Stunning Plastic Surgery Transformations From Athletes' Wives

Thanks to a combination of reality TV and social media, the wives of athletes are a huge part of pop culture these days. And because so many sportsmen lock down their spouses at a relatively early age (for celebrities, at least), it can be interesting to watch how these ladies augment their appearances when they hit the public eye.

We've watched these women reach fame on TV shows like "Basketball Wives," "The Real Housewives of Cheshire," and even "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" — don't forget, the K sisters have always loved to date and marry athletes. Many of them are so down to disclose their nips and tucks, they invite their production crews into the operating room with them. Others prefer to reveal their surgeries in serious sit-down interviews. And some don't ever admit they've had work done — no matter how obvious it may seem.

Of the following 14 athletes' wives, some have opened up about their treatments while others have stayed mum. But one thing's for sure: they've all had some stunning transformations.

Once upon a time, the only athlete's wife who got substantial news coverage was Marilyn Monroe when she wed Joe DiMaggio — and that was because of her status as a screen icon, not due to being the spouse of a baseball great. But all that changed in 2006 when Victoria Beckham led a glamorous troupe of football — or soccer — players' wives around Baden Baden, Germany, during the FIFA World Cup. David Beckham's wife and her crew easily overshadowed the actual sports action by partying, shopping, and looking awesome.

The press even coined a term for the clique: WAGs, or "wives and girlfriends." A cultural movement was born, and Beckham was at the forefront — along with her trademark tan, hairdo, and — shall we say — very 2000s breast implants. The ample assets helped her become an icon of that era's aesthetic, but she would grow to regret going under the knife. In 2014, Beckham told Allure that she'd removed her implants, coyly looking at an old picture of herself and remarking, "I think I may have purchased them." She had previously dubbed her breasts "torpedo bazookas" when speaking to the NZ Herald in 2011, so clearly, she felt iffy about them for a while.

Beckham also alluded to her breast implants in a 2016 letter to her teenage self, published by British Vogue. "​​Don't mess with your boobs," she wrote. "All those years I denied it -– stupid. A sign of insecurity. Just celebrate what you've got." Nowadays, what Beckham's got is a highly respected fashion line and four kids — plenty to celebrate.

Larsa Pippen has been in the public eye ever since she married Chicago Bulls basketball legend Scottie Pippen in 1997. They separated in 2018, but over the course of their marriage, Larsa became famous in her own right. She appeared on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" as a friend of Kim Kardashian West over the years (although their relationship has since soured). She even did a stint on the short-lived "The Real Housewives of Miami" and is slated to return when the series makes its comeback.

As her fame has grown over the years, fans couldn't help but notice her appearance changing, too. This led fans to speculate that Pippen indulged in a few nips and tucks like her friends in Calabasas. While she hasn't confirmed or denied rumors of major surgery, she did endorse a procedure called UltraShape. Pippen commented for the blog of Chicago's Michael Horn Cosmetic Surgery Center, "I eat well and exercise regularly, but there are certain areas that are resistant to all my efforts. With UltraShape, the inches are disappearing."

What is this procedure, anyway? UltraShape "​​uses pulsed, focused ultrasound waves to target and destroy fat cells without harming the surrounding tissues," according to Dr. Horn himself. "It breaks up the fatty material inside the cells that gets absorbed by the body naturally." Pippen claims she "lost 1.5 inches" through the treatment, adding that her friends and her mom are jumping on the bandwagon. Not your typical ladies' bonding activity, but hey, whatever works!

La La Anthony was famous in her own right before she married NBA great Carmelo Anthony in 2010. Millennials might remember her as La La Vazquez, the bubbly MTV VJ. She and Carmelo Anthony separated in 2017, but it seems the "Power" actress' glam WAG makeover is here to stay.

Fans have speculated that Anthony has gone under the knife, with one tweeting, "Lala Anthony unrecognizable af but she got the surgery result Khloe K wishes for." Another thinks she's au naturale, tweeting, "Yall wylin lala anthony aint have no surgery."

Whether or not Anthony's made tweaks, she's doing her part to educate people about the dangers of elective surgery. She partnered with BET on the 2018 special "Killer Curves," which focused on butt augmentations gone wrong, per The Root. Fans still weren't sure what to make of Anthony's own shifting silhouette, with one commenting, "Is she confirming she had work done or strictly narrating [the documentary]?" Guess we'll never know.

Coleen Rooney is a British WAG who became a tabloid staple at the 2006 World Cup in Baden Baden, Germany, alongside Victoria Beckham. Known for allegedly traveling with her own tanning consultant back in the 2000s, per Varsity, it's no surprise that the British public is constantly keeping an eye on her style and aesthetic.

American audiences, meanwhile, may know her as "WAGatha Christie" thanks to her involvement in an elaborate social media sting operation that exposed fellow football wife Rebekah Vardy for allegedly leaking stories about her to the press. Vardy probably isn't speaking to the tabs about Rooney anymore after their protracted legal battle stemming from the WAGatha case.

But somebody from Rooney's camp is clearly squawking: British tabloid The Mirror reported that Rooney allegedly coughed up £50,000 (or $68,000) for a post-pandemic makeover in June 2021 that included "treatments, new clothes and a stylist." Whether she's undergone treatments of the surgical variety or not, fans are loving Rooney's look, calling her look "fabulous" and "beautiful" in Instagram comments.

Fellow British WAG Dawn Ward threw her fans for a loop when she posted a seemingly innocuous photo of herself enjoying a Sunday roast with her football star husband, Ashley Ward, in March 2021. One follower commented, "it doesn't look like her at all," per Closer, and another even speculated, "She was in Istanbul a few months ago I saw, I think she had something done there."

Ward didn't confirm or deny that she'd had a post-lockdown tune-up. But in the past, she's been very open about the work she's had done. She granted The Sun access to before-and-after pics from a 2017 facelift and quipped that she "isn't one to age gracefully." The "Real Housewives of Cheshire" OG cast member also said, "​​I'm going to be honest, when you're on a TV show, you really put yourself out there on display, so of course it's pressure."

She also once revealed she'd had an eyelift, speaking to the Daily Mail about the procedure, and revealed her "bum lift" on Instagram. It's safe to say Ward is one of the most open plastic surgery fans of all time.

Khloé Kardashian rose to fame as Kim Kardashian's little sister on E!'s "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." And since her wedding to NBA player Lamar Odom in 2006, she's also cemented her status as one of America's foremost basketball WAGs. That marriage didn't last, but Kardashian has been spotted with a smattering of ballers since then, most recently her on-again-off-again beau and baby daddy Tristan Thompson.

But the one thing that fluctuates more than Kardashian's relationship status is her look. The reality star first turned heads with what The Sun called her "EPIC new bum" sometime around 2016. And speculation about her ever-changing bod reached a fever pitch in April 2021 when an unapproved bikini photo made its way to the internet. Kardashian's team issued copyright claims to prevent publications from posting the pic. Fans were dismayed and continue not to know whether Kardashian's changing image is due to plastic surgery or heavy photo editing.

Kardashian commented on the controversy on Instagram Live, saying she's had body issues from a young age. She also seemingly defended editing her pics, saying, "How I choose to look and what I want to share is my choice" (via People). Later in the year, she did tell Andy Cohen she's had a nose job and "injections," but continues to insist her growing booty is due to exercise alone.

Rebekah Vardy has endured as much speculation about her looks as her mortal WAG enemy, Coleen Rooney. Vardy shot to fame (or infamy ...) when Rooney accused her of leaking stories about Rooney to the press in 2020. But she was a reasonably well-known WAG in the U.K. already — and with footballer fame comes plastic surgery rumors.

To her credit, Vardy has been open about her two breast surgeries. She indulged in a pair of E cups in 2018, according to The Sun, as a corrective surgery when one of her previous implants ruptured. "I wish that I'd never messed with my boobs in the first place," she said at the time, "but my self-esteem was so low and I just did it to try and boost my confidence."

She's also open about her love of Botox anti-wrinkle injections. She told Mirror Online she'd had "loads" of the stuff: "I go in the sun and I've hardly got any wrinkles. It's not nature, it's Botox." She added, "I can't bear it when women lie about this stuff."

Like her "Real Housewives of Cheshire" castmate Dawn Ward, Tanya Bardsley has been open about her treatments. So open, in fact, that she described how a botched boob job left her breast turning black, according to The Sun. "​​I was left badly scarred after my boob job," Bardsley told the tabloid. "Sometimes things can go wrong. I didn't want to get my boob out in front of my husband."

She also cops to having gone too far with fillers, saying her doctor had to stage an intervention. "When I had my lips done I wanted more, more, more," she told The Sun. "My doctor ended up saying to me I looked ridiculous. I had to have it all dissolved!"

Still, neither of these incidents dampened her love of plastic surgery. She invited "Real Housewives of Cheshire" cameras into the operating room when she underwent vaginal rejuvenation. The clinic where she'd had the procedure posted the clip on their website — and the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority made them remove it, citing misinformation, according to the Bristol Post. Despite this, Bardsley will likely continue to boldly go where few plastic surgery aficionados have gone before.

Ayesha Curry is known as one half of the NBA's most wholesome couple. She and her husband, Stephen Curry, met at church, after all. Her image is so squeaky clean, people have written essays imploring men to stop holding her up as the standard for all women while simultaneously throwing celebs like Kim Kardashian under the bus.

Still, even Curry has indulged in a nip and/or tuck — and lived to regret it. She went for a breast lift while suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Ryan, she told Working Mother. "The intention was just to have them lifted, but I came out with these bigger boobs I didn't want," she said. "I got the most botched boob job on the face of the planet. They're worse now than they were before."

She added that she won't be going under the knife again any time soon. "I would never do anything like that again," she said. "But I'm an advocate of if something makes you happy, who cares about the judgment?"

Getting a divorce seems stressful enough without your ex disclosing the amount you've spent on plastic surgery. But that's exactly what happened to Kenya Bell, a former star of "Basketball Wives." During her divorce from former Golden State Warrior Charlie Bell, she told the court that her ex was shopping at pricey Louis Vuitton instead of paying to support their kids, according to TMZ. He shot back with an itemized list of stuff he thought she'd overspent on.

He claimed she'd spent $110,000 on plastic surgeries and expenses in L.A. for the plastic surgery trips in 2012. It's unclear whether this was accurate, but it took another seven years for them to finalize their divorce, according to M Live.

Bell keeps a low profile now. Even her Instagram is private. But she did welcome twins in 2018 with her new husband, per E! Online. The lucky guy's name also isn't publicly known. That should keep secrets about their marriage from leaking to TMZ!

When it comes to athletes' wives and their openness about plastic surgery, we're sensing a trend: the ones who appear on reality shows are much more willing to talk about what they've had done. And Porsha Williams of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" is no exception.

Williams told Us Weekly that she'd had Botox and regretted it. "I work at Dish Nation and so I'm sitting on the TV, I'm sitting on camera, and they're telling me to make an expression and my face would not move, so just because of my job I couldn't do it, but I loved it by the way," she said.

She also admitted to having her breasts done. During a round table with Glamour magazine, when asked what most "Real Housewives" stars had had done, Williams quipped, "Everything, we're plastic." She added, "I had my breasts done. I mean, I had a big check from Bravo. It was after my divorce [from former NFL player Kordell Stewart]." Williams is now leaving "Real Housewives," but it'll be surprising if she stops opening up about her life.

Perhaps the most common but least talked about procedure in the celebrity world is the Brazilian butt lift, or BBL. Ample behinds have become more and more popular in the past few decades, but most stars don't admit that they're enhancing what nature gave them.

Former "Basketball Wives" star Latosha "DJ" Duffey is an exception. She posted an entire vlog about her BBL procedure, per Bossip, and she was even open about the fact that the pain made her cry. Duffey, who's engaged to NBA player-turned-agent Iman Shokuohizadeh, explained why she's so open about such procedures in 2021.

Speaking to The Jasmine Brand, via Hello Beautiful, she said, "Ya'll see me and be like, 'Damn, Duffey got fine all of a sudden.' I'm not about to lie to ya'll and say I got it from working out everyday, because I didn't." She added that she sees nothing wrong with cosmetic surgery. "If you want to enhance the way you look and you can afford it, I see nothing wrong with it," she said.

Tami Roman Youngblood of "Basketball Wives" helped her doctor out with a little publicity following a laser liposuction procedure. She invited the show's cameras to capture her SmartLipo experience, and her doctor seized on the moment with a press release trumpeting her love of the treatment in 2010.

Roman, who's married to former NFL player Reggie Youngblood, also tries to stay slim for health reasons because she's diabetic. After significant weight loss in 2018, she was subject to trolling. She clapped back by posting on Instagram, "I didn't lose weight, I lost my willingness to die. DIABETES IS NO JOKE!" 

While she chalked her more recent weight loss up to dieting, she hasn't ruled out more procedures. Roman once tweeted, "Chiillee if I could afford more plastic surgery I wouldn't touch my face — but damn if I wouldn't get my thighs another smartlipo." Guess she really did like the treatment.

Former "Basketball Wives" star Draya Michele was subjected to plastic surgery rumors after a video of her body went viral in 2019. Fans couldn't stop speculating about her perfect hourglass figure, according to Bossip.

Michele soon had enough and tweeted a statement in response to all of the rumors. "For the record," she wrote. "I've never had lipo suction, s curve, fat transfer, and Brazilian butt lift ... for any confusion out there. There isn't a doctor out there that can take credit for anything on me except these boobs and that's dr david Kim BEVERLY HILLS plastic surgery." Case closed.

One fan joked, "If Draya is going to puff out her chest and say the only plastic surgery she's had is on her boobs then I'm bout to turn the f*** up in the gym. Let's test your theory, sis." Michele has since launched collaborations with both Fabletics and Alo Yoga, so maybe there's something to the workout theory.