Celebs Who Kept Their Major Surgeries A Secret

Every human should be entitled to privacy, but that fact is often forgotten when it comes to celebrities. The expectation is that they must share all of their personal details with the world, and if they do not, the tabloids will do it for them.

Health matters are one of the only areas that can at times be kept under wraps, no doubt because HIPAA laws protect people from their medical information being released without their consent. Unless a celebrity has a rat within their orbit, telling only a trustworthy inner circle about a health problem or surgery can prevent leaks to the media. This is a strategy many celebrities have used when faced with serious medical issues requiring surgery, as it allows them to recover before having to field questions about the ordeal.

Some celebrities have little concern for privacy, and it's not uncommon for stars to post snaps from the hospital either directly before or after surgery. Kate Micucci, Doja Cat, and Paulina Porizkova are three examples of this new trend. Other stars, like Lindsey Vonn and Kathy Griffin, have even announced their upcoming surgeries well before entering the hospital. But more commonly, stars try to keep things quiet until they are in the clear — and sometimes for months, years, or even decades beyond that.

Actor Emilia Clarke chose to write a poignant essay for The New Yorker in 2019 detailing the two difficult surgeries she underwent for brain aneurysms. These surgeries saved her life, but Clarke kept them a secret for years for fear of the news affecting her career. Though she second-guessed her choice two weeks before the essay went to press, Clarke eventually decided to move forward.

"I knew that I had to tell this story because I wanted people who are suffering from it to know that this is also what brain injury looks like, and that you can do it," she told Extra. "I wanted people to not feel alone if they did. I knew it was my duty, but it's hard."

In 2011, just after wrapping filming for the first season of "Game of Thrones," Clarke was rushed to the hospital after falling violently ill mid-workout. She had experienced a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is so serious that a third of people die from it, and underwent immediate surgery to avoid a possibly fatal second bleed. While in the hospital, Clarke learned of another bleed on the other side of her brain. It doubled in size by the time she went under the knife for it in 2013, in a surgery that failed and left her in need of a third, more invasive one through her skull. "I spent a month in the hospital again and, at certain points, I lost all hope," she wrote.

Most of the surgeries on this list occurred after the star was already famous, or at least when they were on their way up the Hollywood food chain. This one, however, relates to a childhood surgery that Jamie Kennedy decided not to share when he was an up-and-coming actor. The comedian became famous in 1996 thanks to the iconic horror film, "Scream," and he followed that up with a series of projects, such as "Clockwatchers" and "Starstruck." He has since had a couple of hits and a few less successful movies — "Son of the Mask" even earned him two Razzie nominations – but Kennedy has remained a recognizable character actor and public figure for decades.

Kennedy was 45 when he went on "The Doctors" in 2016 to reveal that he had a pacemaker, but the congenital heart block he discussed had been a part of his life since he was 10 years old. The disease — which interferes with the conduction necessary for regular, rhythmic heart activity to occur – can vary in severity, but Kennedy's was so bad that he had to have the pacemaker installed when he was 14.

The doctors on the show were surprised, presumably because the average pacemaker recipient is well over 60, and also because pacemakers from that era are typically noticeable under the skin. "You thought I had nice ... You thought I had breast implants?" Kennedy joked (via E! News).

It was surprising that Meghan Trainor once kept an intense vocal surgery private, and not just because her first vocal surgery was majorly publicized. Trainor is the ultimate queen of the overshare, publicly discussing things like the side-by-side toilets she and her husband have in their home. So, yeah, the fact that Trainor can keep any information private is a revelation, but perhaps she wanted a choice in the matter this time. When she had her first vocal surgery in 2015, Trainor was forced to put it out there because her voice problems required her to cut the remainder of her MTrain Tour.

Without a tour happening or press to do, Trainor was able to keep her second vocal cord surgery a secret until an interview with Ellen DeGeneres in 2017, after completing three months of vocal rest. "It was scary. It's another time of like, 'I'm going to take away all your hopes and dreams for a second, put it on pause and see if they come back,'" Trainor told People. For a singer, anything going wrong in that area has the potential to be a career-ender. Just ask Julie Andrews, whose own 1997 vocal surgery only became public because she sued her doctor after losing her legendary singing voice.

Mark Ruffalo is a stellar actor and a passionate activist, who, amongst other things, started Water Defense to educate about water filtration and softening systems, serves on the board of the renewable energy organization, The Solutions Project, and has done so much anti-fracking work that New York Magazine dubbed him the cause's "first famous face." Somehow, he has also had time to develop a stellar acting resume and build a gorgeous family of three kids with his wife, Sunrise Coigney, all in between protests and board meetings.

All of these accomplishments are even more remarkable when you consider some of the personal challenges Ruffalo has faced, including a frightening health scare that left him with a permanent disability. The actor took decades to talk about his 2001 brain surgery, first doing so in a 2024 appearance on the "Smartless" podcast. He recounted how it was a premonition that made him go to the doctor, where he was found to have a large tumor behind his left ear. 

Though his surgery revealed the mass was benign, it left Ruffalo with a year of temporary facial paralysis and permanent deafness in one ear. "Take my hearing, but let me keep the face and just let me be the father to these kids," he recalled (via CNN) of his mindset at the time.

Larry King decided to tell the world about his lung cancer to raise awareness. The journalist was specifically looking to encourage people to receive regular checkups, as that was how his lung cancer was detected. King was diligent not only his with checkups, but also by insisting on a barrage of routine tests upon each visit. When his x-ray showed abnormalities, his doctor sent him for a CAT scan and then a PET scan, which led to them catching the lung cancer while it was in its first stage. "They said I was lucky and smart to get annual chest x-rays, because lung cancer doesn't give you any signs until it's in late stages," he told People. "And by then, it's too late."

King then embarked on a two-week speaking tour abroad after finding out about his cancer in July 2017, but scheduled his surgery to occur immediately upon his return. "They went in through my ribs with a tiny camera and snipped it out," he explained to the outlet. "I only had a little pain and some shortness of breath but once my speech is back full — and that took about a week — I went right back to work." King waited over a month to share his cancer journey with the media, but he did a whole blitz once he was ready. "They took off 20% of the lung," he told Us Weekly at the time.

The world mourned when Matthew Perry died in October 2023, as the actor was beloved for his work as Chandler on "Friends" and his many other comedic performances. He appeared to have been doing well overcoming the addiction issues that had plagued him for decades — and in his 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" — made it seem as though his troubles were a thing of the past.

"I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people," he told People. An autopsy report released in December 2023 confirmed that there were high levels of ketamine in the actor's body — higher than could be explained by the ketamine therapy he underwent weeks before — when he had died. 

It was a sad end for Perry, who had overcome so much, including more than a dozen secret surgeries. In his book, Perry revealed that opioid use at one point caused his colon to burst, and the gastrointestinal perforation caused him years of complications. He spent two weeks in a coma, five more months in the hospital, and used a colostomy bag for nine months. He also had to undergo 14 painful stomach surgeries, all of which he discussed with a solid dose of his trademark sarcasm.

Toni Braxton has traditionally been quite open about her health struggles, including her battle with lupus and the heart and kidney problems that have arisen as a result of that disease. In early 2008, Braxton was diagnosed with microvascular angina, which she shared publicly and even highlighted during her stint as a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars" later in the year.

When Braxton's heart problems escalated in 2022, she kept the information — and the ensuing surgery — under wraps until she felt ready to share the story. It took seven months for Braxton to open up, which she did in an exclusive April 2023 interview with People magazine. "The doctors told me I could've had a massive heart attack, I would not have survived," she disclosed. Braxton usually undergoes regular testing, including blood and urine tests, to stay on top of her lupus, but recalled falling behind. By the time she finally went for testing, doctors found abnormalities in her heart and an 80% blockage in her main coronary artery. 

The Grammy-winning singer went in for emergency surgery only two days after the tests, wherein doctors inserted a coronary stent to help keep the passageway to the heart open. "It was really a scary moment," she said. "Had I not gotten that test, my life would've been different." Like so many others, Braxton explained she was sharing her experience in an effort to help people understand the importance of regular doctor visits.

There are so many people connected to the British royal family that information rarely gets kept secret, even when the royals desperately wish it would. Occasionally, an extremely sensitive matter can manage to be kept under wraps with some careful planning and a solid gauge of who can be trusted not to talk to the press. That's exactly what happened when Kate Middleton went in for abdominal surgery, shocking not only the public but also those closest to the Princess of Wales.

"Within their broader circle of family friends, there had been no indication that anything was wrong, and the carefully guarded news about Kate's situation came as a surprise even to those who work closely with the royal family," wrote People, with the reason for the surgery not being publicly disclosed.

Representatives for Kensington Palace announced that the princess was in the hospital on January 17, for a planned abdominal surgery that happened the day prior. She spent a couple of weeks in the hospital, but by February 1, was said to be working from her bed at Adelaide Cottage, the home on the Windsor Estate where the princess lives with the Prince of Whales and their three children.