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OWNING IT

‘80s Star Reveals How Implant Surgeries Left Her ‘Deformed’

She said she came to dislike the work she had done when she was younger.

Harry ThompsonNews Reporter

PublishedMar 30, 2026, 11:47 AM EDT

UpdatedMar 30, 2026, 11:47 AM EDT

Updated Mar 30, 2026, 11:47 AM EDTPublished Mar 30, 2026, 11:47 AM EDT

One Day at a Time star Valerie Bertinelli says that her breasts have been left “deformed” by her saga with implants.

Following the March 10 release of her memoir, Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect, she sat down in New York’s 92nd Street Y with buddy and co-worker Drew Barrymore, where the former Food Network star got candid about the fight she’s had.

“I mean, if you read the book, you’ll know that my boobs are deformed, and I talk very extensively and graphically about how deformed they are,” the Golden Globe winner said to the crowd, recalling a conversation with Barrymore.

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“I had four surgeries in 2024,” she said, “But Drew is like, ‘How bad can it be?’ I’m like, ‘Really?’”

Bertinelli, a regular face on The Drew Barrymore Show, said in her memoir that she got the implants in the 1980s, and that despite an initial stage of liking them, she was ultimately left regretting her decision.

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According to People, Bertinelli would go on to show Barrymore, who then said, “Oh yeah, that’s bad.”

“I love her honesty,” Bertinelli joked. “It’s like, I can trust this woman.”

The 65-year-old added, “My boobs suck, but I’m not dating, so it doesn’t matter.”

She told People that after getting the implants, “I liked it for a little while and then started to hate it.”

“At a certain point, I had gained and lost so much weight that my boobs were just,” she said. “I felt like they were down to my belly button. I was like, ‘I just want my small boobs back.’”

In her memoir, she revealed that the decision to finally get them removed came in 2024 after she fell over, but she had a shock when she went to see the doctor.

“I sprinted down the stairs, tripped, and landed on my right boob. I heard a pop,” she wrote. “I knew exactly what had happened.”

Speaking to People, she said, “The look on my doctor’s face when he finally saw me made me think, ‘Oh s---. I guess I should have come in earlier.’ And he took everything out, and then my breast became infected and started to cave in on itself. It became a crater.”

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She went into more detail on that infection in the book. “Six weeks later, I had the surgery,” she wrote in Getting Naked. “My doctor showed me the old implants. They were like ostrich eggs, hard and crusted over. I couldn’t believe they had been in my body. I went home, bandaged and sore, with drains under my arms, uncomfortable but hopeful.”

However, things did not go well.

“About a week later, my right breast took on shades of green, yellow, and blue,” she wrote. “The next day, it started to swell and turned a dark purple. I felt myself getting dizzy. By nighttime, I was running a fever.”

Things worsened, and she went under the knife again. “The second surgery involved removing the implant and the infection from the tissue surrounding the muscle. Recovery took more time. Then my boob started to fall in on itself. The doctor referred to it as cratering.”

Months later, and after another surgery, she was left with a new scenario. “They are now two completely different sizes. The implant on the left is over the muscle, and my right side is sad and misshapen,” Bertinelli wrote. “I’m lucky to have survived.”

Harry ThompsonNews Reporter

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