Justin and Hailey Bieber threaten plastic surgeon with legal action over TikTok video

Justin and Hailey Bieber have threatened to take legal action against a plastic surgeon over a TikTok video that suggests the model has had cosmetic surgery.

This week, Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr Daniel Barrett shared a video to TikTok showing two side-by-side pictures of Hailey, before claiming the 23-year-old has undergone a rhinoplasty, genioplasty, and gotten lip fillers among other surgeries.

“These are some photos that I found that are not edited. What do you guys think?” Dr Barrett said in the clip. “Pay special attention to the nose. 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.”

The doctor then shared additional photos of Hailey, including ones in which the tip of her nose appears thinner, which he said proves that the model has gotten work done on her face.

“That doesn’t happen from puberty or growing,” the surgeon said before concluding: “I think she’s gorgeous no matter what, whether she wants to admit to having plastic surgery or not, it’s her business.”

“Is it too late now to say sorry…” Dr Barrett captioned the clip, which has since been viewed more than 389,000 times.

In response to the video, lawyers for the Biebers sent the surgeon a cease-and-desist letter, which was obtained by E! News.

In the letter, the celebrity couple’s attorneys accuse Dr Barrett of using Hailey’s “name, image and likeness” to "commercially advertise your plastic surgery practice and to spread false, uncorroborated claims that Mrs Bieber has undergone plastic surgery,” according to the outlet.

The letter also accuses the plastic surgeon of using "copyrighted protected lyrics" from Justin’s song Sorry.

“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 letter reads in part.

In addition to asking that Dr Barrett remove the clip and issue a public apology, the couple’s attorneys also warn the surgeon that he is subject to "statutory damages for each willful infringement".

However, in a statement to the outlet, Dr Barrett said he uses his social media accounts to “increase the transparency of plastic surgery and to educate people about plastic surgery” and that the purpose of his video was to share his professional opinion.

“The purpose of my TikTok account is to increase the transparency of plastic surgery and to educate people about plastic surgery,” he said. “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."

The couple’s decision to take legal action comes after Hailey spoke out against accounts that post transformation photos of her on social media.

“Stop using pics that are edited by makeup artists! This photo on the right is NOT what I look like…" she commented on an Instagram account last week. "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."

The Independent has contacted Dr Barrett for comment.

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