The talk show personality exclusively reveals to PEOPLE that she underwent a breast reduction and lift, as well as liposuction, last summer
By Jeff Nelson
When Sunny Hostin first wanted to try cosmetic surgery, family and a famous colleague didn’t share her point of view.
In the new issue of PEOPLE, The View cohost reveals her husband, Emmanuel Hostin, and her costar, Joy Behar, dissuaded her from going under the knife – two years before she finally got a breast reduction and lift, as well as liposuction on her waist and chin.
“She said, ‘You could die with the anesthesia,’ and I got freaked out,” Hostin, 54, recalls of a conversation with Behar.
Emmanuel, an orthopedic surgeon, shared Behar’s concerns and was nervous about elective surgery and told his wife: “You’re beautiful. You’re hot. You’re sexy.”
Hostin acquiesced, until an incident last April prompted her to make a change.
As Hostin was getting dressed for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last spring, she zipped up her Toni Maticevski gown and was shocked to find that the dress’s bra didn’t fit.
“I was crying,” says Hostin, who wound up wrapping her chest in masking tape just to get by. “I sat there and didn’t eat anything. I couldn’t lift my hand because my boobs were going to fall out. [Musical group] Bell Big DeVoe wanted to take a picture with me. I was like, ‘Oh God, they’re going to have these pictures of my boobs hanging out.'”
Hostin immediately booked an appointment with New York City-based plastic surgeon Dr. Ryan Neinstein and breast specialist Dr. Anna Steve. But the federal-prosecutor-turned-talk-show-personality kept her decision a secret from her hesitant husband util just two days before the procedure.
“I said, ‘I’m not asking for permission or a discussion or input,'” Hostin recalls telling him. “‘I’m just giving you information, because I have complete agency over my body, and I need to do this for myself.'”
On Aug. 22, 2022 – during The View‘s summer break from filming – Hostin underwent a breast reduction and lift, as well as liposuction on her waist and chin. She had hired a driver to bring her to and from the hospital and a private nurse to aid during her two-week-long recovery.
After years of struggling with back pain and body-image issues, Hostin – who went from a G-cup to a C-cup – feels a renewed confidence.
“I feel like a better version of myself,” Hostin says. “It was a health decision and a self-care decision.”
Adds Hostin: “Now I prance around nude all the time at my house – I feel great. I don’t know, you may see me naked on The View!”
That’s something cohost Behar may even support.
“Joy said, ‘I should’ve done mine 20 years ago, man.’ I was like, ‘You almost talked me out of this!'” Hostin says. “She was like, ‘I was wrong. You look great!'”
Read more on PEOPLE.com.