Celeb Nose Jobs That Completely Changed Their Looks
The following article includes a reference to domestic abuse allegations.
The cliches are true: beauty comes from the inside. Even then, flaws are what make people who they are. They're the stuff that sets us apart — every dimple of cellulite, chipped tooth, or scar is gorgeous in its own right. That being said, there's no shame in getting a little work done if that's what makes you happy. It just happens to be easier when you're a celeb with the bank account to afford a plastic surgery habit.
Listen, no one's perfect. Even the gorgeous celebs who grace magazine covers still somehow manage to find new things to Facetune with each Instagram post (Khloé Kardashian, no shame, but we're looking at you!). While self-love is an important practice — and the true answer to finding inner peace — plastic surgery seems to be a favored method among the rich and famous. Hey, in many respects, it's probably a lot easier than learning to live with a feature you hate. These celebrities put their money where their nose is and have proudly showed off their rhinoplasties with no regrets. The transformations are so unbelievable, they might just have you saying, "I don't know her," like a scorned Mariah Carey.
Did a nose job cost Jennifer Grey her career?
No one's putting Baby in a corner, except maybe her nose job. Jennifer Grey burst onto the scene in 1986 with the iconic role of Baby Houseman, alongside Patrick Swayze, in "Dirty Dancing." In many ways, the star's nose was her defining feature. It was a rebellion against the leagues of Hollywood starlets with perfectly sculpted schnozes — the antithesis of today's so-called "Instagram Face." In other words, Grey's nose was what made her Grey, but at the height of her career in 1989, she went under the knife.
Grey has been vocal about her dramatic rhinoplasty, which she claims ruined her career. According to the Mirror, she dubbed it "the nose job from hell." "I went into the operating room a celebrity and came out anonymous," Grey told the tabloid in 2012, adding, "I'll always be this once-famous actress nobody recognizes because of a nose job."
That's not to say Grey never worked again. She did have guest spots on multiple series, including "Friends," "Grey's Anatomy," and "The Conners." The actor even had a role in Amazon's short-lived '80s-themed comedy "Red Oaks." Grey just struggled to recreate the same success as she had with "Dirty Dancing." Is her nose to blame? Who nose. Moving on...
Courtney Love's nose job changed everything for her
Hole's third album "Celebrity Skin" was the band's biggest commercial success. According to Billboard, it sold over 1.4 million copies, and the title track became an anthem for all who reject the impossible beauty standards of Hollywood. Nonetheless, frontwoman Courtney Love still credits her nose job for opening up a bunch of doors. In fact, she claimed that in the six months following her surgery, "the whole world changed."
Before Love was a Grammy-nominated musician, she was a struggling actor who believed her so-called "big nose" was getting in the way of big roles. "I was an actress in the '80s, but well, let's just be real. I had a really big nose, and that schnoz was not taking me anywhere," she said during an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 2014. The singer was 20 years old when she went under the knife and never looked back. When asked if she regretted it at all, Love's answer was a simple, "Hell no."
Lil' Kim's 'fix' went too far
Lil' Kim paved the way for future female rappers like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, and even Iggy Azalea, despite the Australian rapper's oft-ridiculed freestyles. Alright, truly, no one can fill Lil' Kim's shoes as much as they might like to wear her iconic 1999 MTV VMAs outfit (Miley, what's good?). Still, the Lil' Kim of today looks almost nothing like the Lil' Kim of yesteryear. She's always evolving.
In 2019, we tried to dive to the bottom of the transformation of Lil' Kim's face. That same year, the Daily Mail pointed out that her nose looked unrecognizable compared to the way she looked just a few months prior. All of this came years after Kim owned up about one of the sad reasons she went under the knife earlier in her career. In a 2005 interview with Hot 97's Angie Martinez, the rapper revealed that she had to "fix" her nose after allegedly being physically assaulted by a former boyfriend. Her nose was so damaged that it required surgery — but that wasn't the sole reason she changed her looks. The star has been open about her penchant for getting a little work done here and there. "I think I did it because I was a little too vain at the time," Lil' Kim said. "[I was] trying to be perfect. I'm a perfectionist."
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Gia Giudice barely made it to adulthood before her nose job
If there's one thing the cast of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" is known for (besides flipped tables, baptism brawls, and felonies), it's plastic surgery. The cast has been vocal about getting a needle prick here and an incision there — and if they're not, their castmates are quick to call out any ounce of perceived "fakeness" (See: Melissa Gorga). After all, being a certain kind of fake is viewed as a high crime in the world of Bravolebrities.
Like her elders, Gia Giudice has partaken in the time-honored tradition of the rhinoplasty. She just had to wait until she was a legal adult. In a 2020 Instagram post tagged with her plastic surgeon's office, the star revealed her new look (above, left) and admitted that she had wanted the procedure for a long time. By all accounts, it gave her the sort of glowy self-confidence that's rare in a teenager.
"Yes I got a nose job. yes I'm swollen. thank you so much [Dr. Geoffrey Tobias]. I'm absolutely in love with it," Giudice wrote, adding, "I am an adult now, this has been an insecurity of mine for a while and I've never been happier and so comfortable in my own skin!!"
Lisa Kudrow loves her high school nose job
"Friends" fans have never seen Lisa Kudrow's original nose onscreen, no matter how much we've watched and rewatched the series, and no matter how many times we've tuned into the series' 2021 HBO Max reunion. In truth, the Phoebe Buffay we know and love had some work done when she was a teen, but if we're judging by her character's bizarre storyline, that's about one of the tamer things hidden in her past.
In a 2014 interview with The Saturday Evening Post, Kudrow admitted that she got a nose job when she was 16 years old — and it changed her life for the better. "That was life altering. I went from, in my mind, hideous, to not hideous," she said. "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. That was a good, good, good change."
Today, all that remains are the yearbook photos. Sorry, girl — you're beautiful both ways!
Everyone knows about Melissa Gorga's nose
Melissa Gorga's nose job is a thing of "RHONJ" infamy — mostly because it was never really a secret, but the cast wanted to pretend that their beloved frenemy was, indeed, lying about going under the knife. Sure, Gorga side-stepped comments about the rhinoplasty, even attributing it to contouring in the past. But in her defense, she wasn't technically hiding it, particularly because it was a pretty drastic change.
In 2016, Gorga got into a massive argument with Jacqueline Laurita, who's since parted ways with Bravo. The former cast member accused Gorga of having four nose jobs. In a confessional from the episode (via The Daily Dish), Gorga wryly admitted, "Let's be honest, it's the worst-kept secret that I've had a nose job, but it's my secret to tell, not hers."
She's not wrong. Just because everyone knows she got a nose job, doesn't mean she has to talk about it on national TV. "It's a personal thing," Gorga said, adding, "It's not hurting anyone. It's your own business. Some people like to say, 'Hey, I injected this, tummy tucked this,' and that's fine, too. It's something that's personal to me. It's one of the very few things that is personal in my life at this point."
Ashley Tisdale's nose job was for medical reasons
While Ashley Tisdale has an extensive job history dating back to her childhood in the '90s, you might not recognize her immediately in those early roles, thanks to the nose job she got in 2007. Tisdale became a household name when "High School Musical" aired in 2005 — instantly recognizable by her long blonde hair and notable nose. But in two years later, she told People that she underwent surgery to correct a deviated septum.
"I went to get it checked out, and the doctor told me the septum was 80 percent deviated and that I had two small fractures on my nose," Tisdale said. Not only did the surgery fix her deviated septum, but it also transformed her whole face. However, Tisdale told People her surgery was only motivated by her health, urging fans to embrace their looks. "I didn't do this because I believe in plastic surgery," she said. "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."
Heidi Montag 'wouldn't recommend' plastic surgery
When "The Hills" began filming, Heidi Montag had the sweet, girl-next-door look, but in 2007, she started undergoing a slew of plastic surgeries, including rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. "I've always been very insecure about my body," she told Us Weekly in that same year (via JustJared). "I have my dad's nose, which is huge. It took up so much of my face, when I looked down, I could see my nose. I couldn't get away from it!"
She didn't stop there. In a 2016 interview with ET, Montag revealed that she'd had nearly a dozen surgeries, totally transforming her physical appearance. But the drastic alterations to her face and body didn't seem to impress Hollywood, as Montag has claimed that plastic surgery forever altered her career. The reality star also alleged that she was left in financial ruin after spending nearly $10 million on procedures over the years, and that she "died for a minute" during one of her operations, which left her with "long-term health complications."
All that said, Montag perhaps amazingly noted that she doesn't regret her procedures, but "certainly wouldn't do it again" and "certainly wouldn't recommend it."
Ashlee Simpson still plays coy about her alleged nose job
In the early 2000s, Ashlee Simpson's career was really starting to take off. She had her own reality show, a Billboard Top 10 hit, and a chart-topping album. However, her career soon took a couple of big hits. In 2004, Simpson infamously walked off the "Saturday Night Live" stage after getting caught lip syncing. Then, in 2006, after the "Pieces of Me" singer's once distinctive nose appeared noticeably slimmer and straighter, she began battling rumors about a nose job.
Though she's never outright admitted to having work down, Simpson has also never directly denied it. In 2006, she told the Associated Press (via People), "Everybody's already saying it, so I just don't talk about it. I'm like, okay, whatever. It doesn't bother me." The alleged surgery was rather untimely, however, as it coincided with a Marie Claire issue (via Rolling Stone) that featured Simpson as a cover girl encouraging readers to embrace their flaws.
The following year, Simpson simply told Harper's Bazaar (via People) that getting plastic surgery was '"a personal choice" that people should make for themselves rather than others, and added, "I'm a happy person, and I'm happy with my looks. I loved how I looked. I'm not an insecure person, nor was I before."
Michael Jackson says this was two surgeries
The late Michael Jackson's looks were always a hot topic, and at the time of his death, he looked drastically different than he did at the beginning of his career — most notably, his nose.
However, in 2002, Jackson made this somewhat stunning claim to ABC News: "I've had no plastic surgery on my face. Just my nose. It helped me breathe better so I can hit higher notes." Even the interviewer, Martin Bashir, couldn't quite believe the denial, and he pushed the King of Pop on the issue. But Jackson only went so far as to say that "as [he] can remember," he's only had two operations.
After his 2009 death, rumors abounded that Jackson didn't even have a nose anymore due to the many plastic surgeries he'd allegedly underwent (though the star only publicly acknowledged those two nose jobs). Rolling Stone even cited one source who claimed Jackson's nose was actually prosthetic, with the insider further alleging that he'd seen it fall off of the pop star's face.
Farrah Abraham's nose job was 'very worth it'
This former teen mom has never been shy about her ever-changing looks. Farrah Abraham debuted as a young parent on "16 and Pregnant" and soon seemingly fell in love with reality television. She has since appeared on multiple reality shows (and even some adult films), and her looks appear to transform each time we see her.
In 2014, Abraham told InTouch Weekly that by the time she was 21, she'd spent $21,000 on plastic surgeries, including a nose job. "I've hated my nose since I was 13," she said, telling the magazine that the pain and money spent on the procedures were "very worth it."
But not all of Abraham's cosmetic procedures have gone so smoothly. In 2015, she famously appeared on E!'s "Botched" (via People) to correct a mishap with a lip implant. "I could feel everything, and it was hurting in a crazy way, and my lip was blowing up as I was sitting there," she told the outlet of the procedure gone wrong. Thankfully, the TV docs were able to help her with what ultimately was "a major allergic reaction" to "an anesthetic before the procedure," per TMZ.
Mickey Rourke's nose job was to 'look pretty again'
While many people now know him as an actor, Mickey Rourke is also a real-life badass, who got his start as a professional boxer. Unfortunately, repeated brutal hits to the face come as a requirement with that job.
Rourke told the Daily Mail in 2009 that he broke his nose twice. "I had to have cartilage taken from my ear to rebuild my nose and a couple of operations to scrape out the cartilage because the scar tissue wasn't healing properly," he said, claiming that he "went to the wrong guy" to get it fixed, which left him with an almost unrecognizable mug. In 2017, Rourke reportedly went back under the knife to fix his nose. When he posted a photo of himself on Instagram after the surgery, the actor playfully captioned it in part with, "Now i am 'pretty' again."
Fans thought Khloe Kardashian's nose job was a face transplant
Let's be honest: the internet hasn't exactly been kind about Khloé Kardashian's seemingly ever-changing looks. The reality star has long been slammed by fans for allegedly using the app Facetune to give herself an artificial glow-up. She's also been accused of having a face transplant and picked apart for her weight loss journey. The criticism has been so fierce that her so-called "Photoshop fails" even nabbed a headline in The U.S. Sun in 2021. So, how did the star actually change her face?
Kardashian has always been transparent about the work she's had done — and the work she's done herself. Hello, revenge body! According to Us Weekly, she even told Chelsea Handler in 2016, "Facetune is the best thing to bring to the table. It's life-changing. It's the only way to live." While fans have noticed that the star looks very different from when she first debuted on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" well over a decade ago, she's been quick to shut down those nasty face-transplant rumors.
"Everyone says, 'Oh my gosh, she's had her third face transplant.' But I've had one nose job," Kardashian said during the 2021 reunion episode of "KUWTK" (via People), adding, "I've done, sure, injections — not really Botox. I've responded horribly to Botox." So, there you have it, a little nose job (and a lot of hitting the gym) can lead to a total transformation.