Barry Manilow Says Facelift Was His Only Real “Work”

Barry Manilow, 82, joked that he still “looks fantastic” despite being “100 years old,” then clarified that he hasn’t turned to Botox. He revealed he had one facelift during a period when he lived in Los Angeles, adding that the rest of his “work” has been sma

Barry Manilow can laugh about it—right up until the conversation turns to what he’s done to his own face.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Wednesday, May 27, the 82-year-old singer joked, “I look fantastic, but I’m 100 years old, right?” He added, “I don’t know how that happened, by the way.”

When the outlet asked if he’d had any “work done,” Manilow said he does not get “Botox or anything.” Then he got specific about the one time he went further.

“I must say, there was one time when we lived in L.A. that I did do a facelift,” he revealed. “But after that it’s just been a little here, a little there.”

Manilow’s cosmetic openness lands after a period when his health has been at the center of his public updates. He previously shared recovery news after undergoing surgery to remove cancerous tissue on one of his lungs. “I want to share an update with you all. I’m doing great and recovering very well after my surgery. ” Manilow. 82. wrote in a Wednesday. February 4. statement shared via social media. “I’ve been getting exercise and […]”.

Earlier, he tied the diagnosis to a longer stretch of illness. In December 2025. Manilow wrote via Instagram that he had gone through “six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks.” He explained that even though he was back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas. his doctor ordered an MRI to make sure everything was okay. The scan found “a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed.”.

“It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early. That’s the good news,” he wrote. He said he needed surgery to remove the cancerous spot, and he did not need chemotherapy because it was caught early.

Manilow also clarified how he thinks about “work done,” saying he considers it to mean going under the knife for something extreme like a facelift. “I only had one of those,” he continued. “The rest of it — I see something falling down, sure, I’ll do that.”

He didn’t try to paint it as anything other than personal vanity, either. “I’m as vain as anybody else,” he said, recalling that one of his old friends’ mother told him: “I always knew he was talented, but when did he get so handsome?’”

There’s an unsettling rhythm to the way Manilow has described both the medical and personal side of his comeback: the body can change quickly. whether it’s something he chooses to fix or something doctors discover. In March, he told People, “You just don’t even think about [how fragile life is]. And suddenly, you have lung cancer. But I’m still here.” He added, “I’m still here. I’m not all here — there’s part of me that isn’t here — they took out a part of me. and now I’ve got to figure out. ‘What do I do?’”.

After postponing his concerts during recovery, Manilow later shared that he is cancer-free three months later.

Across the two topics—cosmetic work and his lung cancer journey—Manilow has kept returning to the same basic theme: life looks better when you’re honest about what changed, and when you admit how quickly everything can shift.

Barry Manilow cosmetic surgery facelift Botox interview Los Angeles Times lung cancer diagnosis left lung surgery recovery Westgate Las Vegas Instagram People