US comedian Rosie O’Donnell has opened up about having an “existential feminist crisis” over her desire for a facelift after years of vowing she would “never – ever”.

O’Donnell had a lower deep plane procedure in January, which she said “cost more money than I have ever paid for a car”.

She shared before and after images on Instagram and said she was “quite pleased” with the outcome, which left her looking like a “slightly more well-rested emotionally stable version of me”.

Sharing her experience in a written piece on Substack, O’Donnell said she wrestled for a long time with her beliefs about female appearance.

The mother of five said her children were against the idea, especially her youngest Clay, 12.

“I used to feel very strongly about facelifts. Not casually — morally. I had assigned myself as head of all women who would never — ever,” wrote O’Donnell.

“I thought it was a betrayal.  Of feminism. Of ageing. Of our team of women worldwide.  And then I lost 50 pounds (23 kilograms) …

“It wasn’t wrinkles — it was gravity. I’d look in the mirror and think — this isn’t ageing, this is melting with intention.

“I tried to be evolved about it and say things like, ‘This is natural. This is earned’.

And then… ‘umm how earned does it have to look?’.

“There’s a point where acceptance starts to feel like lying.”

Rosie O’Donnell at an event in Los Angeles in 2024. Photo: AAP

O’Donnell started gathering information about facelifts, even while her children discouraged her with comments like: “You earned your wrinkles” and “I wouldn’t be able to respect you if you did it”.

“It threw me — it really did. I delayed the whole thing for months, changing my mind talking to friends just sitting with it, thinking,” she wrote.

“Then I had this quiet realisation … if I’m teaching Clay anything, it can’t be that my body belongs to an idea either. Even a good idea. Even feminism.

“Because that’s still not freedom — that’s just a different authority telling you what you’re allowed to do with your own face

“I want them to grow up in a world where they don’t feel like they have to change but also knows they can, if they want to, without losing moral standing in their own life.”

So in January she did it.

“I found a doctor I trusted — who had worked on friends of mine who all still looked like themselves, just like they had recently been told good news.”

O’Donnell said “it worked”.

“I wanted to still be me, just … less haunted. And it worked — I do look like me. A slightly more well-rested emotionally stable version of me. I’m quite pleased with the whole thing

“Guess what — no one has noticed. Not one person. Not a friend, not a stranger, not even people who owe me compliments

“My teenager has not said a word. Nothing.

“I went through a full existential feminist crisis, had my face and neck surgically altered, and the result is … zippo .

“Which honestly is the best possible outcome. I didn’t disappear, I didn’t become someone else — I just stopped arguing with the mirror.

“Maybe that’s enough. Or at the very least … it’s what a lower deep plane facelift looks like when it minds its own business.”