Social media meanies are not the boss of Courteney Cox, who recently made public her decision to dissolve her facial fillers and look as natural as she can. Cox’s role as Monica Geller on the wildly successful sitcom, Friends, brought fame accompanied by a lot of comment on social media about her looks. She felt the weight of others’ expectations regarding her appearance over the years.
“I think there’s a pressure to maintain that not just because of fame, but just you know, being a woman in this business. Learning to relax about her appearance wasn’t easy. “Getting older has not been…I don’t think it’s the easiest thing,” she said. “I think I was trying to keep up with getting older, trying to chase that…it’s something you can’t keep up with.
“I have done things that I regret, and luckily they’re things that dissolve and go away,” she said of past anti-aging procedures. “So now, I have a new motto: ‘Just let it be.'”
Cox recently went a step further when she told New Beauty magazine that she took actively moved to dissolve her fillers.
Natural fillers with brand names such as Restylane, Perlane, and Juvederm include products made with hyaluronic acid, a substance the body produces to plump up facial skin and lips. Most fillers are eventually reabsorbed by the body, which is why they are temporary and need touch ups once or twice a year.
However, fillers made with hyaluronic acid can be removed at any time by dissolving them with an injection of hyaluronidase. Other more permanent fillers will require steroid injections or surgical removal.
“There are certain parts about getting older that are fantastic,” Cox has said. “Just watching my daughter [12-year-old Coco Arquette with ex-husband David Arquette] go through the game of life. I see so much of myself in her, and I’m glad that I can—I’ve been through it, and learned enough now to actually help her go through things.”
One of the things Cox may tell her daughter: Fillers are not your friend.