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‘Friends’ Star Swears Off Botox After Bizarre Facial Side Effects

The 62-year-old actress is done with injectables.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedMar 20, 2026, 1:58 PM EDT

UpdatedMar 20, 2026, 3:23 PM EDT

Updated Mar 20, 2026, 3:23 PM EDTPublished Mar 20, 2026, 1:58 PM EDT

Lisa Kudrow just said goodbye to Botox for good.

Kudrow, 62, arrived at an interview with The Hollywood Reporter covering her “inflamed eyes” with sunglasses. She blamed the eye irritation on Botox, the popular neurotoxin often used cosmetically to relax muscles and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

“I think it contributed to my eye irritation and this weird pattern on my forehead, so I’m probably done with it now anyway,” the Emmy award-winning actress said.

Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay for 10 seasons on the NBC sitcom Friends, shared that she only started getting Botox two years ago, when she was 60—notably later than many current users, as injectors report an increase in ever-younger clients coming in for the jab, with even 16-year-olds getting the injections as a “preventative” measure.

“I am scared of having to see myself looking like my grandmother one day,” she told the outlet, adding, “but I’m excited to play older roles.”

Kudrow is currently starring in HBO’s comedy The Comeback as Valerie Cherish, an aging sitcom actress trying to survive and thrive in Hollywood.

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She has previously talked about her “life-altering” nose job, which she had at 16. In her head, she said, the operation took her from “hideous, to not hideous.”

“I did it the summer before going to a new high school. So there were plenty of people who wouldn’t know how hideous I looked before. That was a good, good, good change,” she told The Saturday Evening Post.

Although Kudrow felt positive about the surgery, she later discussed her fear of plastic surgery and injectable enhancements.

In 2014, she told Glamour, “I’m too afraid to do Botox or filler or plastic surgery. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever do it, but it all scares me a little too much."

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At the time, she shared that her beauty secret was joy: “I think everyone’s beautiful when they’re smiling. So I try to be happy. Drink in the good stuff.”

Kudrow’s Friends co-star Courteney Cox, 61, sparked plastic surgery rumors in February after her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Some fans wrote that the star’s skin appeared “tight,” even writing she appeared to be unable to move her mouth.

But many came to her defense, pointing out a double standard they were noticing in Hollywood.

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One fan wrote, “Lisa Kudrow aged naturally, people are shaming her. Courteney Cox had a lot of done surgically, and people are still shaming. How about stop commenting bad things on other people’s looks and instead look [at] yourselves in the mirror and worry about yourselves?”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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