Kathy Griffin Plastic Surgery

American actress and comedian Kathy Griffin has reportedly had plastic surgery to improve her image.


Griffin, 52, has admitted to having numerous plastic surgery operations such as a nose job, several liposuction procedures, a brow lift, chemical skin peels, cosmetic dental implants and she's even had her hair straightened.

Griffin is very candid when it comes to plastic surgery. In her own words: "That's the tragedy about female comedians. We still want to be pretty and girls." Griffin claimed that while wanted to change the way she appeared, it was also a necessity for her acting career. She went further saying: "Stars that aren't nipped and tucked tend to get cast as great grandmothers next to a younger, brighter cast with all of their plastic surgery points in order".

Trying to secure an agent in Hollywood, Griffin decided to get a nose job at the age of 26.

On the other hand, Griffin pointed out that the plastic surgery procedures can be terrifying and for many of them you have to stay awake, which can be disconcerting all in its own right.


"The recuperation period can also be draining as well as painful as your body tries to adjust to what it went through and you have to learn to deal with the results of your plastic surgery," Griffin noted.

While Griffin stated that she'd do it all again (though she might skip the inexpert first doctors if she had the choice to do so), she is far from a plastic surgery role model; except, that is, for the fact that she doesn't play coy about what she's done.

When Redbook magazine asked her for its July 1 issue: "How do you deal with missteps on the way to fame?" Griffin replied: "Admit what you've done. Did I have plastic surgery five years ago? Yes, obviously! Just be honest".

Starring in the Emmy-winning "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" on the Bravo network, she suffered serious side effects from liposuction in 1999.

Griffin described the problematic 1999 operation to People magazine: "I had lipo from my waist down - my stomach, thighs and the inside of my knees. The idea was to look like Jennifer Aniston. It didn't work out at all. When I woke up I was not able to pee. I got toxicity and had to go to the emergency room and wear a catheter for a week. It was life-threatening, and the results were nonexistent."

"Back then I swore I would never get lipo again…But I work in an industry where if you don't get a little nip and tuck, a lady of my age is going to end up playing Katie Holmes's great-grandmother in the Dawson's Creek reunion," Griffin claimed.

Thankfully Griffin chose more experienced doctors for the second round of plastic surgery operations in 2003. She revealed to EW.com: "The doctor who did my lipo the first time was a total idiot. He was really an eye guy, and that was the problem. But the doctors who did me this time around were good. And honestly, I didn't do as much as I did the first time around. I know it sounds like a lot, but it really boils down to a brow lift and teeth veneers. I did get a skin peel that was really major, but it's not like it hurts to get my hair straightened".

In contrast to that description, the interview she gave to People magazine in 2003 made clear that the procedures were painful and extensive - and that she's still conflicted:

"I had my nose done because it was a little big. Unfortunately I think it looks exactly the same. I'm Irish, and I have the bad Irish teeth. So I went to a dentist and asked for soap-opera teeth. While they're making your new teeth, they have to whittle your own down to pegs. I looked like a turn-of-the-century prostitute. He gave me some temporary teeth, but one fell out when I was on the Jimmy Kimmel show. I gave it to Jimmy. That was brutal".

"A few days later I had lipo on my upper arms and flanks, which is kind of your kidney area. I don't know why I did it, because it's not like I'm running around in those Britney Spears pants - my flanks are pretty much covered all day. But my arms were total car-pool-mom arms, and I wanted Angelina Jolie arms. I thought about going to awards shows in a beautiful, strappy dress," Griffin was quoted as saying.

"I went to a doctor who for safety reasons refuses to do lipo with general anesthesia. So you're awake and shaking while they poke a big knitting needle in you. It's horrible. But everything is covered so you can't look over and say: "Get that vacuum out of me!" Later that day I got the brow lift so I wouldn't have skin hanging over my eyelids, and the facial peel, where they use acid to smooth your lines. Those were under anesthesia," Griffin continued. 

"By the third day I was so swollen my eyebrows were basically at my hairline. Then the peel kicked in. It was like the worst sunburn I ever had. I cried constantly. The burns were so itchy it felt like bugs crawling on my face. There was nothing about me that wasn't disgusting…You have to buy into the fact that you're going to look really scary and it's going to be painful. You've got a week of hell coming no matter how you slice it.The lipo's painful. I couldn't lift my arm all the way up for three weeks. As for my flanks, if there's a difference, I can notice it only when I'm naked. I wouldn't do it again," Griffin added.

Despite the pain and the disappointment with the lipo and nose job, Kathy is mostly positive about the plastic surgery results.




"I feel good. The peel really took away a lot of lines under my eyes. I love the teeth. And I love the brow - my eyes are a little bit more open," Kathy admitted.

It has to be noted that Griffin tries to reassure her parents about future plastic surgery, but she admits to People she'll keep nipping and tucking: "My parents are like: "Promise us this is the last one." I said: "Unless I grow a new head, I've run out of things to do." I'm sure I'll do stuff for the rest of my life, but I'm done for a while".




Griffin revealed to Oprah Winfrey that she doesn't "mind a little Botox now and then," but she's staying away from liposuction. "I have new eyebrows, new eyes, new skin, new teeth… I'm working on the new personality."

In an interview for Fitness magazine Griffin revealed: "I've been off the junk, as I call it, for five years."




"I've had a face lift, eye job and all that stuff five years ago. What I found, though, was that it didn't help me one bit. It didn't get me happier or didn't make me look particularly younger," Griffin admitted.

"I spent 20 years of my life obsessing about 10, 15 pounds, and what I found as a comedian …is that nobody expected me to come out in a bikini anyway. I've never lost a job because of my weight, and I've certainly never gotten a job because of my cosmetic surgery or my weight. "I'll say to my younger friends: "C'mon, I have a hot body, right?" I mean, not a hot body Hollywood-style…but it's hot for 47. So that's my new thing - I like my body now. For 47, it's pretty darn good. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to be Jennifer Aniston," Griffin stated.

In her book "Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin," Griffin told: "What I can't figure out is why I wasted time worrying about my looks. I am a comedian. I'm not on the runway in Milan".




"Believe it or not, people don't come to see me really thinking I'm going to look like Jennifer Aniston."

"I was told repeatedly: "You would be pretty if it weren't for that nose. You'd work more if it weren't for that nose. Hey have you considered getting a nose job?" You would think I had a nose the size of Texas. I was young and impressionable and I was told that enough that I started to believe it, so I got a nose job."

Griffin then emphasized on her weight and would take back-to-back step aerobics classes, starve herself all day and then binge at night.





She took diet pills and admitted to turning to street drugs, too.

"I am very proud of my two weeks on speed. It was full-on illegal speed. I took it to lose weight, which is not very smart. I just felt more hungry afterwards," Griffin was quoted as saying.


When Kathy got her big break on Brooke Shields sitcom "Suddenly Susan", she felt a huge pressure to be thinner.

"I lost 15 lbs. friggin' fast in season 1. But being on television…I was never thin enough. (Being on TV) told me that clothes didn't come in anything larger than a four. That got to me," Griffin confessed.


Celebrity plastic surgeon in New York City Dr. David Shafer stated: "I think Kathy Griffin would be helped considerably by some Botox Cosmetic and a lower lid blepharoplasty to smooth the skin around her eyes."

Conclusion: After all the plastic surgery procedures, Kathy Griffin doesn't look like her former self but surprisingly has aged very well with the help of plastic surgery.






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