Male Celebs Who Have Admitted To Getting Plastic Surgery

Male celebrities getting plastic surgery is not a new phenomenon — for instance, a 2012 article from The Hollywood Reporter focused on "The secret world of male face-lifts," with a big emphasis on the secret part — but the taboo has lessened enough that some stars, like those on our list, have been open about their procedures. Nonetheless, the silence and shame around male plastic surgery remain intact, and even non-surgical procedures like fillers and injectables — or "Brotox," per the tabloids — are rarely discussed by male celebs. And yet, it is relatively obvious that even the Brad Pitts of the world have had something injected into their faces to look that good.

Here we focused on actual surgeries, and while we found no shortage of men for our list, we also came across plenty of examples of stars who remain mum despite the photographic evidence. Anyone with eyes can look at before-and-after pics online and recognize Elon Musk's hair transplant, Ryan Gosling's nose job, and whatever it is that Clint Eastwood has done to look that way in his 90s (he has given non-answers when asked). Other stars outright deny the work they have done, but few are buying it. For instance, we cannot say for certain that Arnold Schwarzenegger has had surgical tweaks, but top doctors have certainly said it. Even Barry Manilow denies having had plastic surgery and — well, we will leave it at that. 

Here are some male celebrities who have been honest (and quite frankly, brave) enough to admit to getting plastic surgery.

Before rage issues and a string of flops ultimately caused his acting career to wither, Mickey Rourke had success in films like "Diner" and "Barfly." His tough persona made him perfect for "bad boy" roles in movies like "Body Heat," and he became a full-on sex symbol after "9 ½ Weeks" hit theaters. Rourke left the industry in 1991 to start a professional boxing career but returned to Hollywood before the end of the decade. He acted regularly but did not get back to his previous heights until his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2008 film "The Wrestler." The film — and Rourke's perceived comeback — led to a fair amount of media attention, and people were not exactly kind when referencing the actor's facial appearance. He found his way onto lists of bad plastic surgery and tabloids tapped doctors to speculate about his specific procedures.

The scrutiny did not stop Rourke from speaking up about having had cosmetic surgery, although he typically made it a point to explain that his surgeries were not purely driven by vanity. "Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together," he told The Daily Mail in 2009. Rourke even posted a post-nose job photo on his Instagram in 2017, so he is nothing if not transparent. In that post, he indicated he had "one more to go," without clarifying if this meant one more surgery or, specifically, one more nose job.

Hair transplants are really common procedures, and they are one of those surgeries that are hard to deny when confronted with photographic proof. From Jeremy Piven to Billy Bob Thornton to Jude Law, there is no shortage of celebs whose hairlines have clearly undergone rejuvenation — but there is a shortage of male stars who admit to undergoing the knife in this manner. 

While most guys do not outright rebuff speculation, the fact that the vast majority keep quiet about it only gives us more respect for the men who do talk about their hair transplants, like Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean or actor Cheyenne Jackson. Jackson, in particular, has opened up about his surgeries, as well as the insecurities that led to them and the shame and fear that caused him to keep them a secret for so long.

While Jackson has since deleted the May 2020 Instagram post about his hair, the message remains online thanks to the numerous mainstream websites that picked up the story. In the poignant post — which was accompanied by two photos, one of the actor's transplant scar — Jackson detailed having had five separate hair transplant surgeries over the course of 14 years, beginning at age 28. He said that he vowed to keep these procedures a secret for many years, but that the COVID-19 pandemic and fatherhood inspired his disclosure. "I'm sharing because maybe this will inspire someone out there to share a secret they've been hiding, or show a scar that they've been afraid of anyone seeing," he wrote (via People).

Though you may not know Reid Ewing by name, you most likely know his face from his years spent playing Haley Dunphy's sweet but dimwitted boyfriend Dylan on "Modern Family." That face that you recognize, however, is far from Ewing's original one, and the actor has been vocal about the cosmetic procedures he has had done over the years. 

In 2015, Ewing contributed an essay to HuffPost wherein he detailed his struggles with body dysmorphia and the way that these struggles impacted his plastic surgery journey. It was a raw and honest account of one man's path toward self-acceptance, and we cannot think of any male celebrity who has opened up about the topic to the same degree.

The poignant essay detailed some of Ewing's procedures (and complications), while also critiquing the plastic surgery field for its lack of mental health support, the inconsistent capability of doctors, and the overall lack of caring for patients. Reid's first procedure was cheek implants in 2008, which he got when he was only 19 years old — and he was so upset with the results he stayed isolated for months. He then got a chin implant from another doctor, which needed a second surgery to repair a mistake, and then other unnamed procedures from two more doctors. "I'm not against plastic surgery. My particular case was very kind of invasive. It was an act of violence against myself," he told Instinct. "I wish I was a little bit more secure with myself that I didn't have to do that and go through with it."

We love that actor Josh Hutcherson was upfront about having a nose job, although he kind of had to be after going out with a bandage on his face only months after the first "Hunger Games" movie came out. Plenty of celebs get work done and then hide out for weeks or months (or if it is bad work, possibly even years), so we like that Hutcherson did not hide the procedure — but we don't like his changing answers about why he got his nose done in the first place. It would have been better had he not ever given a reason, since the public was not owed one, but the dishonesty is where he faltered.

On May 9, 2012, Hutcherson tweeted "Just had surgery to fix my broken nose," but when media outlets asked for further information, neither Hutchinson nor his rep would clarify how the nose was broken. Soon after, his rep said that the surgery was due to a deviated septum and that is the party line Hutcherson stuck to when cornered by TMZ on May 16. And we know that is a common celebrity excuse for nose jobs, but a rhinoplasty (a nose job) is not the same as a septoplasty (the procedure done to correct a deviated septum) — and while rhinoplasties are occasionally needed for medical reasons, it is much more common that a septoplasty alone will do the job. When a person comes out of there with a whole new schnoz, it is most likely because they asked for one.

Clay Aiken rose to fame when he competed on Season 2 of "American Idol" back in 2003 when the show was still a juggernaut that could actually launch its contestants to fame. Back then, "American Idol" was very different in tone, highlighting bad auditions and reveling in resident baddie Simon Cowell's tendency to go for the jugular with his insults. Aiken's voice impressed the judges from the start, but his looks gave them pause. "You don't look like a popstar, but you've got a great voice," Cowell said at Aiken's first audition, while Randy Jackson encouraged him to change his style. By the time the live shows rolled around, Aiken had ditched his glasses and adopted a slightly better wardrobe, but he still looked relatively the same.

This is all to say that Aiken's success was never about the way he looked, but that did not stop Aiken from receiving plenty of jabs for his appearance. So, we are not surprised that he went under the knife years later. We are, however, surprised about how casually he mentioned it, during a "Plead the Fifth" segment on a 2012 episode of "Watch What Happens Live." "I had operative surgery on my jaw for a TMJ thing and I had them suck the fat out of my chin while they were in there," Aiken told host Andy Cohen (via Glamour). "I was like, 'You know what, while I'm already down, go ahead and take the vacuum in there and suck the fat out of my chin.'"

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that "Vanderpump Rules" star Jax Taylor is objectively a very handsome man. Taylor was a model prior to his reality television ascension, and his early photos make it clear that genetics are to thank for a lot of his attractiveness. Still, the star has had a good number of tweaks over the years in an effort to achieve his goals. 

For instance, Taylor was open when he got cosmetic dental work done in August 2023, although veneers are basically commonplace in Hollywood at this point. Fans of "Vanderpump Rules" are also aware that Taylor has gone under the knife on multiple occasions, all of them in an effort to fix his nose to his liking. At a minimum, Taylor has had three rhinoplasty procedures — and we know this for certain, as his third one was documented on Season 4 of the show.

In addition to that, Taylor has been upfront about receiving regular injectables in his face to ward off lines. And though the amount of botulinum toxin on "Vanderpump Rules" could poison an ocean, not all of the current and former cast members are as transparent about it as Taylor. He even got Botox on television when he appeared on an episode of "The Doctors" in 2021, although the segment referred to it as "Brotox" (wince). "I'm a huge fan of Botox, I don't care what anybody says. I love it," Taylor said. "I believe you are investing in your body. You look good, you feel good."

Celebrities cannot really win when it comes to owning up to their plastic surgeries. If they don't admit what they have had done, they are accused of being inauthentic and of promoting unrealistic ideals. But if they do disclose a procedure or two (or seven), the scrutiny continues and sometimes even intensifies. Howard Stern is one of those celebrities who has never been able to quiet the chatter, not even after admitting to multiple surgeries on his radio show more than a decade and a half ago. People are so invested in figuring out what Stern has done to alter his face that there are even Reddit threads devoted to the topic. Just let the man live, people!

On the other hand, Stern is a host who probes guests with intense and often inappropriate questions, so it is hard to feel bad for the shock jock. His whole schtick is brutal honesty, so if he has messed with plastic surgery as of late, he should come clean if he wants to stay true to his philosophy. Back in 2006, Stern got real with his audience when he fessed up to two separate procedures shortly after making the jump to SiriusXM Radio. He divulged that he had both surgeries — a nose job and liposuction under his chin — at the same time, shortly after the release of his film "Private Parts" in 1997. He also said it hurt so much that he would never get more cosmetic work, but many fans don't buy it.