Heidi Montag has shared her plastic surgery horror story with the world, which includes almost dying at a recovery center.
The Hills star had 10 cosmetic procedures at once ahead of the show’s final season in 2010. The star was just 23 years old at the time, with the surgeries including a chin reduction, liposuction, a breast augmentation, a brow lift, rhinoplasty revision, facial fat injections and otoplasty (also known as ear-pinning surgery).
Appearing on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast, the 37 year old recalled the clinic telling husband Spencer Pratt that she was close to death.
From the left, Heidi Montag in 2008 and in 2011, a year post-surgery. “The Hills” star almost died in a recovery center after being given an incorrect dose of a painkiller.
Jon Kopaloff/Jason LaVeris/Filmmagic
“They called Spencer at a point and told him I had died basically,” she said. “He had to come there. I wasn’t doing well.”
The surgeries were performed for free by the late cosmetic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan, who died in a car accident in 2010. Ahead of the operations, Ryan told Montag she would recover “within a few months.” However, it took more than a year for the reality TV star to get back on her feet.
“I could barely talk. My jaw, I had part of my chin sawed off. I mean, it was really a lot,” she said. “We had to have nurses at the house for months to help me recover.”
In 2018, the actress told Paper magazine that she actually died “for a minute” at the recovery center post-surgery, after she was given an incorrect dose of the painkiller Demerol.
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are seen in 2007. The couple met on reality TV show “The Hills” and wed in 2009, before Montag’s surgeries.
Steve Granitz/WireImage
“My security guards called Spencer and told him, ‘Heidi’s heart stopped. She’s not going to make it,'” she told the publication.
“Cutting yourself up isn’t something I’d recommend, and Demerol isn’t anything to play around with,” she said.
As a result of Montag’s slow recovery, the couple dropped out of The Hills part-way through the sixth and final season. The pair met on the show and wed in 2008, and now have two children—Gunner, born in 2017, followed by Ryker in 2022.
In 2019, the couple shared the story of Montag’s traumatic surgery experience with Cosmopolitan, with Pratt, 40, explaining what led his wife to make the decision to take such drastic action.
From left, Heidi Montag in 2006 and in 2011, post-surgery. The reality star’s procedures included a breast augmentation, chin reduction, ear-pinning and facial fat injections.
Donato Sardella/Denise Truscello/WireImage
“Everyone’s insecure but it’s different when you’re young and on TV and everyone’s talking about you,” he said, adding that Montag had taken print-outs along to the surgeon’s office as a guide, influenced by the online trolling she was receiving about her appearance.
Montag also said she is not against going under the knife, but regrets not waiting until she was older.
“Everyone always shows you the before and after pics, they don’t show you how devastating the recovery is,” she said. “I don’t regret a lot of my enhancement, but plastic surgery isn’t something that should be glorified. Take it seriously.”
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