Anne Robinson Discusses her Facelift

Posted on 24. Sep, 2009 by admin2 in Surgical Procedures

While famous people are more open than ever about having had cosmetic surgery, there is still a feeling by some that they must deny having had serious medical help to look young. There seems to be a vague underlying theory that those who look young naturally are somehow “better” than those who have sought out the help of a surgeon.

Recently, there has been a flurry of news stories about TV presenter Anne Robinson – recently back on the radar as the host of the BBC’s consumer news show Watchdog. The show’s website proudly proclaims, “Watchdog‘s back with a whole new look,” right next to a photo of Robinson. Was that a purposeful, yet subtle acknowledgment that the former host of The Weakest Link has an entirely new look than she did when she left Watchdog in 2001? Who knows?

The TimesOnline, Mirror, and Daily Mail have all run features on Robinson that discuss, in a minor way, her career and her comeback as the host of Watchdog. What they’re all really about is whether she has had a second facelift after the one that she had in 2004 (which she openly admitted to having). Robinson denies it, saying that good studio lighting and clean living (smoke-free, alcohol-free, organic food-rich) and maybe a little Botox here and there are the reasons for her new radiance.

In a recent interview with TimesOnline‘s Giles Hattersley, she scoffs at Hattersley’s statement that people are happy to see older faces on television yet even “the Beeb” was obsessed with youth.

Robinson goes on to say that younger women use their beauty as currency, and that there’s nothing wrong with it. Speaking of newsreader Selina Scott, Robinson says, “I’m not saying she wasn’t good, but that’s how she came into the job. And women do often come into the job because they’re young and beautiful. Girls get a much better crack of the whip when they’re younger than men do.”

Reporters seem to react in one of two ways: 1) Why would she lie about having a second facelift when she’s been quite open about hard facts of life like her alcoholism and failed marriages or 2) Why in the world does she feel the need to not only have another facelift, raising the standard by which all women are judged, but then to lie about it, leading ordinary women to believe that they’re somehow inherently “not good enough.”

The general public doesn’t seem to be as concerned as the media. The most common reaction is, to paraphrase, “Who cares if she had another facelift? It’s her money, she can do what she likes with it.” Which may be the healthiest attitude of all.