2021 certainly had its ups and downs, but when life is tumultuous, we can find comfort in knowing that there’s one thing that never changes: the Real Housewives’ commitment to aesthetics. Their nips, tucks, and injections were front and center, both on the show and on their social media. From breast augmentations to BBLs, here are the treatments they (plus a few other of our favorite Bravolebrities) got this year.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Jennifer Aydin
Aydin isn’t shy about sharing the self-proclaimed perks of being married to a plastic surgeon. She frequently takes to social media to show off the work of her husband, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. N. Bill Aydin—from her tummy tuck to back liposuction. But he actually wasn’t the one who performed her recent nose job and chin implant, which she had done while on a family vacation in Turkey in May.
“I’ve always had a bit of insecurity about my nose, and I love the way that my pictures look in filters. I just thought, instead of just always filtering my face, why don’t I just change my nose, so it looks like a filter?” she told Bravo. She also said the decision to get a chin implant came after the fact, on both the advice of her surgeon and that of her husband.
Dolores Catania
Earlier this year, Catania told RealSelf that she considers fall to be “surgery season.” After undergoing a facelift, tummy tuck, and liposuction in years past, a breast augmentation—her third—was the 2021 procedure of choice. “I didn’t like the way they felt. I thought they looked a little uneven, and I just didn’t really like the implants that I used,” she told RealSelf about her decision. “I have a thyroid issue, so I went up and down in weight a lot, and I didn’t like the way [my breast implants] hung as my weight fluctuated. Of course, nobody’s body is symmetrical, but it was such a noticeable difference, and I just wanted them done right.”
In true Housewives fashion, Catania followed the lead of friend and costar Teresa Giudice, who replaced her implants last year; both women went to New York City board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Aviva Preminger and got Sientra breast implants. Catania also told Page Six that, as part of her preparation for last season’s reunion, she went to her long-term surgeon, Dr. Joseph Michaels, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Rockville, Maryland, for full-body liposuction and “a brand-new” vagina. “I don’t know what that has to do with the reunion, but I figured while I was doing everything, [why not]!” she said.
Teresa Giudice
Giudice marked 2021 with an engagement and a new nose. Citing longtime insecurity that the top was too round—what she called a “tomato nose”—Giudice shared her experience with fans at the New Jersey Ultimate Women’s Expo in November. She admitted to being nervous about the decision but said that fiancé Luis “Louie” Ruelas’s support helped her feel more confident. Not as supportive? Costar turned frenemy Margaret Josephs (who herself has been outspoken about many plastic surgeries). “She’s like, ‘No, you don’t need to do it.’ Like, really, bitch? Sorry, like, you got so much plastic surgery, why [are] you telling me that?” said Giudice.
Giudice went to Dr. Geoffrey Tobias, a board-certified otolaryngologist in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the same doctor who performed daughter Gia’s nose job in 2020.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Kandi Burruss
Burruss opened up about her breast reduction on the first episode of her YouTube series, Body Work. “I went to a doctor, and he cut a chunk off of each one of them,” she explained. (Dr. Chad Deal, a board-certified general surgeon in Chattanooga, Tennessee, performed her reduction.) “I’m just gonna keep it one hundred with you. Share your sources. Let’s talk about it. Let’s see how we can make things easier for people out there who want to get those types of results,” she said. On the episode, she also speaks about previously undergoing liposuction and a tummy tuck as well as trying Botox.
The Real Housewives of Orange County
Shannon Storms Beador
Back in January, before the season 15 reunion, Beador admitted to overdoing it on fillers. She posted an Instagram video explaining what had happened after fans were shocked by her appearance at the reunion. It’s a topic of discussion on the latest season as well, when cameras capture her having injections in order to dissolve the excess filler. “Last year, I put six vials of filler in my face,” she says in an interview, as she makes exploding gestures. “Everything plumped up—and I still can’t recognize myself.”
Emily Simpson
“I’m tight and happy, and I have one chin,” laughs Simpson during an interview on the first episode of season 16. She’s referring to a combo of recent plastic surgeries; after removing her implants in October 2020, Simpson underwent a breast fat transfer in April and had a mini lower facelift in May. Dr. Siamak Agha, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Newport Beach, California, performed all the procedures, which Simpson shared on Instagram.
Gina Kirschenheiter
On the season 16 premiere, Kirschenheiter and friend/castmate Emily Simpson pay a visit to the office of newbie Housewife Dr. Jennifer Armstrong. A nervous Kirschenheiter gets what Armstrong calls “a dab” of Botox in her chin and in her neck, to smooth out horizontal “tech neck” lines.
Honorable mention: Tamra Judge
OC alum Judge documented her breast explant surgery and recovery extensively on Instagram this summer. This wasn’t her first go-around—she’d had her implants removed in 2012 then later put back in. This time, her decision was health motivated; she blamed her implants for chronic thyroid issues, swollen joints, fatigue, and inflammation. “I know it sounds crazy, but I woke up today with rosy cheeks, no sinus congestion, and happy thoughts. I’m hoping I will continue to see health improvements as the weeks go on,” she wrote in an Instagram post the day after surgery.
The Real Housewives of Potomac
Karen Huger
The Grand Dame’s face has changed quite a bit over the six seasons she’s been on the show, and during the season 6 reunion, she finally opened up (kind of) about what she’s had done. In response to superfan Nikki Minaj’s questioning, Huger copped to under-eye filler while also attributing eating well and exercise to her youthful appearance. (She previously told Andy Cohen that she’d also had filler injections in the tip of her nose, to help her breathe better.)
Wendy Osefo
Professor Wendy’s body makeover was a hot topic on season 6—she held a reveal party for her new breasts, “titty cupcakes” and all, on the premiere episode. (The show also broadcast speculation from castmates as to whether Osefo had had a Brazilian butt lift, though she says she was always up front about it.) That episode kicked off a storyline of body shaming and plastic surgery stereotyping.
In a RealSelf interview, Osefo said she’d had surgery to “take ownership of my body” after having three children and had been surprised by her castmates’ reactions. “People felt as though having plastic surgery is not something a woman, quote, unquote, ‘of my caliber’ does—or that having plastic surgery means you lack substance. Society tries to give us labels, and women are told we can’t be both sexy and smart, we can’t be both confident and articulate—and that’s not true. A woman can be sexy, and she can define her sexiness however she wants and still be the smartest woman in the room. Plastic surgery doesn’t define you, your aesthetics do not define you.”
She also told RealSelf that she’d found her doctor, Dr. Joseph Michaels, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Rockville, Maryland, through word of mouth from a Housewife on another franchise (our guess is that it’s Dolores Catania) and then vetted him via RealSelf reviews.
Mia Thorton
At Osefo’s party, franchise newcomer Thorton also made a splash, reciting a laundry list of cosmetic procedures she’s had done. “I get my Botox every four weeks, I get fillers, I have my lips, [my boobs done], I had a tummy tuck … I had my ass done,” she said during the episode. “I mean, I can continue to go on.” And go on she did, shocking the women even further when she shared that she’d even had her clitoris tightened.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
Whitney Rose
Rose revealed the results of a diastasis recti repair on Instagram two weeks after surgery. “I was blessed to bring two beautiful babies into this world, and I am so proud of my body and how hard it worked to get Bobbie and Brooks here,” she captioned the post where she shows off her flat stomach in a crop top. “I have always been into health and fitness and worked so hard to build a strong, healthy body. No matter how hard I tried, I could never regain my core because my abdominal muscles separated from pregnancy. Medically known as (diastasis). Even though the separation bugged me and I knew I had hernias from it, I was so scared to get it fixed … until I met Dr. Howland. I love him so much because he sat with me, listened to my concerns, and helped me come up with a plan to repair my stomach and achieve the results I wanted. It is hard to believe that this picture is 2 weeks post-operation. I am blown away by his work and how fast my body is healing.”
Bravolebrity Honorable Mentions
Madison LeCroy
LeCroy, of Southern Charm fame, underwent a mommy makeover at the end of 2020 and took to Instagram to show off the results in February. She captioned a topless photo with an explanation of what had motivated her decision: “Plastic surgery. Two words I hadn’t given much thought to. I never thought I would need, much less want, plastic surgery. However, after giving birth to a 10-lb. baby eight years ago, I no longer felt confident in my own skin. I’ve always been fitness obsessed and aware of what I was eating, but sometimes, no matter how much you diet and exercise, there are areas that don’t quite bounce back to where they were originally. Recently, I was introduced to Dr. Patrick O’Neill, and he gave me my confidence back and transformed the parts of my body that I was most self-conscious about. Women should never be shamed for doing anything that makes themselves more confident or love themselves more. If it makes you feel better about yourself, do it!”
LeCroy also got veneers this year. On December 4, Hales Parker Dentistry, a cosmetic dentistry practice in Orange County, California, posted an Instagram video of the process, with the caption: “So this happened today! We transformed @bravosoutherncharm @madison.lecroy smile with 20 veneers, and they look beautiful!” LeCroy responded in the comments, “You guys changed my life! Thank you so much for making me actually smile.”
Raquel Leviss
On this season of Vanderpump Rules, Leviss told Lisa Vanderpump that she got a $16,000 nose job because she had always been “a little insecure about my nose.” Unfortunately, she added that the result didn’t turn out quite the way she’d hoped, saying it was possibly because her then fiancé James Kennedy bumped into her nose post-surgery.
Vanderpump then set Leviss up with a consultation with Beverly Hills, California, board-certified facial plastic surgeon and Botched star Dr. Paul Nassif. The surgeon quoted her $30,000 for a revision, and Leviss’s castmates devised a plan to help her raise the money by selling photos of their feet online.
Leva Bonaparte
The Southern Charm newcomer alluded—though never fully admitted—to having had liposuction in a February Instagram post, after sharing that she’d hit her highest weight post-Covid. She didn’t fully explain what she’d had done, instead saying that Dr. Clayton Crantford, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Charleston, South Carolina, “tweaked” her body.
Bonaparte said she was thrilled with the results. “My new tweaked @drclaytoncrantford bod looks more natural than I expected, and I’m over the moon! So mommas, do the work, then do what makes you happy BUT only with the right doctor,” she captioned a selfie.
