Rosie O'Donnell has admitted that she got a facelift after previously swearing off plastic surgery. The former talk show host, 64, revealed in an essay published Monday that she feels guilt and shame after going under the knife in January with an operation that "cost more money than I have ever paid for a car."
A Moral Crisis
"I used to feel very strongly about facelifts," O'Donnell wrote in the emotional Substack post. "Not casually — morally. I had assigned myself as head of all women who would never - ever. I thought it was a betrayal. Of feminism. Of aging. Of our team of women worldwide. And then I lost 50 pounds."
The comedian said that she decided to get a lower deep plane facelift to get rid of the loose skin and wrinkles that came with her weight loss transformation after taking prescription medication Mounjaro (a GLP-1 drug) for her Type 2 diabetes starting in late 2022.
"It wasn't wrinkles— it was gravity," she said. "I'd look in the mirror and think, this isn't aging, this is melting with intention. I tried to be evolved about it. And say things like, 'This is natural. This is earned.' And then… 'umm how earned does it have to look?' There's a point where acceptance starts to feel like lying."
Family Reactions
O'Donnell said that as she started researching the procedure, her youngest child Clay voiced their disagreement with the decision. "Then my 13-year-old child found out," she wrote. "And it was not subtle. 'You earned your wrinkles.' Which — first of all — rude. But also… correct."
She wrote that Clay told her, "Young women look up to you," before adding: "I wouldn't be able to respect you if you did it."
"And that one… landed," O'Donnell wrote. "That's a big statement from someone who still needs you to open jars."
However, she decided to go through with the facelift to prove that she was free to do what she wanted with her own body. After choosing a doctor she trusted, O'Donnell said she decided early on that she would not make more tweaks to her face.
"I wanted a limit. I wanted to still be me, just… less haunted," she wrote. "And I do look like me — a slightly more well-rested, emotionally stable version of me."
No One Noticed
O'Donnell said that "no one has noticed" the changes after her facelift — not even Clay. "I went through a full existential feminist crisis, had my face and neck surgically altered, and the result is… zippo," she wrote.
Despite the positive results, she said that she felt an immense amount of guilt and deceit after the operation because of how much it cost. "My privileged place in this world," she wrote. "And that feels almost shameful to me. The things I have - earned some say, but [it's] the gross excess that wounds me."
She concluded: "As I get ready for the last day of school with my youngest — the caboose here at 64 years old with a new lower face and neck, just happy to be alive, able to feel and choose and use my voice whenever I feel called to ... For the girl I was, the woman I am, and all those joining my ranks. As we carry on in act 3, this is me."
O'Donnell lives with Clay in Ireland, where they moved in early 2025 due to the political climate in the United States.
