Kelly Ripa defends her decision to get botox: ‘These are my choices’

‘I’m not saying you should let people bully you into cosmetic procedures’

Kelly Ripa has defended her decision to get botox and revealed how it made her feel more comfortable with herself throughout her career.

The 51-year-old television host opened up about how she’s gotten the cosmetic procedures done during a recent interview with People for its cover story, where she discussed her new book, Live Wire: Long-Winded Stories. During the conversation, Ripa shared some of her insecurities, as she noted that seeing herself “off camera” impacted her decision to get botox.

“For me, it was just more of my comfort level. If I worked off camera, I would not wash my hair with regularity or wear makeup but when I started to see things that I didn’t like, I thought, well, the next turtleneck is going to have two eye holes,” she said.

Ripa went on to address her decision to get botox and how she stands by it, adding: “I’m not saying you should let people bully you into cosmetic procedures. These are my choices for me.”

She also noted that in her memoir, she’s spoken candidly about some of the cosmetics procedures that she’s done while on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, before sharing her thoughts on the overall ageing process.

“I’ve always talked about it openly and honestly because I thought, really honestly, at 40 years old that I was the only person ageing and I couldn’t figure out why,” Ripa said, in a video included in her People story.

The TV producer went on to detail some of fears that she’s had because of ageing, including concerns about having to wear a lot of makeup at work and “looking older than” other people.

“I kept saying, ‘I need to quit my job because … it’s too early in the morning, it’s too much reading, it’s too much work, it’s a lot of anxiety, it’s too much makeup and it’s weighing on me and I’m just looking older than everybody else,’” Ripa added.

However, she acknowledged that once she realised what type of procedures she could get done, there was an opportunity to be more “open” about it.

“And then once you start talking about what you’re having done, people become very open about what they’re having done and then you start trading doctors,” she said.

Ripa also shared that she included all of her doctors at the end of the book, in case her readers wanted to reach out to them.

“At least in the New York area, if there’s somebody you see who you think is good, you should be generous with that information,” she added.

This wasn’t the first time that Ripa expressed her comfort in getting botox. Back in March 2020, in a since-expired Instagram Story, she made a joke about the importance of getting her injections during the pandemic, with Dr Anolik sarcastingly calling it “very serious medical problem”. She also noted how she and her doctor were following social distancing guidelines, at the time.

“These are great CDC rules and I appreciate them,” Ripa said in the story, via Page Six. “Having said that, in this time we can notice that there’s been a lot of worrying. You can see it’s written all over my face, but Dr. Anolik decided to be brave today and come into work… to treat my acute Botox deficiency syndrome.”