Liza Minnelli's Ex Had Plastic Surgery After Michael Jackson Encouraged Him – He Later Called It 'The Stupidest Thing': Rare Before Photo

Years before his marriage to Liza Minnelli and his reality TV fame, David Gest made a decision about his appearance that he would spend years regretting — and traced it back to advice from one of his closest friends. A rare photo from before those procedures awaits readers at the end of the article.

Long before David Gest became known for his marriage to Liza Minnelli, his work in entertainment, or the television appearances that made him a familiar face in Britain, he was a teenager fascinated by music who wanted to meet a young performer whose family group was beginning to attract attention.

That performer was none other than Michael Jackson. Gest was 15 when he met 10-year-old Jackson at Walton School in Panorama City, California, as the Jackson 5's popularity was growing.

Their five-year age difference did little to prevent a close friendship from forming, and Gest also became particularly close to the "Man in the Mirror" singer's brother Tito Jackson, spending time living with the Jackson family during his teenage years.

Looking back decades later, however, he made clear that he wished he had approached his appearance differently.

As they grew older, their lives remained intertwined, with rare photographs from their younger days capturing a version of the two friends before their appearances became a frequent subject of public discussion.

In one set of images believed to have been taken when Jackson was in his early 20s and Gest was slightly older, the pair could be seen joking together in a photo booth. Another showed them alongside singer Paul Anka and Jackson's former sister-in-law, Dee Dee Jackson.

By then, Jackson had reportedly undergone a nose operation after breaking his nose during a difficult dance routine, but the more extensive changes to his appearance associated with later years had yet to come.

Gest would soon make changes of his own, and he later said his longtime friend had played a part in convincing him to do so. During the early 1980s, Gest underwent a nose job and a facelift, followed by a hair transplant in 1990.

Looking back decades later, however, he made clear that he wished he had approached his appearance differently. Gest recalled during an appearance on "Loose Women" in 2016:

"I had a facelift when I was very young because Michael Jackson said to me, 'You've got to make yourself always look better.'"

At the time, the encouragement from someone he had known since childhood was enough to influence his decision. "I thought to myself, 'Oh, I'll do this because Michael told me.' What an idiot I was," he continued.

With years of hindsight, Gest's message about cosmetic procedures had changed completely. "I'm telling people, be who you are. You do not need to do plastic surgery. It's the stupidest thing in the world," he said.

Gest also spoke candidly about Jackson's changing appearance, describing his friend's desire to look good as something that eventually became consuming. In Gest's view, Jackson had never needed to alter the looks he had naturally.

"Michael was so concerned with looking good. He had great looks to start with and never needed to do anything, but the plastic surgery was an obsession," Gest shared.

He believed his friend ultimately "took it too far" and later came to recognize that himself, while also arguing that further operations should not have continued after Jackson's second nose job.

Gest's own life would eventually take him in a very different direction from the teenager who had first befriended the future King of Pop.

He built a successful career as a music producer in the United States before his personal life drew international attention in 2002, when he married Liza Minnelli in an elaborate, celebrity-filled ceremony.

The marriage lasted little more than a year before the couple separated, although their divorce was not finalized until 2007. More than two decades later, Minnelli revisited the relationship in her 2026 memoir, "Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!"

She described the marriage as "insane" and claimed that she had felt "controlled" and "like a prisoner." The actress and singer was equally unsparing about her decision to marry Gest.

She wrote, "I clearly wasn't sober when I married this clown." Reflecting on what she said were warning signs she had overlooked, Minnelli added:

"What kind of fool was I? The biggest one who ever lived."

As for Gest, by the time the marriage formally ended, he had already found another audience in Britain. His appearance on "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" in 2006 introduced television viewers to a different side of the producer.

Jackson was reportedly an enthusiastic viewer as his old friend competed alongside celebrities including Myleene Klass and Jason Donovan. Gest later continued appearing on British reality television, including "Celebrity Big Brother," and chose to settle in York.

That later chapter of his life ended on April 12, 2016, when Gest was found dead at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf, London, at 62. Police said at the time that his death was not being treated as suspicious.

By then, the boy who had sought out Jackson decades earlier had lived much of his adult life in the public eye, and his appearance had changed considerably along the way.

The rare photo at the end of this article captures Gest before those procedures, offering a look at him years before the nose job, facelift, and hair transplant that became part of a decision he would later describe as "the stupidest thing in the world."

David Gest and Liza Minnelli

David Gest

Rare Photo of David Gest and Michael Jackson