‘Real Housewives’ star Dr. Terry Dubrow warns stars against career-ruining procedures

Dr. Terry Dubrow, a plastic surgeon known for his work on shows like “Botched” and “Botched Presents: Plastic Surgery Rewind,” as well as for appearing on “Real Housewives of Orange County” with wife Heather Dubrow, isn’t holding back his thoughts about the latest trends in his field.

A big issue, he tells Fox News Digital, is that stars and regular people alike are taking plastic surgery too far in an attempt to “pursue perfection” – and it’s getting to the point where he says “aging is becoming a disease.”

“Some people do have a certain amount of BDD, body dysmorphic disorder,” he explained. “And I think there’s a spectrum of it, and some people, not necessarily celebrities, but some people just may do plastic surgery for not the greatest reasons, and they’re trying to pursue perfection.”

Another reason why people might overdo cosmetic surgery, Dubrow theorized, is because of social media.

“Everybody is portraying, as you know, through filtering and other processes – now AI, of course, is going to be influencing that – idealized versions of themselves. And celebrities are now transparent, admitting to plastic surgery, and are looking really good. So aging is becoming a disease.”

From his perspective, it’s more acceptable in Hollywood for a female celebrity to have noticeable work done than men, but for both, he stressed the importance of not changing one’s appearance too drastically.

“If you’re a female celebrity who’s gotten older, it’s OK to look a little different, just as long as you don’t do the sort of… Jennifer Grey thing, where you go from looking one way on ‘Dirty Dancing,’ having your nose done, and then you’re out of the industry because you changed your whole look,” he said.

Grey famously had work done following her success in 1987’s “Dirty Dancing” – as she wrote in her memoir, “Out of the Corner,” the nose job made her literally unrecognizable to some. As she explained it, “Overnight I lose my identity and my career.”

There are a few examples of other celebrities he suspects may have gotten work done that went about it in a better way, one being Brad Pitt.

“Brad Pitt looks unbelievable,” he said. “What I love about the way Brad Pitt looks, and I have no inside information about Brad Pitt, is he looks like Brad Pitt. He looks unaltered … If you did anything to alter Brad Pitt’s Brad Pitt-ness, even if he looked good, it would be a fail. Because what are you going to do to make Brad Pitt look better?”

Pitt has never admitted to any plastic surgery, though in 2022 he spoke about his youthful appearance to NDTV, saying, “I could say I eat well, but I don’t. I could say I meditate, but not really. I would say I’ve got a lot of lovely people in my life and I stay creative.”

Another example of a celebrity who Terry thinks has had good work done is Lindsay Lohan, who he said “looks really, really good.”

“Whatever she’s done was done really well,” he shared. “I think whatever she’s does, it’s worked.”

The 39-year-old actress hasn’t admitted to plastic surgery despite rumors to the contrary, but earlier this year, she told Elle, “Everyone does Botox.” She’s also been open about other non-invasive procedures she’s had, like Morpheus8, a microneedling treatment, and she’s praised the work of her dermatologist.

The plastic surgeon also lauded the looks of some of Hollywood’s biggest leading men: George Clooney, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who he believes all look amazing.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s working, OK?” he said. “They look the same. They don’t look altered. You know they’re doing something there. They’re not letting themselves go … It’s not just diet and exercise, they’re doing whatever they’re doing, it’s working – they look age-appropriate but wonderful, like Brad Pitt.”

On a more personal note, Heather Dubrow admitted, “I’m as vain as the next person. Being on high definition television at this age is not for the faint of heart.”

She said that she’s “always opted for the non-surgical solutions to anti-aging,” and that for her, the most important thing right now is “being strong” rather than her looks.

“I want to be like a fit mom, meaning I want to have longevity,” she said. “I remember seeing a picture of Goldie Hawn a few years ago, and she had her granddaughter in a backpack. She was in her 70s, and I was like, ‘That’s what I want.’ I’m not looking at pictures of the girls on the beach in the bikini going, ‘Ooh, that’s a nice butt.’ I’m going, ‘Look at her with her granddaughter on her back, and she is fit, and she’s moving, and she’s flexible, and she’s alive.’ That’s what I think about.”