Valerie Bertinelli takes a shot at a Botox shamer: I did it once and ‘hated it’

Valerie Bertinelli is injecting a bit of humor into a nasty comment she recently received about getting Botox.

“The Botox looks great,” a TikTok user wrote, eliciting a lengthy response from the “One Day at a Time” alum.

“I know you don’t mean that as a compliment, but let’s talk about it shall we,” the 63-year-old said in a video reply that she cross-posted on Instagram. And she did it with the directive for followers not to shame the commenter.

The Food Network host said that six years ago she indeed tried the injectable — a toxin widely used to smooth fine lines and wrinkles — but “hated it.” She even shared a photo of her appearance after the procedure, which she initially hoped would improve her features but instead distorted them, as it has for many overzealous celebrities who have heavily relied on injectables and plastic surgery to maintain their youthfulness.

“As you can see from that picture, it doesn’t look like me. It sort of changed the shape of my eyebrows,” the Daytime Emmy Award winner said. “And what I thought it was going to do was help me with my genetically puffy eyes. They’ve always annoyed me. I’ve always wanted those deep-set eyes. Don’t have them, never going to get them, so I just live with it.”

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Botulinum toxin type A therapy, which prevents a muscle from moving for a limited time, is a treatment administered by medical professionals and estheticians in medical spas to diminish signs of aging. The injections are also used to treat medical conditions such as neck spasms, sweating, overactive bladder, lazy eye and migraines.

Directing her attention back to the detractor, Bertinelli opted to take the high road (much like Jennifer Lopez did when she was hit with similar accusations in 2021).

“You’re trying to shame me and you’re a woman. Like, what made you go out of your way to try to shame me? And I’m not the first person to try to be shamed on TikTok or Instagram, or any place. We’re women, we have to stick together,” she continued. “Don’t shame somebody if they want to do something, anything, to make themselves feel better as they go out into this insane, flippin’ crazy world, OK?”

“Some people can do Botox and it looks amazing on them. I am not one of them or I would’ve kept doing it. But thankfully it faded — I couldn’t wait for it to fade,” she said.

The former “Valerie’s Home Cooking” host also removed a TikTok appearance filter she had been using during the video and showed her natural features. She explained that she liked to use the “water glow” filter because it “kinda softens everything, especially my under-eye circles,” which she said stem from a genetic issue she struggles with regardless of how much sleep she gets.

“So let’s not shame people, OK? We’re all in this together!” she added.

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By Wednesday, the bubbly star seemed to be back in her usual spirits, poking fun at her reliance on two pairs of glasses — one for reading and one for computer use — while editing her next book.

“I’m just wondering if anyone else is as flippin’ old as I am?” she quipped in the Instagram video.

The injectable at the heart of the comment was approved for cosmetic use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002 and has become a widely used treatment to prevent signs of aging. Many patients also get refresher injections when the effects of the original shot wear off after three to six months.

“Barely there” botox has also become popular as cosmetic procedures and surgeries boomed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Botox injections were named as the most popular non-invasive cosmetic procedure in 2020, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. An increase in demand for the injections was linked to the amount of time people spent on Zoom staring at their reflection during the pandemic, Insider reported in 2021, and procedures increased during the pandemic because people had more time to recover at home or behind normalized facial-mask use.