Heidi Montag had 10 cosmetic surgeries. After the last one, her husband was told she had died.

Heidi Montag had a plastic surgery overhaul in November 2009 and in a new interview, the reality star has now revealed just how much of an impact it had on her life.

At the time, the reality star was just 23 years old, and after undergoing 10 cosmetic procedures at once, her appearance was uncomfortably different by the time the sixth and final season of The Hills aired.

Speaking to Page Six's Virtual Reali-Tea podcast, Heidi confessed to being told it would be a quick recovery. 

"At the time, my surgeon was like, 'Oh, it will be a quick recovery, a few months.' And it took me over a year to heal, so I could barely talk [with] my jaw," she recalled.

“I just had part of my chin sawed off. It was really a lot just dealing with that.”

Heidi Montag, 2019. Image: Getty.

Her surgeries included a chin reduction, updated breast augmentation, rhinoplasty revision, brow lift, liposuction, facial fat injections and pinning her ears back, among others.

"I wasn’t even in a place [to film]. And I kept saying, 'I’m not a person right now. I need to heal and recover and I’m not doing well physically.' Like, I’m not able to show up like I was," the reality star shared. 

"I thought I’d bounce back and be able to be on TV like I was after my first cosmetic surgery," she said, adding she'd already had a boob and nose job years prior. "But there was just way too much done and each thing took too much time and it hurt so bad.

"I was just in such an immense amount of pain."'

Heidi Montag, 2009. Image: Getty.

There came a point where Montag was sure she was in grave danger. 

"They called Spencer [Pratt, Heidi's husband] at a point and told him I had died, basically. I wasn’t doing well," the reality star said.

At one point, her heart was beating only five times per minute after she had allegedly been administered the incorrect dose of the opioid Demerol for pain relief.

"We had to have nurses at the house for months to help me recover," she said of the aftermath, which eventually led to her quitting the show.

"So we’re dealing with that and then we have these producers like, 'Say this and that.' And we’re like, 'We can’t do this.'"

Montag and her husband ended up leaving The Hills halfway through season 6, and while she may be the latest star to speak out about her cosmetic surgery experiences, she's by no means the first. There are plenty of other celebrities who have admitted they regret having cosmetic work done.

Kylie Jenner

When she was 25 years old, Kylie Jenner added herself to the list of celebrities to admit they regret going under the knife.

After years of denying it, The Kardashians star finally shared she secretly had a breast augmentation procedure at just 19. 

The mother-of-two made the confession in the show's season three finale. 

"You know I got my breasts done before Stormi," she told her best friend, Anastasie 'Stassie' Karanikolaou. 

"Within six months of, like, having Stormi, not thinking I would have a child when I was 20, they were still healing."

Jenner said how she liked her "beautiful breasts" beforehand and wished she had never got them done or waited until after children.

"Obviously, I have a daughter too. I would be heartbroken if she wanted to get her body done at 19," she added. 

"I want to be the best mum and the best example for her and I just wish I could be her and do it all differently, because I wouldn't touch anything."

Watch: I asked "The Doll Maker" what she'd do to my face. Post continues below. 

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra has opened up about experiencing "deep depression" after a nose surgery went wrong.

After winning the title of Miss World 2000, the actor underwent surgery to remove a polyp in her nasal cavity.

Speaking on The Howard Stern Show in May 2023, Chopra said the procedure changed her face and left her questioning if her acting career "was over before it started".

"It was a dark phase," she recalled.

"This thing happens, and my face looks completely different, and I went into a deep, deep depression."

The 41-year-old, who shares a daughter with Nick Jonas, added that she was fired from three different movies after the surgery.

Image: Getty.

The actor previously discussed her nose surgery in her 2021 memoir Unfinished, where she recalled the media giving her the nickname "Plastic Chopra". 

"Let's just call it out right now. Immediately the name started to show up in articles and newspaper items and it has followed me my entire professional life," she wrote. 

After the plastic surgery, Chopra was hesitant to go under the knife again, but her late dad, Ashok Chopra, later encouraged her to get corrective surgery. 

"I was terrified of that, but he was like, 'I will be in the room with you,'" she told Howard Stern. 

"He held my hands through it and helped me build back my confidence."

Chopra also credited Bollywood film director Anil Sharma for offering her a supporting character role in a movie after the surgery. 

"He, while the tide was against me, said, 'It will be a small part, but give it your all.' And I did," she said.

Jennifer Garner 

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Jennifer Garner shared that she wants women to do less, adding that women "don't need" to wear a lot of makeup or "have a constant blowout."

"My beauty advice is always the same: Look in the mirror less, obsess less, and look at the rest of the world to see what you could be using your time for instead," she explained. 

"We all look at our faces more than people used to, and it doesn’t do you any good. You obsess over changes or how to fix something on your face," she continued.

Image: Instagram @jennifergarner.

"Be cautious when it comes to injecting anything into your face. Be very, very incredibly judicious and wait as absolutely long as possible to add anything. Don’t think that you’re 37 and you need to be shooting up your face."

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda has spoken openly about her plastic surgery regrets, admitting she "stopped" with procedures because she didn't want to "look distorted".

"Now as those words are coming out of my mouth," she told Vogue. 

"What I’m thinking with the second part of my brain is, 'Yeah, Fonda. You have money. You can afford a trainer. You can afford plastic surgery. You can afford facials. You can afford the things that help make you continue to look young.' 

"That is true. Money does help. Good genes and a lot of money, as somebody once said. But then as I’m saying that, I’m thinking we all know a lot of women who are wealthy who’ve had all kinds of facelifts and things like that and they look terrible."

The actor went on to say, "So, I had a facelift and I stopped because I don’t want to look distorted. I’m not proud of the fact that I had [one]."

Jane Fonda. Image: Getty.

"Now, I don’t know if I had it to do over, if I would do it," she added. 

"But I did it. I admit it, and then I just say, okay, you can get addicted. Don’t keep doing it. A lot of women, I don’t know, they’re addicted to it. I don’t do a lot of facials. 

"I don’t spend a lot of money on face creams or anything like that, but I stay moisturised, I sleep, I move, I stay out of the sun, and I have good friends who make me laugh. Laughter is a good thing too."

Jennifer Grey

Jennifer Grey has spoken about her regret for getting two rhinoplasties after starring in Dirty Dancing, saying it derailed her career as she became 'unrecognisable' almost overnight.

Image: Getty. 

Speaking about the first time she went out after her nose job, she shared that her friend and fellow actor Michael Douglas didn't recognise her at a movie premiere.

"That was the first time I had gone out in public. And it became the thing, the idea of being completely invisible, from one day to the next," she told People.

"In the world's eyes, I was no longer me and the weird thing was that thing that I resisted my whole life, and the thing I was so upset with my mother for always telling me I should do my nose."

She said she felt pressure from her Jewish parents who had both undergone rhinoplasties, as well as interviewers in her early career.

"When I was a kid, I was completely anti-rhinoplasty. I mean it was like my religion. I loved that my parents did it. I understand it was the 50s. I understand they were assimilating. I understood that you had to change your name and you had to do certain things, and it was just normalised, right?

"... I really thought it was capitulating. I really thought it meant surrendering to the enemy camp. I just thought, 'I'm good enough. I shouldn't have to do this.' That's really what I felt. 'I'm beautiful enough.'"

Bella Hadid

Supermodel Bella Hadid has spoken about regretting getting a nose job at 14.

"I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors," she told Vogue last month. "I think I would have grown into it."

Hadid, who is of Dutch and Palestinian heritage, explained that she felt pressure when comparing herself to her older sister, fellow supermodel Gigi.

"I was the uglier sister," Hadid said. "I was the brunette... and when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it."

Listen to Mamamia's comedy podcast, Cancelled. Post continues below. 

Courteney Cox

Friends star Courteney Cox spoke about regretting her cosmetic surgery procedures in 2017, telling New Beauty, "I've had to learn to embrace movement and realise that fillers are not my friend. I've had all my fillers dissolved. I'm as natural as I can be. I feel better because I look like myself. I think that I now look more like the person I was. I hope I do."

She explained that she became addicted to surgery after being recommended more and more procedures over the years. "Well, what would end up happening is that you go to a doctor who would say, 'You look great, but what would help is a little injection here or filler there'," the actor said.

"So you walk out and you don't look so bad and you think, no one noticed - it's good. Then somebody tells you about another doctor...

"The next thing you know, you're layered and layered and layered. You have no idea because it's gradual until you go, 'Oh sh*t, this doesn't look right.' And it's worse in pictures than in real life.

"I have one friend who was like, 'Whoa, no more!' I thought, I haven't done anything in six months. I didn't realise."

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Nowadays, Cox is embracing her "smile lines".

"Things are going to change. Everything's going to drop. I was trying to make it not drop, but that made me look fake," she said. "You need movement in your face, especially if you have thin skin, like I do. Those aren't wrinkles - they're smile lines."

Jamie Lee Curtis

In 2002, Jamie Lee Curtis told More magazine: "Ten years ago, before anybody did that, I had fat taken from underneath my eyes because I was on a movie and I was puffy... And I can remember the cameraman saying, 'I can't shoot her'. I remember being mortified.

"I've had a little lipo. I've had a little Botox. And you know what? None of it works. None of it. It's such a fraud. And I'm the one perpetuating it."

In 2021, she told Fast Company: "The current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering, and the things that we do to adjust our appearance on Zoom are wiping out generations of beauty. Once you mess with your face, you can't get it back."

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Linda Evangelista

Last year, supermodel Linda Evangelista opened up about the impact of multiple fat-freezing procedures she underwent between August 2015 and February 2016.

Evangelista wanted to reduce fat on her thighs, abdomen, back, flanks and chin. 

In a statement to Instagram, the 58-year-old said her livelihood was destroyed after contracting Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) from the procedure. 

"PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing," Evangelista wrote.

"In the process, I have become a recluse. With this lawsuit, I am moving forward to rid myself of my shame, and going public with my story. I'm so tired of living this way. I would like to walk out my door with my head held high, despite not looking like myself any longer."

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Melanie Griffith

In 2017, Melanie Griffith spoke about "going too far" with cosmetic surgery in a candid interview with Porter Magazine.

"I didn't [realise] until people started saying, 'Oh my god, what has she done?!' I was so hurt," the actor said. "I went to a different doctor, and he started dissolving all of this shit that this other woman doctor had put in.

"Hopefully, I look more 'normal' now."

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Ashley Tisdale

In 2020, High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale shared that she had removed her breast implants.

"Years ago I underwent breast enhancement surgery," she wrote on Instagram. "Prior to the surgery, I constantly felt my body was less than, and thought this change would make me feel more whole and more secure about myself.

"And for a short period of time... it did. But little by little I began struggling with minor health issues that just were not adding up.

"This journey has been one of growth, self discovery, self acceptance and most importantly self-love. Over the years I’ve met with many holistic and non-holistic doctors and learned the importance of living a non-toxic life...

"I can’t say I’m the proudest of the choices I made in the past but I don’t regret it because it got me here today."

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Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham reportedly had her first boob job in 1999, and then another in 2006. Three years after that, she had them reduced, telling US Vogue, "Torpedo bazookas, gone!"

In the October 2016 issue of British Vogue, Beckham wrote a letter to her younger self: "I should probably say, don't mess with your boobs. All those years I denied it – stupid. A sign of insecurity. Just celebrate what you've got."

This post was originally published in April 2022, and has since been updated with new information. 

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram + Mamamia.