Sia's plastic surgeon is speaking out about her headline-making facelift, which was revealed last week at the Daytime Beauty Awards.
"When Sia showed up onstage, everybody got out of their seats and they lost their minds," Dr. Ben Talei told Fox News Digital.
"Like, it was a whole ‘nother world for some reason … they just love her. Everyone loves her. And she came onstage and said publicly, ‘Ben did my facelift,’ and she started complimenting me, and she's super, super happy with it."
During her presentation of the outstanding achievement in medicine award to Talei, Sia said, "I'm a pop star that normally hides my face and doesn't lie about s---. I got an amazing facelift from Dr. Talei. He is incredible. And he is doing so much good work – and not just for the pop stars of the world."
"I love when people talk about my work and they're proud of it and you see how natural they look, so people don't have fear of doing stuff because there's no way you can tell she had anything. It's impossible," Talei said. "And for, I think, for everyone else, it's great because it sets an example, you don't need to lie. There's no shame in it. Nobody's saying anything negative about her."
The singer has famously hidden behind face-covering wigs for much of her career, but Talei noted he’s seen a shift in how she presents herself.
"It seemed at first she was just doing it for privacy," he said. "And she doesn't like being in the public eye. She loves singing, she loves people, but she just didn't want to be in the public eye. And that's an amazing thing. She would tell me … ‘When I drive around, it's amazing. Nobody knows who I am. I can go on about my life and, at the same time, I could be a super-famous pop star, but nobody knows me.’"
He continued, "I think more recently there may have been some image issues maybe that added on to that where she just kind of shied away. But now she's just everywhere. And, you know, that's the first time she really publicly went and jumped on a stage and just showed her face to everybody. And I have tons of clients and friends who just say, ‘I never even knew what she looked like, and she's so pretty.' … And they all say the same [thing], 'That's pretty awesome that you can be a worldwide superstar and nobody knows what you look like.'"
Sia told Rolling Stone in 2018 that she suffered from body-image issues, especially when it came to being in the spotlight.
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"I have dieted like crazy over the last 10 years," she told the outlet, "trying to fit into the stereotype of, like, ‘hot pop star.’ Somebody did say, ‘You don’t have to be a model. You’re actually an artist. ... It literally doesn’t matter what you look like.’"
Talei said that Sia wanted to be honest about her decision from their first meeting when she came to his office last year with, as he put it, "little aging stuff happening in the neck, kind of minor," for which he recommended his AuraLyft procedure.
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"Throughout the process, she had said, ‘If anybody ever asks me about it, I'm not going to lie. I hate when people lie about things they do. I don't think it's fair for the body image for kids and people reading about us to think that we don't do anything. We're all just born perfect. So, if anybody ever asks me, I want them to know that I struggle, too. And it bothered me, too. And you know that we're all the same.’ And so she said this from the beginning – exactly these words," Talei said.
Sia, who turns 48 in December, communicated a similar statement to Fox News Digital via Talei, saying, "Please do share the message that I don’t want to lie about plastic surgery and create more insecurities in women in the world, that it’s not typical to look like me at 48, and that’s why I felt compelled to be honest about my facelift, as I don’t want to contribute to the lore self-esteem of women my age who think they should look like me."
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Talei finds Sia’s honesty refreshing because it gets ahead of gossip and speculation.
"The conversation temporarily goes to the fact that, yes, Sia got a facelift, but it does not detract at all from her massive amount of talent," he said.
"If you had something bad done and you hide it, then everybody's whispering about, ‘Oh my God, did you see what Madonna did? Oh, my God, did you see what so-and-so did?’ And it becomes something negative," he continued. "But if you have something natural done and you talk about it, the conversation moves on."
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Onstage, Sia called Talei a "good friend" and said she "can’t say enough good about him."
During his acceptance speech, he expressed his gratitude for her, saying, "She really is, like you can see, a bright ray of sunshine and made my nieces' and nephews' days. She invited them over to her house for a big party, and the whole family loves her. I'm super-grateful."
Talei further recalled their friendship and how enthusiastically she shared her facelift results with friends.
"We're at her house, and she's having this event for children at her house. And any time I walk by, she just grabs me and goes, ‘That's Ben, he did my face.' … And she just shows everybody," he said. "And she's very proud of it. And she's just such a loving, giving person. She wants to make me look good … so, she's always giving people things."
