Surgery’s no answer to life’s woes, Britt
ThIRTY years ago, when I interviewed Britt ekland, she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever met. A huge star in her mid-40s, she was unrecognisable from the woman she is today, after years of disastrous cosmetic surgery.
The Swedish actress, now 73, admits the procedures she had in her 50s ruined her looks. And, arguably, her career.
‘I did a terrible thing,’ she said. ‘They put a lot of stuff in my lips and he [the surgeon] destroyed my face. I can see the pictures of myself on the internet and how gorgeous I was, but at the time I didn’t see it.’
Like many women worried about ageing, Britt thought a little cosmetic procedure here and there would make her feel good about herself and transform her life.
I’m ashamed to say I know how she felt.
I have written before about how I’ve had non-invasive procedures of one type or another over the past decade — treatments such as ultrasound facelifts, for example.
But recently, I decided to take it a step further.
I’d had a rough year with illness, personal upheaval and my mother in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, so to make myself feel better, last Thursday I made an appointment with a leading cosmetic surgeon. I’d had surgery a few years ago for cancer on my eyelid, and I thought he could work a bit of magic on the scars.
I needed a quick fix — something to make me feel better about myself and my life.
The surgeon inspected my face through his binocular glasses, then gave me a hand mirror and told me to smile into it.
‘Why are you here?’ he asked. ‘Look at that wonderful smile, laughter lines and all. That’s what people see, but it’s not what you see.
‘In years to come, we’ll look back in disbelief at this age when women became addicted to surgery.
‘A little tuck here, a nip there and every year they’re back for more, thinking it’s the solution to everything — a broken heart, difficult kids, a parent’s death, a messy divorce.
‘Let me tell you that, in most cases, cosmetic surgery isn’t the answer to anything.’
his wise words persuaded me not to join the 51,000 people in Britain who have invasive cosmetic procedures each year as part of a booming £3billion industry (and that doesn’t include the many thousands who travel abroad for cheap, dodgy facelifts, which often result in disasters).
As for Britt, the former Bond girl’s movie roles dried up years ago, and she now lives alone with her beloved pet chihuahua. Yet actresses of her generation are still working — diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, dame helen Mirren and dame Judi dench, the latter of whom is now 81, to name but a few. True, many of them have had subtle work done, but I suspect that what they possess — and Britt apparently doesn’t — is contentment with their lot.
That’s the lesson I took home from my surgeon last Thursday.