Rosie O’Donnell is showing off the results of her recent facelift, and it’s clear she is very happy with how it turned out.
The 64-year-old former cohost of “The View” opened up about going under the knife in a new Substack essay shared on May 26, 2026. In the vulnerable post, she shared why she decided to get work done, despite always being against the procedure.
“I used to feel very strongly about facelifts … Not casually—morally,” wrote O’Donnell. “I had assigned myself as head of all women who would never – ever.”
Rosie O’Donnell’s Surgery Transformation
On Wednesday, May 27, O’Donnell shared a pair of raw, unfiltered photos to her Instagram page—showing what she looked like before and after her facelift. By the comedian’s own account, the differences are subtle, but she’s very happy with the results.
“I wanted to still be me, just… less haunted. and it worked – I do look like me – A slightly more well-rested emotionally stable version of me,” she wrote on her Substack.
“im quite pleased with the whole thing And guess what – no one has noticed. Not one person. Not a friend, not a stranger, not even people who owe me compliments,” she continued. “My teenager has not said a word. Nothing.”
“I went through a full existential feminist crisis, had my face and neck surgically altered, and the result is… zippo,” remarked Rosie. “Which honestly is the best possible outcome. I didn’t disappear, I didn’t become someone else— I just stopped arguing with the mirror. And maybe that’s enough. Or at the very least, it’s what a lower deep plane face lift looks like when it minds its own business.”
Why Rosie Got a Facelift
Despite believing that getting a facelift was a “betrayal of feminism. Of aging. Og our team or women worldwide,” O’Donnell’s outlook on surgery shifted after her recent 50-pound weight loss.
“It wasn’t wrinkles – it was gravity,” she wrote. “I’d look in the mirror and think – this isn’t aging, this is melting with intention.”
O’Donnell said she really wrestled with her decision, trying to convince herself that she “earned” her wrinkles. Her children also tried to talk her out of it, with 13-year-old daughter child Clay telling her, “Young women look up to you…I wouldn’t be able to respect you if you did it.”
Delaying the operation for months, O’Donnell said she eventually decided that she didn’t want an idea like feminism dictating “what you’re allowed to do with your own face.” So, in January 2026, she went under the knife.
“I found a doctor I trusted – who had worked on friends of mine who all still looked like themselves, just like they had recently been told good news,” wrote O’Donnell. “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,” she continued. “the one that keeps moving the goalpost, never satisfied, the one that turns their own face into a problem One can never quite solve.”
In the comments of her Substack, fans praised O’Donnell for her candor.
“Whatever works for you, for us all, is ok. Facelift, no facelift, whatever,” wrote one. “We’re all doing the best we can with what we have. Support each other. Be kind.”
“What an absolutely lovely way to look at it Rosie I’ve always admired you for your positivity, your moxie, your candor, and mostly your heart this is exactly why,” read another comment. “Be you that’s all we can do, and you do it beautifully.”
Others called her “incredibly relatable,” while one fan commented, “what a profound and insightful way of viewing life.”
