When Matty J was 19 years old, he underwent cosmetic surgery because of a long-standing insecurity.

I think we can all agree that Matty J[honson] is attractive. We know this because a) his face, and b) a commercial network cast him on a prime time dating show without any sense of irony.

But it turns out the former Bachelor didn’t always feel quite so comfortable in his own skin.

As an adolescent, Matty was so self-conscious about his appearance that he elected to undergo an otoplastly, a cosmetic procedure more commonly known as ear-pinning.

The Nova radio host exclusively shared childhood pictures with Mamamia to illustrate the results of the surgery.

But before we get into the details of all that, can we please just take a second to acknowledge that ridiculously adorable bow-tie?

...

OK. Thanks. Back to it.

The Sydney man, who is soon due to become a father, spoke about his experience on Weekend Breakfast with Matt, Sarah and Matty J on Saturday morning.

"Now, you may look at me and think, 'Wow, Matt's a real natural beauty,'" he joked (but also didn't, because truth.)

"However, I have to confess I've been surgically enhanced. I'm not going to lie to you."

The discussion came after a stranger contacted him on social media with a decade-old photo taken at Brisbane agricultural fair, the EKKA. Matty had worked there as a promo guy handing out chocolate milk.

"It was a photo of me as a 19-year-old," he said. "In this photo, I'm wearing this hat, and one thing that you really noticed that's changed about me is my ears."

About six months after the photograph was taken, Matty J chose to have surgery - an "excruciating" procedure in which a segment of cartilage is removed from behind the ear to allow it to sit closer to the head.

As the Australasian Foundation for Plastic Surgery notes, it's most commonly performed on children and teens for psychological wellbeing: "Some may have experienced teasing and taunting as a result of their appearance. Ear surgery may be able to assist in making the ear appear more normal and restore self-confidence."

And that was precisely the case for Matty.

"As a kid I was given the name Dumbo. That name stuck; it really did," he told co-host Sarah McGilvray. "That's what drove me to get my ears fixed. But I'm thankful for those words I was called as a young child, because it drove me to try and be...

"Hotter?" she teased.

Despite Matty's story, Sarah wasn't about to whip out the tissues.

"I can't feel too sympathetic for you Matty J," she said. "All it took was a little bit of ear work, and suddenly you're one of the best-looking blokes in the country."