What you need to know
Troye Sivan is opening up about his feelings about aging and cosmetic surgery after the popular social media doctor publicly recommended getting fillers and later apologized.
In a lengthy post shared to his Substack on Wednesday, Jan. 21, the “Rush” singer, 30, wrote about a now-deleted Instagram Reel in which a cosmetic doctor said he “certainly looks a little older” and that “some might argue he’s experiencing the death of a good-looking guy.”
Finally reacting to Sivan’s response, the doctor went on to say that if the Australian singer-songwriter were his patient, he would recommend dermal fillers and several skin treatments, including peels and lasers. In an update to her post, Sivan clarified that she had “no hard feelings” after receiving “really thoughtful and kind messages” about the clip.
But Sivan hit back at the doctor in his first reaction to the video, writing: “What good is money and modern medicine if you don’t fix all the flaws this random orthopedic surgeon tells you about on his Instagram reel?”
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The “One of Your Girls” musician jokingly wrote, “I’m constantly oscillating between feeling like I’ve aged in a good way, getting ‘sexier’ over time, and feeling like a very close pop-singing relative of Gollum. Very old, somehow thin and fat at the same time.”
Sivan also candidly wrote, “I have struggled with my body image for much of my life, as I think most people do.”
“I’m historically famous for being thin, but I’m not so skinny anymore. I’m historically famous for being good-looking (I’m still the ‘handsome’ image in Google search results), and I’m not that good-looking anymore,” he quipped. “Oibei”
He then explained that musicians often react to this kind of pressure in two different ways. One is in a way that has to do with body positivity, as I’ve been trying to exercise and eat better lately.
“I am a body positive person at heart and believe that every body is beautiful. I am grateful for my body (and your sexy body) and it has allowed me to be pain and disease free and do all the things I want to do,” he wrote. “Getting older is cool…I heard this advice (anecdotally) from someone at the top of the fashion world: ‘Stay ugly’. In other words, don’t play with your face. How cool!!”
On another occasion, Sivan said she is still considering cosmetic surgery for herself. But, as he pointed out, he is keenly aware of how expensive and sometimes dangerous these treatments are, and that even after thousands of dollars worth of procedures, you can still look “bad” considering the consultation fee for under-eye fat grafting was estimated at $3,000.
“I’ve always hated red carpet photos. I think there were two times I felt like I looked good in them,” the cosmetic doctor continued, referring in part to a photo of herself she used on Instagram. “On the night of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Gala, I realized I didn’t think I looked good on the red carpet.”
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“For quite a few days, listening to unsolicited medical advice given publicly by doctors I didn’t know pushed me towards a second opinion,” he continued, sharing that social media has preyed on his insecurities and shown him endless advertisements for beauty treatments and products. “My all-knowing, eternally deeply evil algorithm saw an opportunity in this vulnerable moment and pulled every lever and turned every knob to 1000. … I hit the ‘not interested’ button a few times and hoped for the best.”
“…I am patient with myself and understand and respect both approaches,” he concluded the post, before finally acknowledging that the doctor deleted the video and apologized. “It’s our fight against the insatiable cross-species corporate greed that has access to addictive brainwashing technology. Good luck!”
Sivan has spoken openly about loving her body in the past, despite criticism on social media.
In 2023, after releasing an image of himself naked except for a globe on the inside cover of his third studio album, Something to Give Each Other, he responded to critics, writing that his love for his body “makes some people uncomfortable,” Pink News reported.
“I love my body, but I think it makes some people uncomfortable,” Sivan said at the time. “Please don’t ask me about this in interviews. I don’t want to talk about anything I don’t want to talk about, and I think that’s fair.”
