Comedian Rosie O’Donnell published a poem on her Substack detailing her decision to get a secret facelift in January and admitted that she felt “shameful” over her decision, but now feels “quite pleased.”
In the poem, posted on Monday, O’Donnell revealed that the procedure cost “more money than I have ever paid for a car.”
“My privileged place in this world,” she continued. “And that feels almost shameful to me. The things I have – earned some say, but [it’s] the gross excess that wounds me.”
O’Donnell explained that she “used to feel very strongly about facelifts” and had designated herself “head of all women who would never” get the procedure done.
“I thought it was betrayal. Of feminism. Of aging. Of our team of women worldwide. And then I lost 50 pounds,” she wrote. “It wasn’t wrinkles – it was gravity. I’d look in the mirror and think – this isn’t aging, this is melting with intention.”
O’Donnell said she tried to be “evolved about it” and tell herself “this is natural” and “this is earned.”
“And then… ‘umm how earned does it have to look?’ There’s a point where acceptance starts to feel like lying. So I started just gathering information… which is what women say when they are absolutely considering something they swore they’d never do,” the 64-year-old actor wrote.
O’Donnell said her 13-year-old child found out that she was considering the procedure and told her, “you earned your wrinkles.”
“Which—first of all—rude. But also… correct. Then Clay said, ‘Young women look up to you,’ and finally – with strong effect – ‘I wouldn’t be able to respect you if you did it.’ And that one… landed,” O’Donnell said of her conversation with her 13-year-old.
She said she delayed the lower deep plane facelift for months and began talking to friends and “just sitting with it, thinking.”
“Then I had this quiet realization… if I’m teaching Clay anything, it can’t be that my body belongs to an idea either. Even a good idea. Even feminism. Because that’s still not freedom – that’s just a different authority telling you what you’re allowed to do with your own face,” the A League of Their Own star continued.
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O’Donnell said she wanted her child to grow up in a world where they don’t feel like they have to change “but also knows they can, if they want to, without losing moral standing in their own life.”
In January, O’Donnell found a doctor she trusted, who had worked on friends of hers, and went through with the procedure.
“Right before I went under, I grabbed my doctors hand and said ‘I will never say, ‘God, I wish you did more.’ And I meant it. I didn’t want to become that voice. The once that keeps moving the goalpost, never satisfied, the one that turns their own face into a problem one can never quite solve,” she said.
The former daytime talk show host said she still wanted to be herself, “just… less haunted.”
“It worked – I do look like me – a slightly more well-rested emotionally stable version of me. I’m quite pleased with the whole thing. And guest what – no one has noticed. Not one person,” she wrote.
O’Donnell also revealed that her teenager has not said a word to her about the procedure.
“I went through a full existential feminist crisis, had my face and neck surgically altered, and the result is… zippo. Which is honestly the best possible outcome. I didn’t disappear, I didn’t become someone else— I just stopped arguing with the mirror,” she wrote.
The Sleepless in Seattle star said she doesn’t owe anyone an explanation but noted that she’s struggling with “the sense of deceit.”
“As I get ready for the last day of school with my youngest – the caboose, here at 64 years old with a new lower face and neck, just happy to be alive. Able to feel and choose and use my voice whenever I feel called to,” she wrote. “For the girl I was. The woman I am. And all those joining my ranks as we carry on in act 3. This is me.”
After sharing her poem, O’Donnell posted before and after photos of her procedure on Instagram.
O’Donnell previously spoke about getting Botox in August after sharing a throwback photo on Instagram of herself.
“Me on the own network right after I tried botox – a huge mistake- my head felt like I had masking tape on it – do not recommend,” O’Donnell wrote in the caption, adding #NoBotox.
O’Donnell also opened up about her weight loss in a TikTok posted in 2025, where she discussed using Mounjaro, which is a medication for Type 2 diabetes and weight management.
“I’ve lost more weight here. I am on Mounjaro for my diabetes and one of the side affects is you lose weight but it’s also because I had a chef for over two years in Los Angeles, and I don’t have a chef now,” The Flintstones actor said.
Last March, O’Donnell revealed that she is no longer living in the United States and confirmed that she has moved to Ireland.
“Moved here on January 15 and it’s been pretty wonderful, I have to say. The people are so loving and so kind, so welcoming. And I’m very grateful,” O’Donnell said.
“I miss my other kids. I miss my friends. I miss many things about life there at home and I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.”
After O’Donnell revealed her move to Ireland, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was giving “serious consideration” to revoking the actor’s U.S. citizenship.
“She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump’s post came after O’Donnell posted a video on TikTok suggesting that the U.S. president was “definitely in a decline.”
O’Donnell went on to ask how Americans “can not every day be worried about what has become of” America.
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