Denise Richards has entered uncharted territory, becoming one of the first Hollywood stars to speak candidly about undergoing a full facelift last June — and to share unedited before-and-after images of her face.
In a new interview with Allure, the Wild Things actor and model, 55, opened up about her decision to undergo the procedure, explaining: “I wanted to put things back up, where they were before.”
While Richards has previously undergone cosmetic surgery, receiving breast implants at 19, she said this was her first time having work done on her face.
“I was terrified,” she admitted. “Being in the public eye since my 20s, people know what I look like — a facelift is not something that I could hide.”
After a few consultations, Richards settled on Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Talei.
Dr. Talei provided Allure with images of Richards’s face before the surgery, as well as images of her face with the blue surgical markings before the operation. In both, Richards’ eyes appeared more sunken in, and her jawline less tight.
She documented her recovery, taking selfies beginning two days after the surgery. In the first photo, published by Allure, Richards’s head is wrapped in a white bandage, while bruising can be seen on her neck, under her eyes and around her mouth. By the 10th day, there was almost no visible bruising, and by nearly a month later, Richards looked completely healed.
“It is night and day,” Richards said of her face before and after the surgery.
“It’s given me… Especially with what I’m going through in life, you know?” she said, referring to her recent, contentious divorce from ex-husband Aaron Phypers. “It’s just given me a new lease on life. It’s given me confidence. And people have asked me, if I wasn’t an actress, would I have still had it? And I would have.”
Richards has previously spoken about her regret for getting D-cup breast implants when she was 19.
“At 19 when I first got my breasts done, I wish that I was confident enough with my body to not have had surgery,” she wrote on iVillage in 2011. “That is something that I really want to encourage in my daughters, to embrace their healthy body and have confidence.”
“My roommate had the best boobs ever, and she had just had hers done,” she told Howard Stern in 2009. “I was flat as a board, and I thought ‘Whoa, you can just buy them’ and stupidly had them done.”
Nevertheless, she wrote on iVillage at the time, “I often get asked about my thoughts on plastic surgery, and I honestly feel it’s whatever makes a person feel good about themselves.”
