Heather Gay is pulling back the curtain on the real cost behind her glam. In a new interview with Bustle, the 51-year-old Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star revealed she has spent an estimated $200,000 on cosmetic procedures over the years, and she insists “it was worth every penny.”
The RHOSLC personality didn’t hold back while listing the treatments she’s had and the beauty routines she relies on to stay camera-ready.
“As soon as I had the money and the time, I thought: ‘I am going to try to profit from every single thing that’s available to me. I can afford it, and it’s part of my job now to look good,’” she told Bustle. “I always said that I’d be so much cuter if I were richer. I’m richer now — and I’m so much cuter because of it.”
Gay has been getting Botox quarterly since her 30s and routinely gets fillers, facials, and laser hair removal twice a year. She’s also had lip filler twice a year for around seven years. One of the treatments she swears by is Sculptra. “Another treatment I get is Sculptra, which is a collagen stimulator, with big long needles on your face. It’s pretty intense, but it’s not an actual filler; it’s just a filler stimulant,” she said. “Sculptra is $800 to $1,000 for a vial, and some people get four to six vials. It can cost around $4,000 per treatment.”
Before joining the Real Housewives franchise in 2020, Gay had already undergone two nose jobs. She said a third nearly happened before her surgeon raised concerns about scar tissue. Around the same time, she also got a blepharoplasty. “At that time, I also got a blepharoplasty, which is an eyelid excision for opening up your eyes,” she said. “I got both of these surgeries for free, from the same surgeon, but I think the nose job was around $12,000, and a blepharoplasty was $2,500.”
She explained that her ex-husband, Frank William “Billy” Gay III, paid for her “mommy makeover,” which included a tummy tuck and breast augmentation.
Gay has also relied on weight-loss medication over the past three years, losing 30 pounds. When her weight fluctuates, she temporarily uses GLP-1s again, estimating the medication costs at least $500 a month.
To complete what she calls her “fourth season glow-up,” the RHOSLC star spent around $30,000 on veneers. She said looking “perfect” has become part of the reality television “uniform.”
“I think there should be no shame in people wanting to change the way they look, but I also see that the standard of beauty has become more and more artificial for women,” she told Bustle. “Being on TV, it’s really, really hard to see yourself constantly and to be amongst women who are physically flawless in every way.”
“Everyone has perfect teeth, lashes, and hair,” she added. “It’s what I call the required uniform of a Housewife — and as you become more of a Housewife, it becomes more entrenched.”
Gay has acknowledged that despite all the changes, she didn’t necessarily become more confident. Last December, she told ABC News’ Deborah Roberts, “I look at those pictures of myself and those episodes and think, I love that girl. That girl was braver and stronger and had more confidence being overweight than I did after taking medication.”
She also reflected on how different versions of herself have been perceived. “I never realized how much my weight affected the way people treated me,” she said. “But I have loved all the versions of myself and I feel like body positivity wasn’t a lie for me. It changed my life. It allowed me to be on TV, it gave me this chance.”
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