Beloved actor Brooke Shields has revealed that her male plastic surgeon gave her a “little bonus” without her consent during her labia surgery.
In her upcoming memoir Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old: Thoughts On Aging As A Woman, the 59-year-old Hollywood star revealed a horrifying incident when a doctor gave her a vaginal rejuvenation during her labia surgery without her consent.
In the chapter titled “No Longer The Punching Bag: A Plea For Self-Advocacy”, which was shared by PEOPLE, the incident happened about eight years ago when her gynaecologist recommended a labia reduction to the star after she’d expressed discomfort with her labia.
“My labia (you’ve got to admit this is a funny word) had been an issue for me since I was in high school, and one I’d been ashamed of forever,” Shields penned.
“It hurt and it was in the way, and when I told my gynecologist as much, she said it was very common and that I was surely a candidate for a labial reduction procedure.”
Following her consultation with her gynaecologist, she said she was recommended a doctor in Los Angeles, where she went under the knife for her labia surgery.
“I had one consultation with this (yes, male) doctor and wondered why I hadn’t heard about this surgery earlier — years of discomfort, potentially fixed! I went in to have the procedure,” she wrote.
“When it was over, the doctor gave me the rundown of how it went.
“‘I was very detailed,’ he said, to my relief and excitement. And then: ‘I was in there for four hours, and you know what I did? I tightened you up a little bit! Gave you a little rejuvenation!’
“Wait, what?? I was shocked, speechless. I can’t remember how I responded, or even if I said anything. Was I supposed to say thank you?”
After discovering she’d received a vaginal rejuvenation — which refers to a surgery that results in a “tighter feel both inside and at the entrance to the vagina” — without her consent, the actor revealed she was “horrified, but also at a loss”.
“He acted as if he’d done me a favour, and that I should, in fact, be grateful. There was a real ‘I threw this in for free, little lady’ vibe to his delivery. But I had never asked to be ‘tightened’ or ‘rejuvenated’ (translation: given a younger vagina). I felt numb,” she wrote.
Further in the excerpt, Shields said she didn’t want to sue the doctor, fearing that her body would be the subject of every headline in the media.
“All I could think was, Why can’t everybody just leave my vagina alone? (Even now, as I write this, I know this will be the bit that makes headlines. Whatever. Women deserve all the information),” she continued.
Speaking to US Weekly, the Blue Lagoon star said the incident “felt like such an invasion” and “like, rape of some kind”.
“[The doctor] legitimately proudly explained to me that he, you know, threw in a little twofer,” she told the publication, adding that her gynecologist was also enraged.
The nonconsensual procedure left Shields feeling both “shame” and “anger”. As a result, she didn’t tell her husband Chris Henchy, what happened to her “for the longest time”.
Shields’ memoir isn’t the first time she’d been candid about her experiences as a woman growing up in the limelight. In 2023’s Pretty Baby, a documentary that followed the life of Brooke Shields from childhood to womanhood, Shields revealed she was sexually assaulted by a Hollywood Executive in her 20s.
Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old, where Shields delves into a range of topics such as motherhood, sex and reclaiming her body, comes out January 14.
