Chen said that when she started out in TV at 25 years old, news directors encouraged her to get a procedure done to look more “relatable.” And so she did.
On yesterday's edition of The Talk, host Julie Chen decided to unleash a secret buried deep inside of her to the world: the surgery she had done to advance her career. Here's part of what she said:
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. I asked my news director over the holidays, 'If anchors want to take vacations, could I fill in?' 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 have in Dayton? On top of that, because of your heritage, because of your Asian eyes, sometimes I've noticed when you're on camera and you're interviewing someone, you look disinterested, you look bored.' This one big-time agent basically told me ... 'I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger.'
Here's the before-and-after photo Julie provided:
Later in the segment, Julie said this:
The Talk / CBS
No one's more proud of being Chinese than I am. And I have to live with the decisions I've made. Every decision I've made...it got [me] to where we are today, and I'm not going to look back.
Via usmagazine.com