‘Full House’ Star Sought Help From Michael Jackson’s Surgeon for Botch Nose Job
The 62-year-old actor opened up about his early-career plastic surgery decisions.
ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images
John Stamos is opening up about the cosmetic procedure he underwent early in his career—and why he’s grateful it didn’t leave him looking like one of the surgeon’s most famous patients.
Appearing on Bobbi Althoff’s The Really Good Podcast last week, the Full House star revealed he underwent a successful rhinoplasty revision with Dr. Steven Hoefflin, the plastic surgeon best known for operating on Michael Jackson.
“But he didn’t make me look like Michael Jackson. Thank God,” Stamos, 62, joked.
Stamos said he was initially unhappy with his first nose job.
Ron Galella Collection via Getty
The actor said he first went under the knife with another doctor while starring on General Hospital in the 1980s after suffering a childhood injury.
“I had a nose job when I was on General Hospital. I broke it when I was a kid. I got hit with a golf club,” he said, pointing to a small scar on his nose.
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The first surgery didn’t exactly deliver the results the actor wanted.
“I just didn’t like the way it looked and so I got it done and it didn’t look great,” he recalled.
That’s when he turned to Dr. Hoefflin, who treated the late King of Pop. The plastic surgeon also performed a rhinoplasty on Tony-winning actress and singer Stephanie Mills.
Stamos made his debut as Uncle Jesse on "Full House" after two rhinoplasties. Here, he poses alongside Lori Loughlin, who played Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis, commonly referred to as Aunt Becky.
ABC
Jackson, who died in 2009 at age 50, acknowledged undergoing two nose jobs and a chin procedure in his 1988 memoir Moonwalk, though speculation about additional surgeries followed him throughout his career.
Michael Jackson (center) poses with actress Elizabeth Taylor and Motown Records founder in 1994.
STR New/REUTERS
Stamos has spoken before about feeling self-conscious about his nose. In his 2023 memoir If You Would Have Told Me, he revealed that classmates mocked him with the nickname “Big Nose Stamos”—a jab that lingered as he began breaking into Hollywood.
The actor admitted his second surgery was driven largely by vanity.
“I’m not all that happy with it,” he wrote of the first procedure. “My nose looks kind of pushed up like Peter Pan or something.”
When another production hiatus rolled around, he decided to try again.
“Who better to handle the delicate task of resculpting my nose than the man who created a whole new face for M.J.?” he wrote.
The nose jobs aren’t the only cosmetic treatments Stamos has experimented with. During the podcast, he said he’s also had Botox in his forehead, though he added that he hasn’t done it “for a long time.”
As for how he’s maintained his enviably youthful appearance, Stamos credits something less glamorous, but perhaps more meaningful, than plastic surgery.
Stamos admitted his nose job revision was for “vanity” reasons.
Danny Moloshok/Reuters
“I stopped drinking 10 years ago. That’s why I’m alive,” he told Us Weekly last August.
He has also credited his marriage to Caitlin McHugh, 40, and their 8-year-old son Billy Stamos with keeping him young.
His beauty routine, meanwhile, remains refreshingly low-maintenance.
Stamos says his wife, Caitlin McHugh, and his son, Billy Stamos, keep him feeling young.
Danny Moloshok/Reuters
“I don’t do a lot. I wash my face. Depends on if there’s some scrub around,” Stamos said, adding that he works out three to four times a week and occasionally uses an electric muscle stimulation device for about 20 minutes at a time.
The actor’s connection to Jackson didn’t end with a shared plastic surgeon. Stamos revealed on the podcast that he once beat the King of Pop in a bidding war over a vintage Disney sign—only to later receive a personal voicemail from Jackson inviting him to Disneyland.
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