Kathy Griffin is not hiding behind sunglasses or coy captions. The comedian confirmed she recently had her third facelift, meeting speculation with the kind of honesty and bite that made her a household name.
After photos of the 64-year-old looking noticeably taut while hiking near her $8.8 million Malibu home, Kathy addressed it head-on on her Talk Your Head Off podcast.
“Very taut is also very true!” she quipped, leaning into the moment rather than dodging it.
“It’s my third. I know that’s so vain! I’m so vain for no reason. No one has ever gone to a Kathy Griffin show to see her beautiful, youthful face. You come to hear my jokes, which is what I want,” she said. Then, with a grin you could hear through the microphone, she added,
“I don’t want you to come to care what I look like. I’m in Lululemon’s today for God’s sake. I’m in my fat pants. I don’t have dysmorphia… I have a little.”
© TikTokIf the reveal sounded breezy, it was also informed. Kathy made it clear she is not gatekeeping. She credited the work to Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Talei, a name that carries weight across Hollywood vanity tables.
The shout-out arrived with a pop-culture footnote. Sia, the famously camera-shy hitmaker, praised him while presenting a Daytime Beauty Award in 2023. “I love him, I can’t say enough good about him,” Sia said at the time, a testimonial that Kathy happily echoed.
Kathy did not stick to broad strokes. She was upfront about what the surgery entailed, ticking off the details like a stand-up set list.
© NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal viaThere was a facelift, yes, but also a blepharoplasty, a so-called foxy eye lift, and “work on her chin.” She even described the current state of play with a perfectly Griffin aside. “There’s a stitch in my chin, which you’re probably not going to see unless you’re under me, but not in that way” the two-time Emmy winner wisecracked.
And in case anyone was wondering if the process is painless, Kathy shut that down. “I’m going to be honest. It’s painful.”
Kathy was also candid about the less glamorous side of healing, puncturing the filtered fantasy with a wink.
© Getty“Then you go to this rich lady recovery place. It’s not all ladies. I saw a couple dudes there, but everybody’s kind of in hiding and I had gauze on like a soccer ball,” she said.
“You get out of that place and you come home and maybe you come home with a nurse, and it’s disgusting. I’m not going to lie. The first night there’s drains that come out of your chin. I know it’s so gross. But the vanity takes over.”
The reaction from friends was swift and warm. Kathy shared a vlog clip on Instagram, and Melissa Rivers, who has known her for decades, chimed in: “You look great!” The comment carried a sweet resonance. Melissa’s mother, the late Joan Rivers, was both a mentor to Kathy and a cultural pioneer in discussing cosmetic surgery without shame.
Joan once joked: “I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.”
Kathy has been similarly straightforward about her cosmetic history. Over the years, she has spoken about breast augmentation, a brow lift, a facial chemical peel, and liposuction, which she has said nearly killed her in 1999.
She has also noted that her plastic surgery journey began in 1986 with a nose job at 26. Her health story contains a more serious chapter as well.
In 2021, she had half of her left lung removed after a cancer diagnosis, and she later shared that she was cancer free.
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