‘I was suffering’: Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown admits he had ‘botched’ plastic surgery
He previously denied he'd ever had any work done
Former Queer Eye star Karamo Brown has finally come clean about his plastic surgery, admitting that not only did he pretend he’d never had it done, but it actually left him in chronic pain.
Speaking to People, Karamo revealed that he’d had a buccal fat removal procedure in 2021 that ended up being botched, leaving him “suffering” in pain as a result of the scar tissue buildup that meant his saliva couldn’t drain properly.
He shared: “For years, people have been like, ‘Karamo’s had plastic surgery. He has so much filler in his face. I was like, ‘You know what? I can’t say anything because you can’t get into fights with the trolls.’ But I was suffering for years in pain and no one knew.”
He decided to get the surgery after gaining weight during the pandemic, explaining: “I was a big boy, and everyone online liked to tell me how much of a big boy I was. So, I was like, ‘Okay, maybe if I slim out my face, I’ll be cute.’ It turned into a year-and-a-half of pain.”
However, as the saliva built up on his cheeks, the scar tissue would then harden it. There’d be times you’d see me smile, and it was tight,” he says. “My cheeks would be big because they were full of saliva, full of scar tissue. I was in the worst pain.”
His pain only got worse when he launched his talk show in 2022, with Karamo explaining: “I would shoot six episodes a day, and there’d be times when I was filming my show that my mouth would get so dry and it would be so swollen.”
He ended up losing more weight after realising that the more he lost “the less scar tissue you could see.”
“The scar tissue and the saliva were still there, but because I was skinnier, it looked kind of normal,” he says. “I stopped eating because it helped the feeling of not having so much scar tissue.”
He started struggling with this appearance more whilst filming for Queer Eye, recalling: “People around will look at you differently and they don’t say anything, but you feel it. That was equally as hurtful as how I saw myself.
“I even remember one of my former Queer Eye castmates was watching an old clip during the final season, and he was like, ‘Oh, look how handsome he used to be.’ I was like, ‘Okay, girl, I caught your little dig, but whatever.’ Those types of things affect you. They hurt your feelings.”
Just seven months ago on an appearance on WWHL, Karamo was asked about whether he’d had surgery, with him responding: “I wish we would stop commenting on people’s photos. It’s ridiculous and tacky. “The way people comment on my photos, I’ve had every plastic surgery, I’ve had everything they’ve told me I’ve had facelifts, nose jobs.
“Thank you, but it’s all real. I wish I did. I want some, I want some, I ain’t gonna lie to y’all, the minute I get some work done, I’m gonna tell all of y’all, okay?”
Despite his struggles, Queer Eye star Karamo Brown explained that he decided to deny that he’d got plastic surgery because he “felt embarrassed that I did this to myself. I would never do it now, but I couldn’t live with the chronic pain anymore. I couldn’t live with my mouth swelling up and not being able to talk.”
He recently got surgery to fix his saliva glands and remove the scar tissue, but also decided to get a lower blepharoplasty whilst he was at it. “To be really transparent with y’all, I was like, ‘While we under, can you get rid of my bags?’ I’m 45!” he says. “He got rid of like 60 per cent of my bags.”
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