Before And After Pics Of Madonna Make Her Dramatic Plastic Surgery Undeniable

What's the price of being a cultural phenomenon? One of the downsides is that your personal life will always be put under a microscope and everyone will have an opinion about it. At this point, Madonna is used to it. The singer songwriter has been at the center of several controversies from the start, and chances are she will never truly dodge a conflict in her life. The queen of pop went through stunning transformations, but in her late 60s it seems like the controversy she's going to have to deal with is commentary about her appearance. Specifically, the plastic surgery she's undergone.

Madonna broke out in the music industry when she was in her early 20s. Since becoming a superstar with global hits including "Like a Virgin," the whole world has had a chance to see several versions of her — both artistically and physically. Even though she will forever be the queen of pop, you can't expect her to look the same over the course of 40 years. We can't ignore the fact the whole world has been surprised by Madonna's aesthetic choices and how each new change transformed her. 

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Decades apart, these images show a clear difference in the way Madonna's eyebrows are arched and how much thicker her lips look. There's a difference to her jawline as well, and the smooth forehead of her 60s self is a dead giveaway for Botox use. On his YouTube channel, plastic surgeon Dr. Gary Linkov speculates that Madonna started working on her face in the early '90s with subtle touches, including a possible alteration of her hairline which you can see in the photos as well.

Dr. Gary Linkov goes on to speculate that Madonna's first face lift may have happened in 1995 when she was 37. The plastic surgeon also said that Madonna likely had fillers and Botox applied routinely. Around 2010, her face started to look rounder and puffier. Was that an excess of filler? Dr. Linkov thinks so.

Present-day Madonna's appearance is a wild departure from what she used to look like, and people have noticed. In 2023, social media users couldn't stop commenting about how worried they were about her appearance after her participation at the Grammys, which prompted Madonna to defend herself on an angry Instagram post. She wrote (via Variety): "Instead of focusing on what I said in my speech which was about giving thanks for the fearlessness of artists like Sam [Smith] and Kim [Petras], many people chose to only talk about close-up photos of me taken with a long lens camera by a press photographer that would distort anyone's face!!"

Madonna also stated that the comments directed at her were filled with misogyny and ageism, which we can't pretend isn't true. Female celebrities over 40 do get attacked for their appearance a lot more frequently than men, but Madonna went further and stated that the world refuses to celebrate women who are over 45 years old. She wrote on the same post: "I have never apologized for any of the creative choices I have made nor the way that I look or dress and I'm not going to start ... In the words of Beyoncé, 'You won't break my soul.'"