Tamra Judge has always maintained that her toned physique and enviable abs are a product of good old-fashioned diet and exercise rather than time spent at the plastic surgeon’s office. (She has, however, copped to multiple breast augmentations, breast implant removal, and a facelift.) But the Real Housewives of Orange County star is now chatting openly about having undergone an abdominoplasty at the end of December. While the terms abdominoplasty and tummy tuck are often used interchangeably, Judge didn’t go under the knife in order to remove excess skin or fix separated muscles. Instead, the goal of her corrective abdominoplasty was to repair her belly button, which was damaged after an emergency hernia surgery over a decade ago.
“I could have died,” she told People. A hernia occurs when muscle or tissue becomes weakened or tears, causing the underlying organs to push through. The exact causes can vary, but ultimately, a combination of pressure and muscle weakness is to blame. The size and severity also vary; Judge’s was quite extreme, even causing her stomach wall to burst, as she revealed on Instagram back in 2016.
While the surgery saved her life, “It basically left me with no belly button,” Judge said. According to Dr. Donald Mowlds, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Newport Beach, California, who performed Judge’s abdominoplasty, the unintended effect the hernia repair had on her navel isn’t uncommon. The placement of the incision left her belly button looking slit-like and out of place on her abdomen, which Judge said caused many people to speculate that she’d had a tummy tuck. “It was just one of those things I hated about myself. People on social media would be like, ‘Oh, she clearly got a tummy tuck, look how messed up her belly button is!’ You know how many times I’d have to show the actual picture of the hernia to prove them wrong?! I didn’t want to do it anymore,” she said.
Dr. Johnny Franco, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Austin, Texas, confirms that full tummy tucks can often result in a misshapen belly button that then requires reconstruction. Exactly how it’s reconstructed varies from surgeon to surgeon; there are different techniques for doing so. “If having a specific kind of appearance to your belly button is important to you, look at the surgeon’s before and after photos to find one whose belly button aesthetic works for you,” he suggests. In Judge’s case, Dr. Mowlds ended up creating an entirely new belly button, relying on a cone-shaped silicone trainer that she wore post-surgery to help create natural-looking depth as it healed.
But this procedure ultimately yielded more than just aesthetic benefits for the reality star. During the surgery, Dr. Mowlds found another burgeoning hernia, which he repaired on the spot. Patients often don’t even know they have a hernia before going in for an abdominoplasty, notes Dr. Franco, adding that small ones are commonly found and typically corrected by the plastic surgeon during the surgery, as was the case for Judge.
Though Judge has been outspoken about how challenging recovery was from this most recent procedure—she said giving birth to her four children was easier—she remains happy with her decision, pointing out that it saved her from another potential emergency surgery in the future.
