Brandi Glanville is done with people talking about her looks. The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star has spent more than 10 years dealing with commentary about her appearance, reaching her breaking point amid the pandemic.
“I was super depressed and I kind of went offline, I didn’t do any video chats, I didn’t do anything,” the 48-year-old shares with ET, ironically, over video chat. “And then when I finally did an interview in Australia, other people picked it up and were like, ‘Brandi looks completely different. She looks crazy!’ They were so mean.”
Headlines dubbed Brandi “unrecognizable,” with article after article reading as a guessing game as to what plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures the Drinking and Tweeting author may have had done. Ultimately, Brandi felt forced to reveal a private medical accident that left her severely burned and scarred on her face, sharing startling photos on Twitter.
“I didn’t plan on sharing those pictures, because obviously they’re disgusting,” Brandi admits. “I feel like Khloe Kardashian in a less famous way, because people for the past 10 years have been picking on everything about the way I look, everything. ‘She’s plastic. She’s this, too much filler, too much Botox…’ Whatever it is like, ‘She’s so fake!’ It’s been constant, constant. And so I just thought to myself, you know what, guys? Here’s my real struggle. I have burns all over my face and I’m going to have to deal with that scarring for the rest of my life. And please don’t kick me when I’m down.”
Khloe just spoke out against appearance shaming after an unauthorized photo of her made its way online. While fans called the seemingly un-retouched picture “beautiful,” Khloe said it was within her rights to not have a snapshot she didn’t like on the web after years of ridicule about her own appearance.
“Who goes after someone for the way they look?” Brandi asks. “I feel for Khloe because I’ve been going through it, too, for 10 years, no one has anything nice to say. And it’s just like, even if I did get a bunch of plastic surgery — which I will one day — why is anyone else commenting on it? Why is it up to them to say, ‘Oh my god!'”
Brandi says people don’t seem to accept that people they see on TV will age and change over time. It’s not always plastic surgery, fillers or Botox that lead to a difference in appearance.
“I’ve gained 20 pounds during COVID,” she confesses. “I’m 10 years older. I’m not 35 years old anymore. A lot of [the Housewives] look better than they did 10 years ago. I’m like, geez, wow. I need to start doing something. But we change, and it’s part of it. It’s life. I’m like, I’m not allowed to age? I’m not allowed to gain the ‘COVID 19’ like everyone else? Like, come on people.”
“I mean, you have your opinion, but don’t put it on me,” Brandi adds. “I do care what my family thinks. I don’t care what haters are saying. I mean, I’m already having anxiety and depression because of the pandemic. I’m on an antidepressant. That kind of thing did not help. I didn’t get out of bed for three days after I saw those articles. I was so devastated.”
Brandi takes full responsibility for the incident that left her scarred, calling it “user error” while operating a special light to help treat her psoriasis. She left the high-intensity rays on her face for more than 17 minutes, when she was only supposed to use the device from her dermatologist for a little over 17 seconds.
