Ricki Lake called out Rosie O’Donnell for being “judgy” about her 2024 facelift before getting one herself this year.
Lake, 58, made the comments during this weekend’s episode of “The Weekend View,” where she discussed her close friendship with O’Donnell, 64, and how their conversations about cosmetic surgery shifted over time. The two have remained in frequent contact, with Lake noting they “talk all the time.”
“She’s my really good friend — we talk all the time — and she was a little judgy. She would admit it,” Lake said about O’Donnell on the program.
“She’s like, ‘Why do you need it? You don’t need it,'” Lake recalled O’Donnell saying about the procedure.
Lake first underwent a deep plane lower face and neck lift in 2024, performed by Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Allen Foulad. She went public with the details in July of that year, marking her two-year anniversary with a candid Instagram post about her decision.
“Back in 2023, I had lost 40 lbs over the course of a year, and did not like the extra skin that hung from below my chin. It was never going to tighten up by itself,” Lake wrote on Instagram.
“I took a leap of faith and I’m so grateful I did. I am also very glad to see so many people over these past couple of years opening up about their own plastic surgery journeys,” she added in the same post.
O’Donnell’s perspective changed dramatically after she lost more than 60 pounds using the GLP-1 medication Mounjaro. The weight loss left her with excess facial skin that she found difficult to reconcile with how she actually felt inside.
“Then, sure enough, she lost a bunch of weight on Mounjaro, and she went and had it done, she looks phenomenal,” Lake said of O’Donnell’s transformation.
O’Donnell underwent a deep-plane lift and neck rejuvenation in January 2026, sharing before-and-after photos on her Instagram page. The procedure came with significant internal conflict for the comedian, who had long positioned herself against cosmetic surgery on feminist grounds.
In a May 2026 Substack post, O’Donnell admitted she felt “shameful” about the decision, noting the surgery “cost more money than [she has] ever paid for a car.”
“I thought it was a betrayal. Of feminism. Of aging. Of our team of women worldwide,” O’Donnell wrote at the time.
The internal struggle ran deeper than just the financial cost. O’Donnell wrestled with what message her choice might send to young women, including her own child, who questioned the move directly.
“And then I had this quiet realization … if I’m teaching [my child] anything, it can’t be that my body belongs to an idea either. Even a good idea. Even feminism,” she wrote on Substack.
She expanded on this evolution during a July interview, explaining that her face had begun to look “sad” despite her actual emotional state. Strangers in Ireland approached her with concern, asking if she was all right, which forced her to confront the disconnect between her appearance and her feelings.
“People in Ireland said, ‘Rosie, are you all right, love?’ I’m like, ‘It’s my face. I actually feel happy here.’ I didn’t want my face to be frozen. I had to wrestle with myself because as a feminist I always felt this is the male gaze and not anything I believe in,” O’Donnell told the outlet.
“[My child] said, ‘Mommy, girls look up to you. What does your legacy stand for if you do this?’ I changed my mind for six months and then decided the real power of feminism [is] to decide what we want to do with our bodies and when,” she continued.
Lake’s own journey to cosmetic surgery followed a similar physical trajectory. After her 40-pound weight loss in 2023, she found herself dissatisfied with the lingering skin beneath her chin that no amount of time or exercise would tighten. Her public disclosure about the procedure came two years before O’Donnell would face the same decision, making her an early voice in what has become a more open conversation about celebrity plastic surgery.
The reversal in O’Donnell’s stance did not go unnoticed by Lake, who presented it as a case of changing perspectives rather than lasting conflict between friends. Both women have now publicly documented their procedures, contributing to a broader cultural shift toward transparency about cosmetic work.
O’Donnell has not publicly responded to Lake’s characterization of her initial reaction as “judgy.”