- Hope Donahue's life reads like the profile of a junkie.
And her drug of choice was plastic surgery.
OPRAH: Once upon a time in Los Angeles,
below the sun-kissed palm trees of one of the city's
wealthiest neighborhoods, there lived a pretty little girl
named Hope.
HOPE: I seemed to have everything.
I was beautiful.
I had money.
I went to debutante balls.
OPRAH: Hope was obsessed with being pretty.
She spent hours a day primping, but strangely, she feared
the very attention she craved.
HOPE: I felt people were staring at me.
I had anxiety attacks, couldn't breathe.
It was a huge irony because, on the one hand,
I was completely focused on my looks
and my life depended on being beautiful.
And on the other hand, I felt under such scrutiny.
OPRAH: Though she had no job, Hope had great credit.
More than enough to correct the facial flaw she felt
came between her and perfection.
HOPE: I thought, I'm going to fix my nose
and I'll live happily ever after.
I was 22 years old when I had my first surgery.
I had a nose job.
OPRAH: But the quick fix she had longed for was an illusion.
HOPE: When the bandages came off,
I regretted that it wasn't a bigger change.
I basically wanted a new personality,
but, you know, I didn't get that.
I just got a new nose.
OPRAH: The next surgeries were more drastic.
Vortex inserts to widen her lips and implants
to plump her cheeks.
Again, all paid on credit.
The procedures took hours and left Hope bruised
and emotionally distraught.
HOPE: My whole face was distorted.
I didn't recognize myself.
That was definitely a low point.
I thought, what have you done to yourself?
OPRAH: Hope's parents were so horrified by what
she was doing to herself, they cut off her allowance.
Hope began stealing to pay for her plastic surgery.
HOPE: I was afraid that I couldn't stop.
I didn't know what was going to stop me.
I was maxing out all the credit cards,
and I actually started to steal from my roommates.
And by now, she'd had five surgeries,
all before her 24th birthday.
But like a drug addict, Hope was looking for her next fix
and spiraling towards rock bottom.
I really felt like my life was like a slow motion train wreck
and I was watching it and I couldn't stop it.
OPRAH: Convinced that happiness was one suture away,
Hope found a new plastic surgeon in the classified ads.
And he'd start out by complimenting me and telling me
how beautiful I was.
And then he'd say something like, well,
if you just did something more to your nose,
you would look 70% more beautiful.
And I would be devastated.
I'd think, 70%.
OPRAH: A year after her first surgery, at just 23,
Hope had a facelift.
And I would stop by his office a couple of times
a week, even if I didn't have an appointment.
OPRAH: In the weeks that followed,
she had more lip surgery, then collagen injections.
When her own credit finally ran out,
Hope used her parents' credit cards
and charged her surgeries to them.
There got to be a point where I
had done everything on my face.
There wasn't a feature that I hadn't messed with.
So it occurred to me, breasts.
How about bigger breasts?
OPRAH: This was the longest, most painful surgery yet.
The agony of recovery persisted for weeks.
It was like somebody was burning me with a lighter
inside my breast.
It was the most agonizing pain that I'd ever experienced.
I didn't talk to anybody.
I didn't see anybody.
It was a very lonely existence.
OPRAH: Desperate, this former debutante began posing
nude to support her addiction.
I came in and I took off my clothes.
I saw something out of the corner of my eye
and it looked like it was a harness or something.
It was hanging from the ceiling.
I said what are those?
And he said, oh, that's for my bondage work.
And then he proceeded to show me some photographs
that he had taken.
And it was just absolutely horrifying.
But that was really a moment where
I realized what I was doing.
I did hit bottom that day.
Hope Donahue is the author of a new memoir called,
"Beautiful Stranger," which chronicles her addiction
to plastic surgery.
And so, the bottom for you was--
In the pornographer's office.
OPRAH: In the pornographer's office.
Yes.
I was so broke, and so desperate for money and attention,
that I ended up in a bondage photographer's studio.
OPRAH: So, you realized that you needed help.
That it was-- you were sick.
Absolutely.
I knew I was sick at that point.
Yes.
In the beginning, I didn't see it like that.
It was, I'm just going to do my nose.
And that's it.
And then I'll--
I'll be fine.