Jennifer Grey Lives Best Half of Life after She ‘Ruined Her Career’ Due to Surgery & Felt ‘Invisible’ for Years

Jennifer Grey was once a very popular star whose beauty trapped even the most valued men, including Johnny Depp, to whom she was engaged. She lost her popularity after making a risky decision, but between then and now, Grey has transformed her life and is set to return to the screen in the "Dirty Dancing" sequel.

Family plays a vital role in the life of most people. The family is usually the first point of contact a child has with the world, and as they grow older, parents pass down lessons.

Sometimes these lessons are scorned by the kids, but in the end, it affects the child. When Jennifer Grey was a child, she knew that her parents, who were in the entertainment industry, had undergone rhinoplasty.

Grey was no fool. She understood that they needed to do it to fit into the image Hollywood had of actors, but that did not stop her from hating the very idea of making changes to herself that way. She said:

"I understand they were assimilating. I understand that you had to change your name and do certain things, and it was normalized, right?"

When she grew older and found her passion for acting, her mom, who was an actress before marrying her father, advised her to get rhinoplasty, too, so she could make progress in the industry.

According to her mom, it was too hard to cast her, but getting a rhinoplasty would make it easier to get on camera. Eventually, she listened, deciding it was the best thing for her career.

One Wasn't Enough

A big risk many people have to contend with when undergoing a surgical procedure is the possibility of something going wrong. Some get away with it, but others are not so lucky.

Grey was among the unlucky ones. Her mom had offered advice to get work done on her nose when she was 25, but she did not give in. But At 26, after she had filmed "Dirty Dancing," Grey did not get more acting offers, so she decided to go for a consultation with a top nose surgeon.

Grey has given up on agonizing over what people think because she knows she has no control over it.

During their session, Grey learned that she did not have a tip on her nose and had a deviated septum, which meant she was only breathing at 20% capacity.

This left her in a difficult position. She was nearing 30 and had spent most of her adult years attempting to love and accept herself regardless of her looks.

Choosing to undergo surgery looked like giving up, but she eventually chose to suppress that feeling and press on with the procedure. Grey asked the doctor to "leave the bump" but "fine tune" her nose in hopes she would be offered a role that was now Jewish.

After all was said and done, Grey was happy with the initial results and started getting roles regularly. However, one year after the surgery, she had been filming "Wind" when she noticed white cartilage peeking out of the tip of her nose.

Grey told her doctor she would need it fixed but was generally happy with her nose and couldn't have her appearance changing in the middle of the shoot.

She Became Unrecognizable

Some weeks after the second nose surgery, Grey got a good look at herself without the cast and was instantly confused. In her memoir, "Out of the Corner," Grey wrote: "I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. I knew something bad had happened. It was like I was on mushrooms, having a bad hallucinogenic trip."

The surgery had completely warped Grey's looks, making her unrecognizable at public functions and to family and friends, including Michael Douglas. Her career went downhill, and her story was used to caution the younger generation.

Grey believes that after the second surgery, the world did not see her as Jennifer Grey anymore, which is exactly what she had been trying to avoid by not getting the rhinoplasty in the first place.

Grey spent years like that, taking back-handed compliments from strangers about her looks and wandering around unrecognized without a steady source of income.

At some point, she even confessed that several flight attendants refused to believe she was Jennifer Grey, the actress, with some even attacking her like she was trying to pull something. It was the worst time of her life, and she has admitted how it traumatized her until she decided she would no longer be that way.

After making that decision within herself, Grey moved forward with the second half of her life and has confirmed that these past couple of years have been her best because there is more peace and just the right amount of control.

Jennifer Grey Now

Grey has come very far from who she used to be and is still very close to her parents. She now has a memoir titled "Out of the Corner" and will be returning to play her iconic role in the new sequel to "Dirty Dancing."

Grey will reportedly be part of the cast as an actress playing "Baby" and an executive producer. According to her, there will be a lot of dancing, music, and romance.

Grey has given up on agonizing over what people think because she knows she has no control over it. As far as the talented actress is concerned, people can "think whatever they want."

She now understands that who she is matters, not what is said about her. Of course, she has bad days when it doesn't seem like that, but the daily practice is something she is invested in.

At her current age, Grey has admitted to having the desire to take up as much space as she can rather than remain in a corner she believes she put herself in. Things are going well for her now, and all Grey wants to do is live it up.