REALITY CHECK

‘Mormon Wives’ Star Reveals Her Shocking Plastic ‘Nightmare’

The reality star has struggled for months trying to undo the damage.

A star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives said it has been a “nightmare” recovering from cosmetic enhancements she did not want.

Jessi Draper, 34, opened up about her plastic surgery regrets on Monday’s episode of the CHEERS! with Avery Woods podcast. The mother of two has undergone multiple plastic surgeries and documented her journey on social media to her 4 million followers.

In December 2025, Draper visited a plastic surgeon for a lower and upper blepharoplasty, also known as an eyelid lift, in which excess skin was removed from her upper and lower eyelids.

During the procedure, she also underwent fat grafting, where fat was liposuctioned from her thighs, purified, and injected into her face. The procedure typically helps with a hollow appearance, adds volume, and diminishes the appearance of wrinkles, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Her feelings toward the treatment later changed.

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“I didn’t even want it,” she said. “I think that’s what, like, triggers me so much about my plastic surgery is, I went to get an upper and lower blepharoplasty, and he was like, ‘I think you need some fat grafting to, like, fill in the eyes.’ And so I was like, ‘OK, like do what you think I need to be balanced.’”

But Draper was not happy with all the choices her plastic surgeon made: “That’s all I said, which I shouldn’t have given like free rein that way. Because he took fat from my legs and put it in my jaw, in my lips, in my eyes, everywhere.”

Draper said the “swollen” and “puffy” results can be seen throughout her Hulu hit show’s fifth season, which aired on September 10: “Especially in my lips, because he put it in there, and I did not ask for that. We did not talk about it. So I was very upset.”

The successful entrepreneur behind the JZ Styles hair empire said her “biggest fear” was that viewers thought the results were what she desired: “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I hope no one thinks I wanted to look like that way.’”

The Looker reached out to Dr. Daniel Ward, who had been identified as Draper’s plastic surgeon through social media posts.

He wrote, “We would never knowingly perform any part of a procedure without full informed consent. We discuss the procedures, goals, risks, alternatives, recovery, and treatment plan with our patients before surgery. Every physician should. That is fundamental to practicing medicine.”

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Dr. Ward also clarified that Draper was still healing while filming the season: “People forget that the recovery is not the result. Facial surgery and fat grafting can cause a lot of swelling, sometimes a LOT of swelling.”

He added, “Sometimes the hardest thing to prescribe after plastic surgery is patience. Swelling doesn’t care about our schedule. Looking at Jessi today, I think time made that point pretty well.”

The “puffiness” lasted for months, and Draper underwent other cosmetic interventions to try to reverse it.

“I had to get Kybella to try to dissolve the fat,” she said. Kybella is a brand-name injection that uses deoxycholic acid to break down fat. The FDA cleared it to treat submental fat, or a so-called “double chin.”

Draper continued, “It’s been a nightmare for the last nine months trying to, like, fix what happened. And it was like my biggest regret. So, don’t get fat grafting. Like, seriously, just don’t do it.”

Draper also admitted that she had later realized the entire procedure was unnecessary.

“Even my upper and lower blepharoplasty I didn’t need,” she said. “I think I just got into my head, like, I need to look a certain way. And there’s so much pressure on us when we’re in the public eye.“

Draper said she had seen a lot of online commentary about her appearance, with someone even comparing her to a character from the horror movie Saw.

“People always say, ‘People don’t think about you as much as they think you think they do.’ But when you’re on a reality [show], it’s actually the opposite,” she said.

“It makes your body dysmorphia worse,” Draper said, adding, “At least that happened to me.”

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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