Kelly Ripa found a cure for her “very serious medical problem,” but thankfully it had nothing to do with the infamous coronavirus. And in fact, it’s wasn’t actually life-threatening at all.
In a series of videos posted to the Live With Kelly and Ryan host’s Instagram Story on Thursday, March 12, Ripa revealed that the source of her worries wasn’t the shortage of toilet paper on the shelves at the supermarket, but rather, “acute Botox deficiency” — a.k.a. the need for Botox.
To assist in the cure, the 49-year-old mom of three visited NYC-based dermatologist Dr. Robert Anolik to get Botox injections, even as coronavirus fears ran rampant across the city.
The derm sarcastically described the actress’s medical problem, addressing what happens to skin when one doesn’t treat their “Botox deficiency.” He spoke to the camera, saying, “A lot of side effects: lines, wrinkles …”
“In this time, we can notice that there’s been a lot of worrying,” said Ripa in one of her IG Story videos before the procedure. “You can see it’s written all over my face, but Dr. Anolik decided to be brave today and come into work to treat my acute Botox deficiency.”
The All My Children alum joked that Dr. Anolik was afraid that she was going to touch him. “I appreciate how germ-nervous you are because we all are,” she said.
After the procedure, Ripa took another video to document the process for her 2.7 million Instagram followers and to pose two questions for the doctor. “What do you think, did I survive? Is there any Botox left for anyone else?”
Dr. Anolik joked, “We used it all up. Hopefully there won’t be a shortage.”
Ripa is very open about her Botox use. In fact, on Live With Kelly in November of 2016, she even revealed that she once had a traumatizing experience. Us Weekly’s guess is that it wasn’t from Dr. Anolik.
“I’m going to tell you a story I’ve never told anyone,” Ripa told guest cohost Megyn Kelly. “I got bad Botox about … What was it, a year ago? And it was bad. It did something to my good side, so then I had two bad sides. I’m not kidding!”
But after six months, her situation improved. “I’m starting to look myself again!” she noted. “There was about a six-month period where people were like: ‘What’s wrong with Kelly? She doesn’t smile anymore.’ And I was like: ‘I am smiling!’”
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