'Big Brother' host Julie Chen reveals that she once underwent surgery to look 'less Asian', according to USA Today.
Her story was shared as part of The Talk's It's Secret Week segment where other hosts like Sharon Osbourne talked of her "fling" with Jay Leno. On Tuesday, Aisha Tyler made everyone weep as she shared her struggles with infertility.
Wednesday was Julie Chen's turn. She revealed that she had plastic surgery years ago to change the look of her eyes. "My secret dates back to - my heart is racing - it dates back to when I was 25 years old and I was working as a local news reporter in Dayton, Ohio," she recalled. She asked her news director if she could fill on for vacationing anchors over the holidays.
"And he said, 'You will never be on this anchor desk, because you're Chinese.' He said 'Let's face it Julie, how relatable are you to our community? How big of an Asian community do we really have in Dayton?"
Her director continued, "On top of that because of your heritage, because of your Asian eyes, I've noticed that when you're on camera, when you're interviewing someone you look disinterested and bored because your eyes are so heavy, they are so small."
She said, "It felt like a dagger in my heart." She wanted a career in broadcasting and hoped to move to New York one day. "It was racism." She got "very insecure" about it all. She'd watch her segments and, "All I could see was my eyes." So she began meeting with agents for advice to find a new job.
She said a "big-time agent" told her, "I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger. And I did it." Chen, 43, showed her before and after pictures, saying "how dramatic" the surgery was, and pointing out, "The eyes are bigger. I look more alert, more expressive."
