Kylie Jenner's Admission of Breast Augmentation and Regrets
The members of the Kadashian-Jenner clan are constantly subjected to close examination and speculation regarding their changing looks. They're also well-known for strongly denying having undergone plastic surgery, apart from the occasional mention of Botox (even then, only in small amounts), and Khloé admitting to a rhinoplasty last year. Now, the youngest of the group, 25-year-old Kylie Jenner, has ultimately confessed to having a breast augmentation when she was 19, just a few months before getting pregnant with her daughter.
"You know I got my breasts done before Stormi," Jenner told a friend in the latest episode of The Kardashians. This disclosure follows years of Jenner insisting otherwise. In a 2015 video on her now defunct website, she attributed her larger chest to a Victoria's Secret push-up bra. "I don't share this with many people, but everyone assumes I've recently had breast augmentation, but I haven't. I just use the Bombshell by Victoria's Secret. It's life-altering. I've got all my sisters and friends using it." In another post on the website, she stated that weight gain was the cause of her larger breasts. "I haven't had breast implants! Everyone is fixated on that. The truth is, as I've grown older, I've gained 15 pounds and my body has transformed. I swear there are ways to deal with problem areas without considering plastic surgery." The following year, she claimed her chest size was due to PMS. "TMI but it's that time of the month lol," she tweeted when asked why her boobs looked so great. "They will deflate soon. And it will be a sad day."
The pattern of denial, denial, denial, and finally admission is precisely what occurred when fans began buzzing about Jenner's fuller lips. After years of insisting that all she did was outline her lips, she finally acknowledged getting filler. She later explained her decision to conceal the truth in an interview with Complex: "I didn't want to have a negative influence. I didn't want people to think you had to enhance your lips to feel good about yourself. But they thought it was even crazier that I was lying about it because it was so obvious. I wish I had just been honest and upfront."
In the July 27 episode, Jenner went on to describe how quickly she became pregnant after the breast augmentation: "Within six months of having Stormi—not thinking I would have a child when I was 20—like, they were still recovering." It was a choice she now regrets. "I had beautiful breasts, like, natural ones. Just lovely, the perfect size, perfect everything. And I just wish, obviously, I had never had them done in the first place. I would advise anyone considering it to wait until after having children."
However, according to Dr. Joseph Zakhary, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Phoenix, Arizona, "There is no mandatory waiting period to get pregnant after an augmentation, given that most of the changes to the breast occur late in the pregnancy in preparation for lactation and the postpartum period." And although both pregnancy and breastfeeding can alter the overall appearance of the breast (whether there is an implant or not), he says that women who get pregnant in their 20s, like Jenner, are actually less likely to undergo significant changes. "There are numerous patients who have had a breast augmentation and get pregnant in their 20s but retain the same breast aesthetic after pregnancy because they have denser breasts," Dr. Zakhary explains. He also adds that, in his experience, regret regarding breast augmentation, in general, is very rare, even among patients aged 18 to 22.
Jenner also expressed that she wishes she had acted differently because of her daughter. "I would be devastated if she wanted to enhance her body at 19. And she's the most wonderful thing ever. I want to be the best mom and the best role model for her. And I just wish I could, like, be her and do everything differently, because I wouldn't have touched anything."
Ironically, in the previous episode of the reality show, the sisters discussed their body image concerns and the beauty standards they represent. Kylie was firm that she has made no surgical alterations to her face: "One of the biggest misunderstandings about me is that I was this insecure child and I underwent a lot of surgery to change my entire face, which is untrue. I've only had fillers." Given how events have unfolded, whether that's truly the case remains to be seen.
