EXCLUSIVE: Plastic surgeon charts Madonna’s facial tweaks over the years after shocking photos of 65-year-old star emerge and spark health concerns
A plastic surgeon in New York has scored a host of cosmetic changes Madonna has had over the years – after fans raised concerns about her health.
Photos of the star, 65, resurfaced on social media over the weekend in which she looked unrecognizable, with some users saying her face looked ‘painful’.
Despite years of speculation, Madonna only recently admitted to having plastic surgery, but she hasn’t revealed what the procedures were or how often she went under the knife.
Board-certified surgeon Dr Barry Weintraub, who examined before and after images of Madonna, said he saw signs of at least 12 cosmetic facial procedures, which he estimates would have cost ‘multiple six-figure sums’.
Dr Weintraub said one of the most noticeable changes was to her cheeks – which are now ‘plumped’ and ‘much fuller’, likely due to multiple dermal filler injections, which see substances similar to gels injected under the skin.
He pointed out that Madonna has also lost her characteristic dimples, probably due to fillers.
Starting with the top of her face, Dr Weintraub said she had clearly had a brow lift – indicated by her ‘extraordinarily high’ forehead and higher than normal eyebrows.
“You see a straighter flatter line, which indicates there may be an incision in front of the hairline (to pull the skin up),” he said.
Her eyebrows are (also) higher than the position of her eyebrows in 1986, meaning the distance between her eyelashes and eyebrows is much higher than ours. You see a lot more volume in the upper third of her face.’
A brow lift is usually done by making an incision along the top of the head and then pulling the skin back to remove wrinkles and sagging.
He also said that work was done on her eyelids to give them a younger look and remove wrinkles.
“When you get into your 60s, there’s often puffiness on the lower eyelids and some excess skin on the upper eyelids,” he said.
“In these photos, however, you see none of either. Her lower eyelids are completely smooth, which means the skin has probably been removed. The fat pads have also been removed.
“So what you’re seeing is this tenderness and tightness all around, and that’s from the volume of the surgical removal.”
He added that the star also had botox done to her forehead and around her eyes because there were no wrinkles present when she moved her face.
He also pointed out that Madonna’s signature mole above her lip looked much fainter, which could just be the lighting in the photo or a side effect of the facial changes.
Dr. Weintraub believes she also had at least one nose job.
Showing a photo from 1986, he said: “In the original photo, the tip of the nose is pointed and the nostrils are not arched,” he said.
(But now) the nose is sharper. And if you look closely, the left nostril is also slightly higher than the right.’
He also said her much fuller facial appearance was due to repeated filler and fat injections.
“Her cheekbones are much, much fuller,” he said, “and that’s secondary to fat injections or fillers.”
“We see this all too often in our field, but unfortunately people tend to stuff their faces in an attempt to smooth out wrinkles.
“She also has… two little dimples on each side (in the original photo), which you can’t see now because they’re filled with fat.
The video above was posted by the star in October last year but has recently resurfaced online
2008: After Madonna appeared with facial bruising in 2008, fans began to speculate that she had undergone lower eyelid surgery.
2021: Madonna’s changing appearance began to cause concern among fans who have speculated how she achieved her extremely soft look
He added: “If you look at her photo from 86, she had a nasolabial fold like a normal person – that’s a crease that goes from the corner of the nose to the mouth,” he said.
“But in the newest photo, she’s completely flat, which means not only has she had a lot of filler, but she’s also had a facelift.”
Previously, there have been suggestions that her larger cheeks are due to implants. But Dr Weintraub dismissed this, saying that if that were the case, then the outline of the implant would be visible.
He also said her lips were ‘too big’, which was also likely the result of repeated fat or filler injections.
“They’re not normal lips and they look nothing like what she had in ’86 and fillers too,” he said.
He said filler was also likely to have been applied to her jaw to ‘build’ it and minimize wrinkles – and there were signs her jaw had been reshaped.
He suggested that a neck lift was also performed to avoid sagging skin around the neck.
He suggested she may also have had laser skin resurfacing surgery, where a laser is used to remove the outer layer of skin and stimulate collagen production.
And he said it was also possible she had a mid-face lift, which involves lifting and tightening tissue in the mid-face area to help prevent sagging.
“The whole key to great cosmetic surgery is to look like nobody touched you,” he said.
“You have to look natural and you have to maintain your anatomical markings that we are all born with.
“But there are big differences between 1986 and her (Madonna) pictures within the last year or so.”
2023: Dr Horn believes Madonna not only had a “face lift” – which he said was “noticeable because her skin” looked “tight and pulled back without wrinkles”.
Madonna’s photo from last year has recently resurfaced on social media, causing fans to worry about the ‘painful’ look.
More concerns were raised about her ‘unrecognizable’ performance at the Grammys this year – with the star said to have been ‘influenced’ by the comments.
She accused those making the comments of ‘ageism’ and ‘misogyny’ at the time, but later admitted she had plastic surgery after posting a photo with the caption: ‘Look how cute I am now that the swelling from the surgery has gone down . Lol.’
Fans began to suspect that Madonna was experimenting with facial surgery in the 1990s, when there were rumors that she was trying Botox and getting a nose job — allegations she never confirmed.
In 2008, she was photographed with bruises on her face, which fans suggested may have been due to lower eyelid surgery.
And in the 2010s, she revealed she was a fan of Dr Frederic Brandt – also known as the ‘Baron of Botox’ – although she didn’t claim to have Botox.
Madonna is currently preparing for her delayed Celebration World Tour, which was postponed after she suffered a life-threatening bacterial infection.
It is scheduled to kick off at the O2 Arena in London later this week before seeing the star travel across Europe and the United States.
Dr Weintraub compared a photo of Madonna in London from 1986, during her prime, with the image taken within the past year that has sparked concern.
(tagsTranslate) daily mail(s) health(s) Fillers(s) Halloween(s) New York(s) Facelift(s) Cosmetic surgery(s) London(s) Madonna(s) Grammy Awards