Hailey Bieber is reportedly suing a doctor for claiming she got plastic surgery

By now, it should be a given that what someone does with their body—whether through plastic surgery or any other cosmetic enhancements—is their choice and shouldn’t be up for speculation. But it seems even some doctors haven’t quite gotten the memo, and Hailey Bieber is threatening legal action against one for reporting that she had multiple procedures done on TikTok.

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Daniel Barrett recently posted a video clip on the app that showed side-by-side images of Bieber, suggesting that she’s undergone several procedures, including a rhinoplasty, skin tightening, jawline contouring, a genioplasty (chin reshaping), and filler injections in her cheeks and lips.

“What do you think? Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I think it’s physically impossible without getting a little bit of help from someone like myself to go from this picture to that picture,” he says in the video, emphasizing the differences in photos of Bieber taken years apart.

To be clear: Bieber is not one of Dr. Barrett’s patients, and it’s completely unclear why he decided to weigh in.

Her attorneys threatened the surgeon with legal action in a letter, which was obtained by E! News. She accused Barrett of using her “name, image, and likeness” to “commercially advertise [his] plastic surgery practice and to spread false, uncorroborated claims that Mrs. Bieber has undergone plastic surgery.”

Dr. Barrett’s video comes after Bieber responded to a since-deleted Instagram photo showing side-by-side images of her “transformation.” In the comment, which was captured by a fan account, she claimed the photos were edited, adding, “I’ve never touched my face so If you’re gonna sit around and compare me at 13, and then me at 23, at least use a natural photo that wasn’t edited so crazy.”

Her husband, Justin Bieber, is also listed in the cease-and-desist letter because the surgeon allegedly used “copyrighted protected lyrics” from Justin’s song “Sorry” in the video.

Per E! News, the letter states: “These flagrant and conscious infringements of our Clients’ rights constitute a number of violations including, without limitation: misappropriation of name, likeness, image and persona for commercial purposes, misrepresentation, defamation, slander, false light, violation of rights of publicity, copyright infringement, trademark and service mark infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and interference with our Clients’ contractual obligations to third parties.”

The couple demanded that Dr. Barrett remove the video and all other posts referencing them, along with issuing a public statement retracting his claims. The video is still up as of right now, with Dr. Barrett telling E! News in a statement, “The purpose of my TikTok account is to increase the transparency of plastic surgery and to educate people about plastic surgery. The purpose of the video was not to disparage Hailey Bieber in any way, the purpose of my video was to share my opinion about the procedures that I believed she may have had done based on photos alone. This is at the request of many of my viewers who follow me for this type of information and for my opinion.”

Hailey herself hasn’t commented or confirmed the reports publicly, but it’s never a bad time to emphasize that speculating on someone’s body or appearance is never okay. Here’s hoping that the situation will help shed light on the fact that it’s truly no one’s business what any other person does with their body—famous or otherwise.