Over the past few years, it seems like celebrities have been getting more comfortable with addressing the plastic or cosmetic procedures they’ve gotten and why they’ve come to regret it. Every other day it feels like there’s a new headline of someone reversing their implants, dissolving their fillers, or speaking up on the dangers of certain popular procedures.
We’ve rounded up some of the most noteworthy celebrities across the industry who’ve opened up about regretting their plastic/cosmetic experiences and why.
Ariana Grande
Back in Sept. 2023, Ariana Grande surprisingly opened up about her history with cosmetic surgery while filming an edition of Vogue’s Beauty Secrets. Over the past year, the pop star’s been particularly candid toward conversations stirring about her online, addressing comments being made about her body in a viral TikTok and speculations about her relationship with Ethan Slater in her latest single, “Yes, And?” In the Vogue video, Grande’s candid streak continued with the star sharing that she had had done “a ton” of filler and Botox over the years that she has now stopped.
“Full transparency […] had a ton of lip filler over the years, and Botox. I stopped in 2018 ‘cause I just felt so, too much. I just felt like hiding,” the singer said while getting emotional. “For a long time, beauty was about hiding for me. And now I feel like maybe it’s not.” She continued, “Whatever makes you feel beautiful, I do support. But I know for me, I was like, ‘Oh, I wanna see my well-earned cry lines and smile lines.’ I hope my smile lines get deeper and deeper and I laugh more and more. And I think aging is such—it can be such a beautiful thing.”
The star also noted, “Now might I get a facelift in 10 years? Might, yeah,” while laughing. “But these are just thoughts that I feel like we should be able to discuss. If we’re sitting here talking about beauty secrets, fuck it, let’s lay it all out there.” An outpour of support flooded in after Grande’s vulnerable moment, and she’s arguably one of the few celebrities to talk about cosmetic surgery so openly to her fans.
Bella Hadid
In a 2022 cover story for Vogue, Bella Hadid got real about the plastic surgery she’s done, addressing widespread speculation on her history with cosmetic procedures that have arguably come hand in hand with her career. The supermodel denied ever getting any fillers, but she did share that she had a nose job at 14, which she regrets. “I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors,” Hadid explained. “I think I would have grown into it.”
“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,” she added. “Whoever thinks I’ve gotten my eyes lifted or whatever it’s called—it’s face tape! The oldest trick in the book. I’ve had this imposter syndrome where people made me feel like I didn’t deserve any of this. People always have something to say, but what I have to say is, I’ve always been misunderstood in my industry and by the people around me.”
Blac Chyna
Over the past year, Blac Chyna has been impressively vocal about getting all the fillers and implants removed from her face and her body, while sharing the experience with fans on her Instagram. Chyna explained that she got shots in her buttocks when she was 19, and has now come to severely regret getting that work done. “I just want all the ladies out there to know: Do not get silicone shots. You can get sick, you can die, have complications, and all this other crazy stuff.” She added, “Normally, my procedure would’ve taken four hours tops. My procedure took over eight-and-a-half hours y’all. Whatever that silicone mass—whatever that was that was in my buttocks—it kept clogging the machine and breaking it.”
Chyna also had fillers in her face dissolved, saying, “Enough is enough. It all has to come out.” The media personality posted a series of videos on Instagram explaining the reasoning behind getting all her fillers undone. “I’m just tired of the look, and it’s just not flattering. It’s not what I look like. It totally changed my face,” she began. “I have, like, naturally high cheekbones. That’s just genetics,” she said. “I already have the structure. I don’t know why I even did all the fillers… Well, I did it because I mean, everybody was doing it.”
“Let this be a lesson. Don’t even do it, y’all. It’s not even worth it,” Chyna continued. “I did it when I was so young. I didn’t even give my body time to fully develop. So we try to do these things at a very young age. Just trust me—it’s going to come.”
Cardi B
Cardi B has always been unapologetically vocal about a slew of topics with her fans, and one thing the rapper has been particularly advisive about is her experience with plastic surgery. Cardi got illegal silicone injections in 2014, and removed them a few years later in 2022, following the birth of her son, Wave. During an Instagram Live in Dec. 2022, Cardi opened up about getting 95 percent of her biopolymer buttocks injections removed and warned fans against the procedure, commonly known as a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL).
“All I’m going to say is that if you’re young, if you’re 19, 20, 21, and sometimes you’re too skinny and you be like, ‘OMG, I don’t have enough fat to put in my ass,’ so you result to ass shots—don’t,” said the rapper. “When it comes to BBLs, if y’all want advice from me, before you get your BBL done, you have to make sure your blood levels are all right,” she added. “If a doctor says your blood levels are too low or you have diabetes or whatever, don’t do it.”
Courteney Cox
In an episode of the Gloss Angeles podcast, Courteney Cox reflected on her use of anti-aging injectables and shared that it’s her biggest beauty regret. The Friends star described her experience as a “domino effect” where you “don’t realize that you look a little off, so then you keep doing more ‘cause you look normal to yourself.” The actress further explained, “You look in the mirror and go, ‘Oh that looks good’...you don’t realize what it looks like to the outside person.”
“Thank God they are removable,” she added. “I messed up a lot and now luckily…I was able to reverse most of that.”
Kylie Jenner
While the Kardashian-Jenner clan are notorious for picking and choosing what procedures they open up to and when, Kylie is perhaps the most transparent out of her family. The beauty mogul has been vocal about her lip fillers for years, but she more recently had more to share about getting breast augmentation when she was 19. During the Season 3 finale of The Kardashians, Kylie revealed that she had undergone breast surgery before her daughter, Stormi, was born and has now come to regret it. “You know I got my breasts done before Stormi…not thinking I would have a child when I was 20,” Kylie said in a conversation with friend Anastasia Karanikolaou.
“I had beautiful breasts, like natural tits. Just gorgeous,” she continued. “And I just wish obviously I had never got them done to begin with.” She also revealed that having a daughter changed her perspective on the procedures she’s done, saying, “I would be heartbroken if [Stormi] wanted to get her body done at 19. She’s the most beautiful thing ever. I wanna be the best mom and best example for her, and I just wish I could be her and do it all differently, because I wouldn’t touch anything.”
Kylie doubled down on her claims during an interview with The Wall Street Journal, where she explained that motherhood has lent into her “embracing natural beauty.” “My daughter has totally taught me a lot more about myself, and seeing myself in her has changed everything,” Kylie began. “I’m teaching her about mistakes that I made and making sure she knows she’s just perfect exactly how she is,” clarifying that such mistakes included getting surgery when she was younger. “I probably just should have waited until I maybe had kids or let my body just develop,” she added.
Linda Evangelista
In her Sept. 2022 cover story for British Vogue, iconic supermodel Linda Evangelista revealed that she underwent a fat-freezing cosmetic procedure that left her with rare, life-threatening side effects. Evangelista explained that she was persuaded to try the treatment, typically known as CoolSculpting, after seeing an ample amount of ads that led her to believe the procedure was a “magic potion.”
“Those CoolSculpting commercials were on all the time, on CNN, on MSNBC, over and over, and they would ask: ‘Do you like what you see in the mirror?’” she began. “They were speaking to me. It was about stubborn fat in areas that wouldn’t budge. It said no downtime, no surgery and…I drank the magic potion, and I would because I’m a little vain. So I went for it—and it backfired.” Evangelista also expressed that she had tried various methods to treat her rare side effect, paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, including two rounds of liposuction and, at some point, minimal to no eating.
“I was so embarrassed, I’d just spent all this money and the only way I could think of to fix it was zero calories, and so I just drank water. Or sometimes I would have a stick of celery or one apple,” she said. “I was losing my mind.” The model expressed that she’s now “trying to love myself as I am.” “If I had known side effects may include losing your livelihood and you’ll end up so depressed that you hate yourself…I wouldn’t have taken that risk.”
Nicki Minaj
While Nicki Minaj never explicitly shared what procedures she got, the rapper did express her regret for getting plastic surgery in the past. During an episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast, Minaj opened up about having a change of heart toward old photos of herself, and how she’s come to realize she was more than fine just the way she was. “I guarantee you, if you change anything on your body and do anything surgical and all this, you’re going to—more than likely, not definitely, more than likely—look back one day and say, ‘I was fine just the way I was,’” Minaj shared. “That’s what happened to me. I could not believe even some of the photos that I didn’t love.”
She also added that the birth of her son might have been the reason for the change of heart. “I think pregnancy could've played a role because seeing my son did remind me of myself so much. My real self. And it made me think, why didn’t I like this? So weird,” she explained. “But seeing old photos, being able to look at old photos again, made me realize, ‘These old photos are beautiful.’”
Victoria Beckham
In 2014, Victoria Beckham had her breast implants removed and has since been incredibly vocal about regretting them and how she’s trying to teach her daughter, Harper, to embrace her natural beauty. For her Dec. 2023 cover story with Allure, the former Spice Girls member revealed that she hasn’t told Harper about her past plastic surgery, because she wants to teach her 12-year-old the importance of self-love. “If I’m honest, I wish I’d never [gotten implants]. It was a moment in time, and I think I can share my experiences with her. But we’re not there just yet,” she explained.
“[Yesterday Harper said,] ‘I’ve got a gap in my teeth, Mummy. And I’ve got that little mole right here.’ I’m like, ‘That’s your lucky gap.’ And Cindy Crawford is a family friend, so I said, ‘Cindy was told to remove her mole, and that mole is what makes Cindy Cindy Crawford,’” she added on the importance of teaching Harper self-love. Beckham also previously addressed her plastic surgery regret in an open letter to her younger self for British Vogue in 2017. “Don’t mess with your boobs,” she wrote. “All those years I denied it—stupid. A sign of insecurity. Just celebrate what you’ve got.”
