Actress Denise Richards went public with every detail of her full facelift during a podcast appearance this week, calling the procedure the best decision she has made for herself, one year after going under the knife.
Richards, 55, sat down with host Bunnie Xo on the "Dumb Blonde" podcast Monday and walked through the scope of the surgery, her fears going in, and what recovery actually looked like. The conversation marked her most detailed public account yet of a procedure she first revealed in March, when she shared before-and-after photos on Instagram nine months after the operation.
The "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star told Xo she had originally planned something far more modest. Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Talei performed the work, which Richards described as covering her lower neck, lower face, upper face, a brow lift, and her upper eyelids, everything except her lower lids.
Richards said the idea started small.
"Originally I had been thinking about doing just my neck."
But a friend she described as "very well-known", and private about her own cosmetic work, pushed her to think bigger. Richards told Xo on the podcast that the friend's advice was direct: "You have to do the whole thing."
Richards resisted at first.
"I don't want to do the whole thing."
She admitted she was afraid. "I was scared," she said. But after researching Dr. Talei's track record, she changed her mind.
"His work was impeccable. I saw so many before and afters. And I just said, 'Do what you want to do.' I was terrified, but he did everything."
Richards said she had never done anything major to her face before, only some Botox and fillers. The full facelift, performed last June, was a significant leap.
Richards described the surgery as painful and the recovery as difficult. She said the hardest part was trusting the process while her face was still swollen and settling.
"When I was told, 'Oh, it gets better as you heal,' and I'm like, 'How with gravity? How are we going to get better?' And it does."
She summed up the result simply.
"It's like your face settles or something. It was the best thing I did for myself."
Richards had already posted a similar sentiment to her Instagram Stories in March, writing that the surgery was the "best thing I could've done for myself." That same month, she shared before-and-after photos publicly for the first time.
Xo, born Alisa Carter, had her own facelift in March and used the conversation to echo Richards's point about the difficulty of the process. She told Richards that most people underestimate what a facelift demands.
"I don't think people realize how big of a surgery it is. I was down for the count. I had to, like, go into hiding for a little bit."
Richards, known for her roles in "Wild Things" and the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough," has been candid about aging in Hollywood. Her decision to name her surgeon, describe the full scope of the procedure, and share unfiltered photos set her apart from celebrities who stay vague about cosmetic work or deny it altogether.
In an industry that runs on image and rewards dishonesty about how that image is maintained, Richards chose the straightforward route. That alone is worth noting.
