Celebrities Then and Now: The Impact of Lip Fillers on Their Appearance

The term “Mar-a-Lago face,” characterized by its emphasis on full lips, has surged in popularity during the 2020s. However, the trend of duck lips and plump pouts began long before the MAGA movement started shaping beauty ideals. As fillers gained traction, these enhancements became commonplace among celebrities. Yet, not all cosmetic procedures lead to the desired effect. Some stars face complications such as filler migration, while others push the boundaries of lip enhancement too far. Here we explore some of Hollywood’s most notable lip filler mishaps.

Since her teenage years, Farrah Abraham has been a magnet for public attention and controversy. She first captured the public’s eye on MTV’s reality series “16 and Pregnant” and its spinoff “Teen Mom.” Abraham later ventured into music and adult films, though these efforts were met with mixed reviews. Over time, her physical transformation has also come under scrutiny from both the media and fans.

Despite the negative attention her enhanced lips attracted, Abraham remains an advocate for cosmetic surgery. By 2025, she disclosed to the Daily Mail that she had possibly spent “like hundreds of thousands of dollars” on various cosmetic procedures over the years, admitting, “I mean my mouth is $50,000.”

The coverage blew up in 2015 when Abraham suffered complications after undergoing a lip augmentation procedure, causing her mouth to swell up to an enormous degree. She eventually sought doctors Terry Dubrow and Paul Nassif from E!’s “Botched” to help rectify the issue. “I was embarrassed to walk in there,” she told People about their first visit. “But I think it was good to share my story because it was on national headlines and news, so I wanted to show others so they don’t have the same complications.”

Despite making waves with her overly plump pout, Abraham continued to be a proponent of cosmetic surgery, telling the Daily Mail in 2025 that she had probably spent “like hundreds of thousands of dollars” on various procedures over the years. “I mean my mouth is $50,000,” she added.

As the old adage goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And, as with all of the celebs on this list, the quality or overall aesthetic of Kylie Jenner’s lips are a matter of opinion. That said, the youngest of the Kardashian sisters drew serious criticism during the 2010s when, as a 17-year-old, she copped to getting lip filler (via People), something she had apparently contemplated since she was 15. Her revelation led to discussion about what is appropriate for someone so young to do in pursuit of their body image goals. The FDA has approved the use of lip and other soft-tissue fillers for persons over the age of 21.

Fast-forward to today, and while Jenner has partly dissolved her filler, she continues to receive criticism for further lip enhancements. “Kylie’s lips are still way bigger than they were originally, they’re just not cartoonishly big now,” read a post on X. Meanwhile, a Reddit comment about her lips read, “From the side, they look awful. Her top lip is overfilled and sticks too far out. She looked amazing with a tiny bit of filler, but lately it looks ridiculous.” Regardless of the critique, Jenner is putting her lips to good use, making headlines with her PDA moments with Timothée Chalamet.

Few people in Hollywood have ascended to the same heights as “Friends” star Courteney Cox, specifically during the Y2K era of NBC’s long-running “Must See TV” programming block. At one point, her show was pulling in tens of millions of viewers every episode, while Cox and her castmates were earning $1 million per episode. However, in the years after “Friends” went off the air, Cox went to lengths that even she now regrets in an effort to cultivate her visual aesthetic.

Cox’s entire face changed in a variety of ways over the years, and this included her lips becoming more plump. But the negativity that followed Cox’s transformation and some soul-searching on her part ultimately led her to roll back some of her aesthetic enhancements. “You don’t realize that you look a little off, so then you keep doing more because you look normal to yourself,” Cox said on the “Gloss Angeles” beauty podcast (via Today). “And you look in the mirror and go, “Oh, that looks good.” You don’t realize what it looks like to the outside person.” In the end, Cox elected to have her fillers removed. “Luckily, I was able to reverse most of that, and now I’m actually just older,” she said.

“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Days of Our Lives” alum Lisa Rinna may just be the “OG” of lip filler. The actress obtained her signature pout way back in the late 1980s when, at the age of 24, she found herself enamored with Barbara Hershey’s lips as seen in the film “Beaches.” “Barbara Hershey put collagen in her top lip,” she told her husband, actor Harry Hamlin, on the couple’s “Let’s Not Talk About the Husband” podcast (via Entertainment Now). “We thought it was the coolest thing ever.” Rather than go with collagen themselves, though, Rinna and a friend instead opted to have silicone injected into their lips.

Eventually, the reality star decided she had to correct course as the silicone in her lip reportedly started seeping out and caused issues. In 2010, Rinna underwent lip reduction surgery, as reported by CBS News, noting at the time that her lips had started to define her. While her look and the size of her lips have fluctuated over the years, they continue to be her most prominent physical feature, and not everyone is on-board with the look. “OMG … those lips should never have been shown to the world,” an X user wrote in response to one of Rinna’s reels. 

Lauren Sánchez built an impressive résumé as a journalist and television personality after entering the field via local news in the Los Angeles and Phoenix markets. After putting in her time there as a correspondent and an anchor, she eventually took her talents to a national audience as an entertainment reporter on “Extra” and, later, the original host of Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance?” as well as other programs. However, Sánchez’s spotlight has grown exponentially amid her affair, engagement, and eventual marriage to billionaire Jeff Bezos. As such, the negative commentary surrounding her changing appearance and expanding lips has reached a fever pitch.

A 2025 honeymoon snap shared by OK! Magazine via Instagram ignited a veritable firestorm of commentary about the size and shape of Sánchez’s lips. One commenter wrote: “She just needs to get rid of those fish lips!” Meanwhile, another commenter joked that she had a “stand-by lip and facial injector for the big day.” 

For his part, plastic surgeon Frederick Weniger told The List that her lips may have been impacted by improper filler volumization. “When lips appear to rest apart in the center even when the mouth is closed, that can sometimes be a sign of over-volumization or poor volumization with filler,” he explained. “Excess filler can add weight or rigidity to the lip tissue, preventing it from sealing naturally. Another possibility is that filler was placed disproportionately.”

Multi-talented though she may be, tour de force rapper, actress, content creator, and reality star Blac Chyna has gotten a lot of mileage out of her unique look. However, her plump lips have stood out over the years as one of her defining physical characteristics, and not always in a way that her fans have liked. Wrote one fan at the height of her filler era, via X: “What happened to Blac Chyna’s lips and cheeks? She was so pretty. No need to be changing her face.” Another Redditor added: “Her lips used to be a part of her face, now they look like a last minute add her creator stuck on.” 

The former partner of Tyga and Rob Kardashian seemingly heard the noise about her use of filler because, in 2023, she posted an Instagram video explaining that she had removed all of her facial fillers. Shortly thereafter, she posted a second Instagram clip discussing a second round of filler removal, citing her upper lip as an area of focus, and explaining that she was simply getting in on the trend when she was originally injected. Meanwhile, she explained to the Daily Mail that her myriad cosmetic procedures had caused her health problems before she finally decided to reverse course. These days, Chyna wears a noticeably different look. 

Sometimes the impact of a celeb’s changing appearance goes way beyond the physical, bleeding into other aspects of their life. Such was the case for “The Boys” star Erin Moriarty, who stepped back from social media in 2024 when the running commentary around her looks became too much to deal with. Moriarty made waves in the mid-2010s with roles in HBO’s “True Detective” and Marvel/Netflix’s “Jessica Jones,” but her career truly exploded thanks to her role as Annie January/Starlight in Amazon’s “The Boys,” beginning in 2019. Unfortunately, some fans have become more concerned with her lips and face than her performance in recent years.

Wrote one fan (via Reddit): “Why did she get work done? I just don’t get it. People ALWAYS look [worse] after getting work. Duck lips and can’t move her face. It’s stupid.” Added another commenter: “Her lips have obvious injection sites (at least the top lip is super obvious, welcome to 4k closeups … bleh).” However, it wasn’t just random people online serving up criticism. Fox News alum and host Megyn Kelly criticized the actress, saying on her SiriusXM radio show (via Page Six) she has “Kim Kardashian lips” and alleging that she’s undergone a slew of other cosmetic procedures.

In response, Moriarty iced her Instagram account, writing (via Page Six), “Social media is not something that came naturally to me and that was an investment of energy to connect with you guys. And I am horrified by the reaction, the reductive assumptions, and [Kelly’s comments] that is a primary example of such harassment. … It’s broken my heart. You’ve broken my heart. You’ve lost the privilege of this account.”

Lush-lipped “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Brandi Glanville has experienced much of the same commentary and criticism about her mouth and overall look that other stars on this list have. However, her experience differs somewhat in that she faced serious medical issues as a result of her cosmetic procedures. Glanville has made no bones about the fact that she has used fillers and undergone other cosmetic work. However, she had her fillers dissolved in 2024 after she suffered a facial disfigurement, believing herself to have contracted a parasite. Meanwhile, “Botched” doctor Terry Dubrow told TMZ that some kind of “infectious process” or foreign-body reaction from something that was injected into her face may be occurring.

Fast-forward to 2026, and Glanville may finally have an answer regarding what has been going on with her sad face transformation and health after having a sonogram. As relayed by InTouch Weekly, the reality star told the Daily Enquirer, a National Enquirer newsletter, that the imaging revealed that her 20-year-old breast implants — which are reportedly no longer made and “illegal” — have been slowly leaking for years and may have even contained mold. Meanwhile, Glanville and her children previously suffered from black mold poisoning. With any luck, this will be the end of her medical issues; Glanville had surgery to remove her implants and is looking forward to carrying on with her life.

You can also count Brooks Nader among the ranks of celebrities who made the call to dissolve their lip filler amid scrutiny over their evolving look. Nader exploded into the public consciousness in 2019-20 after beating out 10,000 applicants to become the newest model for the iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She went on to appear in the magazine multiple times, becoming a bona fide cover girl in the process and later competing on Season 33 of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” However, as her profile grew, so too did the commentary around her appearance, with some fans expressing concerns about her lips.

“Is anyone talking about her lip filler? Girlfriend [can] barely close her mouth,” read one Reddit post, while a commenter opined that it was “giving Lauren Sanchez.” Eventually, Nader started to pick up on what fans were seeing herself. As reported by Us Weekly, Nader commented on the former state of her lips after having her filler dissolved as a Christmas gift to her parents, pointing out that it had “migrated so much.” Meanwhile, she captioned a throwback picture of her lips, “Had the last of the filler dissolved right before Cabo and feeling like my old self!”

Make no mistake — pop icon and actress Madonna has ascended to that rare tier of artists who have managed to evolve and reinvent themselves time and time again across a decades-long career, maintaining their grasp on relevance long after their contemporaries have faded into obscurity. However, Madonna’s evolution goes well beyond the artistic shift from “Material Girl” to “Ray of Light,” “B**** I’m Madonna,” and beyond. The Queen of Pop has also undergone a major physical and style transformation over the years, and some of the changes have resulted in scrutiny from the press, fans, and casual observers.

After debuting a surprising look at the 2023 Grammy Awards that featured an out-there hairstyle and lips that were noticeably fuller than they had been before, criticism of Madonna’s appearance was rampant. In response, the “Like a Prayer” singer issued a not-so-subtle message to her critics, calling out perceived “ageism” and “misogyny,” and lamenting a “world that refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45.” One year later, Tara Adashev, a nurse from a plastic surgery practice, told The U.S. Sun that Madonna may have undergone treatment to address lip filler issues ahead of an on-stage recreation of her iconic 2003 VMAs kiss with Britney Spears during a 2024 show in Rio de Janeiro.

“With the 2024 Copacabana kiss, there was probably a lot of focus on Madonna’s lips and how they looked,” Adashev told the outlet. “Fillers could have migrated, which always misshapes the lips.”

From the late ’80s to the early 2000s, you could easily have described Meg Ryan as America’s sweetheart. During that time, she essentially became the queen of the rom-com, winning hearts with her performances in films like “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “French Kiss,” “IQ,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and a host of others. These days, though, the A-lister is practically unrecognizable in the opinion of some observers, and not simply because she’s no longer the fresh-faced youngster she was during her heyday, or because she once gave a seriously awkward interview.

At least one medical professional feels Ryan went too far with things like lip fillers and other cosmetic treatments. “I think she looked better before this work,” plastic surgeon Mark Youssef told Hollywood Life in 2016. “She may have done too much. I think that’s why people are a little shocked because she doesn’t look like the Meg Ryan that we all love.” Although Ryan has never confirmed having work done, Youssef cited a number of possible treatments, including lip fillers.

“She got some absolutely horrible plastic surgery, especially the wildly inflated lips that gave her duck mouth. It was bad,” wrote one Redditor.

During the late ’80s and early ’90s, Tori Spelling was one of TV’s most recognizable faces due to her decade-long run as Donna Martin on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” not to mention her familial connection to producer Aaron Spelling (her father). She is still recognizable today, too, thanks to her appearances on myriad reality series and continued acting career. As high as she has soared over the decades, though, tabloid drama has followed Spelling throughout her life, and her comings and goings have been scrutinized alongside her physical appearance as she has grown up in the public eye. 

Spelling’s look has changed considerably since her heyday, and she has been open about having certain procedures done. However, in 2024, she debuted a new look featuring a significantly expanded pout. She participated in Season 33 of “Dancing with the Stars” alongside Brooks Nader that same year, sparking criticism of her lips and outright body shaming from fans. Some went so far as to compare her to the big-lipped, blonde-haired Muppet, Janice, as reported by the Daily Mail.