Nip-and-tuck transformations were the elephant on the red carpet for decades, but in recent years, celebrities have become increasingly more open to discussing their cosmetic surgery history, with many even posting their doctor visits in real time on social media. Botox and fillers have become widely accepted, but liposuction, as common as it is among all ages and genders, remains a little more hush-hush.
Some, however, haven’t held back in sharing their experience with the fat-loss procedure. We rounded up 14 stars who’ve revealed they got liposuction and have helped to normalize it in Hollywood.
Celebrities with liposuction
Cardi B
The rapper first shared that she had gotten liposuction to remove unwanted body fat during her 2019 Beale Street Music Festival performance, telling concertgoers, “I shouldn’t really be performing. I should have canceled today, because moving too much is gonna f*ck up my lipo.”
Months later, she opened up about her decision to publicly address her liposuction, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I want to explain to people how hard it is to process,” she said. “I feel like people look at girls on Instagram and go, ‘Oh, they got their lipo done, and it was so easy.’ It is just such a long, hard process, almost like the same process as after you give birth to a baby and you see your body change and snapping it back.”
Prior to getting liposuction, Cardi had undergone a second breast augmentation after welcoming her daughter, Kulture. “I just got my boobs redone,” she said in another interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I feel good, but then sometimes I feel, like, not, you know? [When] your skin is stretched out.” She’s also been honest about getting dangerous basement butt injections.
Related: 7 Plastic Surgeons Reveal the Biggest Misconceptions Patients Have About Liposuction
Heidi Montag
The Hills star saw the late Dr. Frank Ryan for liposuction on her waist, hips, and thighs in 2010, at the age of 23. During the same visit, she famously underwent nine other surgeries, including a brow lift, rhinoplasty, chin reduction, breast augmentation, and butt augmentation.
In an interview with ABC News that same year, the reality star said, “I do not feel like I was prepared enough for this. Maybe I should have known. But how can you know, when your doctor’s saying, ‘It’s just a little of this, it’s just a little of that?’ You know, it really becomes a lot.” She’s since described the decision to get so many surgeries at once as “hitting rock bottom.”
Chrissy Teigen
The model, who recently underwent breast implant removal surgery, previously revealed that she had gotten liposuction to remove unwanted fat from her armpits. “I had my armpit sucked out,” she said at an event back in 2017, according to Byrdie. “It added two inches of length to my arms…[That fat] is coming back though, so I might need to go in and pay for it again.”
Two years later, her armpits made headlines once again after she shared that she had gotten Botox injected into them. “BOTOXED MY ARMPITS. TRULY BEST MOVE I HAVE EVER MADE,” she posted on Instagram, tagging Beverly Hills, California, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jason Diamond. “I can wear silk again without soaking woohoo!”
NeNe Leakes
In a 2010 interview with People, the former Real Housewives of Atlanta star shared that she had fat removed around her waist by Dr. David Whiteman, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Duluth, Georgia. He also performed Leakes’ previous rhinoplasty, mastopexy, breast implant removal, and breast augmentation surgeries. “I’m very comfortable and confident in myself,” she said. “I just wanted a tune-up. I still wanted to look like NeNe, the Black woman that I am, but a better version.”
Sharon Osbourne
The Talk cohost said that she got liposuction to tighten loose skin in her neck following dramatic weight loss. “After losing half my body weight, I had flesh hanging everywhere,” she told Britain’s Night and Day magazine in 2008. “I had liposuction on my neck and had it lifted too. I had my breasts lifted, my arms lipoed, and my tummy tucked. I had my bum lifted and implants inserted. And I had my legs lifted. The total cost was 120,000GBP, and it was worth every last penny. I love cosmetic surgery.”
Osbourne recruited the help of Dr. Leslie H. Stevens for her liposuction. On his website, the Beverly Hills, California, board-certified plastic surgeon said that he also performed a tummy tuck, body lift, butt lift, thigh lift, facelift, eyelid lift, breast lift, and Botox injections on the star, to help her “achieve total face and body rejuvenation.”
Dolores Catania
Like Osbourne, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star also underwent liposuction in order to tone her figure after losing weight. Dr. Joseph Michaels, a Rockville, Maryland, board-certified plastic surgeon, performed the procedure as well as a tummy tuck and fat transfer to her buttocks as part of the “tune-up.”
“I’m an advocate for doing whatever makes you feel good. I also think it’s only fair for me to be open about the doctors I go to, because of the research I’ve done and the results I’ve gotten,” she told RealSelf.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro
In 2019, the Jersey Shore star decided to get liposuction in order to maintain his famous six-pack abs. The four-and-a-half-hour procedure, which costs between $20,000 and $30,000, was documented during an episode of The Doctors.
“We’re going to do something today for Ronnie that wasn’t even available 10 years ago,” Dr. Christopher Khorsandi, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Henderson, Nevada, said during the episode. “This is laser high-definition liposuction of the abdomen. We’re going to be able to get that area in between his abs completely defined so that he actually has a six-pack for many, many years to come.”
Related: High-Tech to High-Def—How Popular Tools and Techniques Are Reshaping Liposuction
Clay Aiken
In 2012, the American Idol alum revealed that he had gotten liposuction in his chin while undergoing a procedure to treat symptoms of temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ). “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,” he said during his visit to Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “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.’”
Kyle Richards
“After having four kids, no matter what exercise I did, the love handles wouldn’t go away,” the Real Housewife of Beverly Hills explained during a “Secrets Revealed” special in 2013. “I wanted to wear jeans and a tucked-in shirt and not feel self-conscious. I’m very happy with the results.”
Since the procedure, Richards has been maintaining her results with SculpSure treatments, which offer a noninvasive solution for fat reduction using laser-based technology to selectively target fat cells. In 2017, she visited Botched’s Dr. Paul Nassif for a session.
Kanye West
While sitting down with TMZ, the rapper revealed that he had gotten addicted to opioids after getting liposuction in the past. “I had plastic surgery because I was trying to look good for y’all,” he said during the 2018 interview. “I got liposuction because I didn’t want y’all to call me fat, like y’all called [brother-in-law] Rob [Kardashian] at the wedding and made him fly home before me and [wife] Kim [Kardashian] got married. I didn’t want y’all to call me fat, so I got liposuction.”
Wendy Williams
Back in 2015, the TV host shared that she had previously gotten liposuction and a tummy tuck as a means to kick-start her weight loss. “I no longer believe in fad diets, crash diets. I don’t believe in diet pills,” she said during an episode of her talk show while discussing her fitness journey. “I don’t want my heart to race and pop out of my chest. Yes, I did have a jump-start because years ago I did get the liposuction and a tummy tuck, but I have to say that, if there is a poster child for plastic surgery and the jump-off to a new lifestyle, it would be me.”
In the past, Williams has seen Miami-based board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Algird Mameniskis for her cosmetic surgery needs; earlier this year, she documented herself getting Botox backstage ahead of one of her Wendy Williams Show tapings with Livingston, New Jersey, physician Dr. Marion Shapiro.
Amy Schumer
The comedian/actress first shared that she had undergone liposuction, following endometriosis surgery, in January 2022. She posted a bathing suit beach pic on Instagram with the caption: “I feel good. Finally. It’s been a journey thanks for helping me get my strength back @seckinmd (endo) @jordanternermd (lipo) never thought I would do anything but talk to me after your uterus doesn’t contract for 2.5 years and you turn 40.” A few months later, Schumer—who has also spoken openly about having (and later dissolving) cheek filler and CoolSculpting CoolMini under her chin—shared more. “I got liposuction. I never thought that I was going to do anything like that. Like, when I would hear, ‘liposuction,’ I was just like, ‘That’s so crazy to me.’ I would say that I’m not ever going to do anything,” she said during an episode of Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast. But after having her uterus and appendix removed, Schumer changed her mind. “I healed well, and I was like, ‘Can I get lipo?’ And I got lipo, and I’m feeling really good.”
New York City board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jordan Terner, who performed Schumer’s liposuction, previously told RealSelf, “She wasn’t feeling so confident about the way she was looking. Chronic pain conditions, like endometriosis, can render patients sedentary, causing them to gain weight. Amy hadn’t been able to work out, she was in pain, she was feeling bloated—and she wanted a kickstart to get back in shape. It’s not about being the skinniest—it’s just about having a nice shape and feeling good about yourself.”
Joey Fatone
The Former *NSYNC member, who also admitted to getting hair plugs, recently documented his experience with Airsculpt, an FDA-approved liposuction procedure that uses a proprietary handpiece that minimizes downtime. “It’s crazy because it’s one of those things I never thought I’d do, but then there’s just this unwanted fat that even if you lost weight or no matter how you dieted, just certain things you can’t get rid of,” he said on Instagram.
Sia
The singer opened up about getting liposuction after gaining weight and not seeing any results from either exercise or thyroid medications. “Please know that I am so lucky to have the resources to change the way I look and that when you see me looking crazy foxy again…that I want you to know it did not come from diet and exercise,” she wrote on X. “I want to be truthful about all of my procedures so I don’t contribute to the system that tells us we aren’t enough.”
This isn’t the first time Sia has spoken candidly of her plastic surgery procedures. At the Daytime Beauty Awards back in October, she presented the Outstanding Achievement in Medicine award to her surgeon, Dr. Ben Talei, and credited him for her facelift. “I am insecure like most people and being in the public eye gives me anxiety, so I’ve made the choice to alter my appearance for my own confidence issues,” she said.
