The ‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ star tells ET why she’ll no longer go under the knife or get cosmetic procedures.
Vicki Gunvalson is saying “no” to more cosmetic procedures.
“I promised [my boyfriend, Steve Lodge,] I'm done,” the Real Housewives of Orange County star tells ET. “I’m done.”
The 56-year-old went under the knife one last time about two months ago for a lower face-lift. It’s the same procedure her co-star, Tamra Judge, got about a year ago, in which the skin from the bottom of the ears is tightened, achieving a more defined jawline and a taut neck.
“I went to Tamra's doctor, 'cause she told me I needed a face-lift,” Vicki reveals. “So I thought, 'OK, I gotta listen to Tamra so she doesn't get mad at me.' No, but God love Tamra, she tells me how it is.”
The procedure was filmed for the new season of RHOC, but viewers will have to wait until the last batch of episodes to actually see it. In addition to the face-lift, Vicki says she also had all of the fillers in her face removed.
“That was one thing that I think a lot of doctors overdo,” she confesses. “Through the last four, five years, as I got older, they kept wanting to [add] Juvederm, and Restylane, and this and that, and Sculptra, and before I knew it, I didn't look like myself. So, I took all the fillers out. I have totally smooth skin now.”
Vicki previously underwent a series of other procedures back in 2013, getting a fat transfer to her face, a nose job and a chin implant.
“I feel great,” Vicki gushes. “And I promised Dr. Ambe -- I love you so much! -- I'm never doing another filler, another anything. I'm just leaving it alone, 'cause he said once you start doing that, it becomes, ‘I wanna do more and more and more and more.’ He said it was like granulated sugar underneath my skin, of all these different areas that had been injected. So, I didn't even look like myself anymore.”
Vicki says seeing her headshot for the new season of Housewives, which was taken before her surgery, made her feel even better about her decision to stop getting injectables.
“Some people were saying my promo pictures didn't look like me,” she shares. “It didn't. I was puffy, and I was -- I didn't feel like I was myself. They do the cheekbones, and we gotta inject here, gotta bring the jawline down. Just, stop! I want everything out of my skin. I want to be back to, you know, being a 56-year-old and looking the best I can be. Then they tightened my neck. My neck's got no more wrinkles! I feel great.”
Vicki sums up her latest, and seemingly final, surgery as “no pain, no gain,” and praises her boyfriend for getting her through the recovery.
“Brutal,” she says of the days after surgery. “If I didn't have Steve, I don't know how somebody could go through that without somebody telling you, like, 'Take another Xanax, go back to bed.' 'Cause I was like, my brain was telling me I was good, but I'd get up and be like, whoo. Wanna pass out again, so it was a brutal recovery. It was 10, 12 days, but after that, you kinda forget about it.”
With her new face, Vicki is looking forward to the new chapter in life, which she hopes includes marriage to retired cop Steve. The two have moved in together.
“I don't want to be 60 and 70 years old and dating a boyfriend,” she shares. “I'm 56 now, he'll be 60. I want to show our children -- we've got six kids between the two of us, and six grandchildren -- that marriage is important."
“I'm a marriage girl, I've been married my whole life,” Vicki continues. “So, to be at this awkward stage, at 56 years old, and not being married, it's not comfortable for me. But it's something we don't want to rush and, you know, we just want to take it at our time, so -- it's nice, 'cause we talk about it. It's not me pressuring him or him pressuring me. It's going to be a joint decision and stay tuned. It's gonna be one hell of a fun ride.”
Watch the fun ride unfold every Monday on The Real Housewives of Orange County, airing at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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