Comedian and TV presenter Katherine Ryan is no stranger to cosmetic surgery. She’s had breast implants, lip jobs, Botox and fillers and has been quite open about it.
Now the 38-year-old Canadian star of Netflix series The Duchess, a regular panellist on shows including 8 Out Of 10 Cats and currently on her stand-up tour, Missus, has written about some of her cosmetic surgery experiences in her new book, The Audacity.
She had breast implants at the age of 20, after saving all her money from her job at the restaurant chain Hooters, and admits that although she did it for herself she hoped people would react more positively to her because of her enhanced boobs.
“At that moment, I was just a dumb girl with a sharp tongue but I would walk out a grown woman with a boob job,” she writes.
Now married with two children, aged 12 and three months, the confident, caustic comedian reflects on the work she’s had done – and what advice she’d give youngsters considering going under the knife.
Do you regret having breast implants at 20?
“I don’t have any regrets because I loved them from the day I got them. I was sensible enough not to go too big – they weren’t disproportionate. They gave me confidence, I thought they looked beautiful.
“At that time in my life I prioritised looking beautiful and they made me feel great. I didn’t have any complications. I just look back now very forgivingly and think, ‘That girl was a bit silly’, but it’s fine.”
And yet you are considering having them removed?
“Yes, if I have time I will definitely have them removed because I have no use for them now.
They are emblematic of the early Noughties and I think they’ve gone out of fashion now.
They still look great but having breast implants is a specific look and I think, I have auto-immune disease and sometimes I wonder if that would ameliorate if I didn’t have bags of silicone under my skin.
“But I’m breastfeeding really successfully, so it’s not as though they cause me any problems. I just think if tomorrow you offered me a day off and an operation to get them out and I could still breastfeed, then sure I would.”
What about the botched lip job?
“The second lip injection procedure I had (after an initial successful procedure by a skilled surgeon who was much more expensive) was a botch job. That was permanent. In your early 20s you live in the moment and you’re really spontaneous. I was disappointed – I could see my lips had gone wonky.
“Then I felt a lot of shame and embarrassment that I had been so foolish as to go to this amateur but I didn’t really think about the future. I thought, ‘Oh well, I don’t like these lips now, but they’ll go down, they’ll go away’ – and they never did.
“Now I feel that I did the best I could with the information I had and I feel lucky that I didn’t get botched surgery and die, I just got botched injections and now I have a wonky lip.”
How do you feel when you look in the mirror?
“It doesn’t bother me too much. I notice the asymmetry (of the lips) in photos and that’s because there’s silicone in there that will never ever go away. I can’t even get it cut out.”
Do you have corrective fillers to help the look of your lips?
“Yes. You’ll never stop the wonkiness but you can make it look less obvious by putting filler in the bits that are a bit wonky. But I only do that about once a year.”
Do you still have Botox?
“Yes. I get Botox and filler about once a year.”
What would your advice be to people in their 20s who are considering cosmetic surgery?
“If you love all the same music and all the same TV shows that you did five years ago, then go ahead and do something permanent to your body, but if you have evolved then you mustn’t get a tattoo or surgery or anything permanent because you are in such a fast phase of evolution. You change so much with age.”
The Audacity by Katherine Ryan is published by Blink Publishing, price £20 hardback. Available now.