Ricki Lake has revealed that her longtime friend Rosie O’Donnell initially questioned her decision to get a facelift, only to undergo the same procedure herself a couple of years later. The Ricki Lake Rosie O’Donnell facelift back-and-forth became a topic during a weekend episode of “The Weekend View,” where Lake, 58, spoke candidly about the dynamic between the two friends.
Lake explained that O’Donnell, 64, was somewhat judgmental when Lake went under the knife in 2024. According to Lake, O’Donnell — who would acknowledge the reaction herself — asked why Lake felt the surgery was necessary, suggesting she didn’t need it. Lake described O’Donnell as a close friend with whom she speaks regularly, and characterized the comments as a little judgy rather than hostile.
O'Donnell's Change of Heart
The situation shifted after O’Donnell lost more than 60 pounds with the help of the GLP-1 medication Mounjaro. Following that weight loss, O’Donnell opted for a deep-plane facelift and neck rejuvenation in January 2026. Lake noted that O’Donnell looks phenomenal after the procedure, and O’Donnell shared before-and-after photos on her Instagram page.
In a May 2026 Substack post, O’Donnell admitted to feeling shameful about her choice, noting that the surgery cost more than she had ever paid for a car. She described her initial hesitation as a sense of betrayal — of feminism, of aging, and of a shared community of women. Yet she also arrived at a quieter realization: if she was teaching her child anything, it could not be that her body belonged to an idea, even a worthy one like feminism.
O’Donnell expanded on that tension in a July interview with People. After losing so much weight, she said her face began to look sad because of excess skin. She recalled people in Ireland asking if she was all right, and she wanted to explain that it was simply her face — she felt happy. She also said she did not want her face to be frozen, and that she had to wrestle with herself because, as a feminist, she had long viewed cosmetic surgery as a product of the male gaze rather than something she believed in.
Her child also weighed in, asking what her legacy would stand for if she went through with the surgery. O’Donnell said she changed her mind for six months before ultimately deciding that the real power of feminism is the ability to decide what to do with one’s own body and when to do it.
Lake's Own Journey
Lake first disclosed her own deep-plane lower face and neck lift in 2024, two years before O’Donnell had hers. The procedure was performed by Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Allen Foulad. In a July Instagram post marking the two-year anniversary of her surgery, Lake wrote that she had lost 40 pounds over the course of a year in 2023 and disliked the extra skin hanging below her chin. She said it was never going to tighten on its own, so she took a leap of faith and felt grateful for the result. She also expressed appreciation for the growing number of people who have opened up about their own plastic surgery experiences in recent years.
The exchange between the two friends highlights a broader conversation about cosmetic procedures, body , and feminist identity. For Lake and O’Donnell, the personal and the political became intertwined as each navigated her own expectations and the opinions of those closest to her.
