The former talk show host wowed fans with her new visage at the 2026 Tony Awards.

Rosie O’Donnell opens up about decision to go public with facelift: ‘Authenticity is the goal’

The former talk show host wowed fans with her new visage at the 2026 Tony Awards.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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June 7, 2026 10:38 p.m. ET

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Rosie O'Donnell at the Tony Awards in New York City on June 7. Credit:

Dia Dipasupil/WireImage

- Rosie O'Donnell is opening up about her decision to get a facelift.

- "Authenticity is the goal in these days and times," she said at the 2026 Tony Awards on Sunday.

- O'Donnell says she's committed to staying "truthful" about the procedure, including "all the complicated feelings I had about it."

Rosie O'Donnell is sticking to what she knows best: the truth.

The actress, comedian, and former TV host addressed her decision to be open about her new facelift on the red carpet of the 2026 Tony Awards.

"Authenticity is the goal in these days and times," she told E! News on Sunday. "I think all that matters is truth and love, and so I wanted to be truthful and say all the complicated emotions I had about it."

With characteristic irreverence, O'Donnell continued, "I just wanted to say, 'This is what I did, and here's the doctor, and if you want to'... but it's very expensive — it's more expensive than any car I ever bought, but I can't drive around in my face."

Rosie O'Donnell in 2026; Rosie O'Donnell in 2025.

Kristina Bumphrey/WWD via Getty;Mike Marsland/Getty

O'Donnell first revealed the results of the cosmetic procedure on May 26. She shared a photo of herself post-facelift, accompanied by a poem that read in part, "I used to feel very strongly about facelifts / Not casually—morally. / I had assigned myself as head / of all women who would never - ever / I thought it was a betrayal. / Of feminism. Of aging. / Of our team of women worldwide. / And then I lost 50 pounds."

She detailed what went into that weight loss in an interview with PEOPLE the following day, explaining that a 2012 heart attack led to gastric surgery, dietary changes, and use of the diabetes medications Mounjaro and Repatha.

The lengthy poem, continued on her Substack blog, comments on this evolution as well, tying it all to parenting her 13-year-old, Clay.

"If I'm teaching Clay anything, / it can't be that my body belongs to an idea either. / Even a good idea. Even feminism. / Because that's still not freedom — / that's just a different authority telling you what you're allowed to do / with your own face... So in January, I did it," she wrote

Rosie O'Donnell shares before-and-after photos of facelift

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O'Donnell told E! on Sunday about the surprising reaction Clay had to hearing about her internal facelift debate: "If you do it, I would not be able to respect you ever again.'"

That pushback "put me off it for a few months," O'Donnell confessed, "but then when I went and did it in January, I came home 10 days later, and they never noticed."

The star moved to Ireland in early 2025, concerned about "what's happening politically," she explained at the time, pointing to her old foe Donald Trump's re-election. Joking to E!, Rosie said politeness in Irish culture is part of what pushed her over the edge to going forward with the procedure.

"In Ireland, people would say, 'Are you upset, darling? What's the matter love?... And I'm like, 'That's just my face. I am not upset, it's just how I look,'" she said.

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