Rosie O’Donnell shares unfiltered before-and-after facelift pics

64-year-old comedian explains why she underwent plastic surgery, which 'cost more money than I have ever paid for a car,' after swearing off procedure

Published May 27, 2026  •  3 minute read

Rosie O'Donnell arrives at the ELLE Women in Hollywood celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Los Angeles. Photo by Jordan Strauss /Invision/AP

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

Article content

Rosie O’Donnell is opening up about a decision she once thought she would never make: Getting a facelift.

Article content

Article content

The 64-year-old comedian and former talk show host revealed earlier this week that she underwent a lower deep plane facelift in January, a cosmetic procedure that lifts tissue beneath the facial muscles to create a more natural-looking result, according to Today.com.

Rosie O’Donnell shares unfiltered before-and-after photos of her lower deep plane facelift in January, a cosmetic procedure that lifts tissue beneath the facial muscles to create a more natural-looking result. Photo by Rosie O’Donnell /Instagram

Before-and-after photos

Now, O’Donnell is sharing unfiltered before-and-after photos on Instagram along with a deeply personal Substack poem titled decisions, where she reflects on aging, feminism, body image and the guilt she felt over changing her appearance.

For years, O’Donnell wrote, she saw facelifts as something she would “never — ever” do.

“I thought it was a betrayal. Of feminism. Of aging. Of our team of women worldwide,” she wrote.

But after losing 50 pounds, her feelings started to shift. She explained that the weight loss left her looking more “haunted” than refreshed.

Article content

Article content

“It wasn’t wrinkles — it was gravity,” she wrote. “I’d look in the mirror and think — this isn’t aging, this is melting with intention.”

At first, she tried to accept the changes

“I tried to be evolved about it,” she wrote. “And say things like, ‘This is natural. This is earned.’ And then… ‘umm how earned does it have to look?’ ”

Eventually, O’Donnell started researching procedures, joking that “gathering information” is what women say “when they are absolutely considering something they swore they’d never do.”

But the decision became more complicated when her 13-year-old child, Clay, found out.

“You earned your wrinkles,” Clay told her.

‘Young women look up to you’

The comment stung, but what really stayed with O’Donnell was when Clay added, “Young women look up to you,” followed by: “I wouldn’t be able to respect you if you did it.”

“That one… landed,” O’Donnell admitted.

She said the conversation reminded her of her own younger self — “more certain, more morally rigid” — and caused her to delay the surgery for months.

Article content

Forcing herself to reject cosmetic surgery for ideological reasons wasn’t freedom either

“If I’m teaching Clay anything, it can’t be that my body belongs to an idea either. Even a good idea. Even feminism,” she wrote. “Because that’s still not freedom — that’s just a different authority telling you what you’re allowed to do with your own face.”

O’Donnell ultimately decided to go through with the procedure after finding a doctor she trusted, someone who had worked on friends of hers who “still looked like themselves.”

Before the surgery, she recalled grabbing her doctor’s hand and saying: “I will never say, ‘God, I wish you did more.’”

She explained that she didn’t want to chase perfection or “keep moving the goalpost,” but simply hoped to look “less haunted.”

And, by her own account, that’s exactly what happened

“I do look like me,” she wrote. “A slightly more well-rested emotionally stable version of me.”

Ironically, O’Donnell said almost nobody has even noticed the difference.

Article content

“Not one person,” she wrote. “Not a friend, not a stranger, not even people who owe me compliments.”

She joked that after going through a “full existential feminist crisis” and surgically altering her face and neck, the reaction was basically “zippo.”

“Which honestly is the best possible outcome,” she added. “I didn’t disappear, I didn’t become someone else — I just stopped arguing with the mirror.”

Surgery ‘cost more money that I have ever paid for a car’

The poem also touched on O’Donnell’s long history with public scrutiny and honesty about her personal life. She compared the pressure she feels to disclose her facelift with the pressure she once felt around publicly discussing her sexuality during the 1990s.

“It cost more money than I have ever paid for a car,” she wrote of the surgery, acknowledging the privilege that made it possible. “And that feels almost shameful to me.”

Still, O’Donnell said she has found peace entering what she calls “act 3” of her life.

“At 64 years old,” she wrote, she is “happier than I have been in years,” and “just happy to be alive. Able to feel and choose and use my voice whenever I feel called to.”

The actress had previously spoken against plastic surgery. According to People, citing comments she made in a 2021 interview with Vulture, O’Donnell said she believed aging naturally would ultimately help her acting career, allowing her to play older, character-driven roles without trying to look younger.

Article content