Heidi Montag has reflected on the numerous plastic surgeries that she underwent in 2009, and how difficult it was to deal with the lengthy recovery.
Montag, who was then 23 years old, underwent 10 procedures within a single day in 2009. Now, the 37 year old has looked back on the procedures during PageSix’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast, where she recalled the “immense amount of pain” and admitted that she hadn’t fully acknowledged the “repercussions” of the surgeries.
According to Montag, who underwent a chin reduction, breast augmentation, brow lift, liposuction, rhinoplasty, facial fat injections, and had her ears pinned back, among other procedures, she had been assured by her late plastic surgeon Dr Frank Ryan that it would be a “quick recovery”.
“At the time, my surgeon was like: ‘Oh, it will be a quick recovery, a few months.’ And it took me over a year to heal, so I could barely talk [with] my jaw,” she revealed to the podcast hosts. “I just had part of my chin sawed off. It was really a lot just dealing with that.”
Montag had the procedures done right before production for the sixth and final season of The Hills was supposed to start. Before filming began, Montag recalled telling MTV producers that she wasn’t able to bounce back from the procedures as she had with her first nose job and breast augmentation a few years prior.
“I wasn’t even in a place [to film]. And I kept saying: ‘I’m not a person right now. I need to heal and recover and I’m not doing well physically.’ Like, I’m not able to show up like I was,” the former reality star said. “I thought I’d bounce back and be able to be on TV like I was after my first cosmetic surgery. But there was just way too much done and each thing took too much time and it hurt so bad.”
She added: “I was just in such an immense amount of pain.”
That wasn’t even the worst part of the ordeal, as Montag also had a near-death experience when she went under the knife after doctors allegedly gave the Big Brother contestant the incorrect dose of the opioid Demerol during post-op. She alleged that her heart was beating only five times per minute, and that doctors had called her husband and The Hills co-star, Spencer Pratt, out of concern. “They called Spencer at a point and told him I had died basically. I wasn’t doing well,” she revealed.
Though Montag did admit that going through with the procedures was her “obviously [her] choice,” she said that at the time, she wasn’t “aware of the repercussions”. In the aftermath, Montag had to receive around-the-clock care, noting: “We had to have nurses at the house for months to help me recover.”
But MTV producers were allegedly unsympathetic to Montag’s situation and were looking for ways to mine what was ultimately a difficult time for the couple. Montag explained, “So we’re dealing with that and then we have these producers like: ‘Say this and that.’ And we’re like: ‘We can’t do this.’”
The couple - known as “Speidi” by The Hills fans - left the show halfway through the sixth season. Back when the show was at the height of its popularity, the pair were known for making publicity stunts, like faking divorce drama. The couple has since joked about their attempts to get famous again, telling Page Six, “We’re out here pitching a reality show every day trying to get on TV.”
“I hope we can get enough clout before our sons grow up. We’re trying! We’ve got half nepo babies at this point,” Pratt told the outlet. “Right now, they’re like hybrids.” The pair have been married for 15 years and share two sons, Ryker, nine, and Gunner, five.
