came clean: "I want my fans to know the truth. I'm not someone who is going to act like I had nothing done. I just want to be honest because my fans are everything to me," she said.

Kourtney Kardashian

"I have had breast implants, but it's so funny 'cause it's not a secret. I could care less," the reality star divulged in a 2010 interview. She then mocked a tabloid for getting the timeline of the procedure completely wrong: "It's so funny because the 'before' picture that they showed was after I had my boob job, so I'm like, they should have written 'before Mason' and 'after Mason.' My boobs have tripled since breastfeeding."

Kathy Griffin

For years, the comedian struggled with low self-esteem and spoke out about the pressure placed on women performers to look perfect. When she was 26, Griffin had her nose done because she had been told repeatedly, "You would be pretty if it weren't for that nose. You'd work more if it weren't for that nose." In her 2009 memoir, Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, she revealed that complications from a liposuction procedure almost killed her. She wrote: "I want women to know that this is what lipo looks like. Like, are you sure you don't want to just work out a little more?"

Patricia Heaton

"It's better to be honest if you can. There is a lot in Hollywood that is not as it seems," the actress told PEOPLE in 2003 after getting a tummy tuck and breast reduction surgery. "It's really not fair, the image we present to the world. Women shouldn't look at people they see on TV and compare themselves to them, because you aren't seeing those women the way they really are."

Sharon Osbourne

Not only do we appreciate celebrities who are honest about how plastic surgery can perpetuate myths of the "perfect" body and the "ideal" face, we love Osbourne for coming clean about one crucial detail for anyone considering going under the knife — it hurts like hell. "If anybody says their face-lift doesn't hurt they're lying. It was like I'd spent the night with an ax murderer. They take your ears off and put them back on," she told PEOPLE in 2003.

Lisa Kudrow

For the former Friends actress, her high school nose job was truly "life-altering. I went from, in my mind, hideous, to not hideous," she told The Saturday Evening Post in 2013. "I did it the summer before going to a new high school. So there were plenty of people who wouldn't know how hideous I looked before." While we don't love Kudrow referring to her teen self as hideous, we're glad she's still pleased with the decision almost four decades later.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Curtis got honest about her cosmetic procedures in the hopes of dissuading women from making the same mistake. "I've done it all. I've had a little plastic surgery. I've had a little lipo. I've had a little Botox. And you know what? None of it works. None of it," she told More magazine in 2002. "All of these 'bettering' experiences are not without risk."

Courtney Love

The rocker copped to her nose job on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2014, claiming that she wasn't getting any of the parts she auditioned for because of her "schnoz." "Yeah I got my nose fixed," she said, owning her choice while disparaging the industry that made her get it. "In six months, the whole world changed."