Back in January, Dancing With the Stars professional dancer Lindsay Arnold documented her plastic surgery on her TikTok account. The 31-year-old mother of two always wanted to have breast augmentation surgery and decided to be open and honest about it with her fans.
Now in a new interview with E! News, Arnold says that she hopes she can help remove the “stigma” of plastic surgery, especially because going into the procedure, she knew she “would get a lot of hate” from people about what she was choosing to do.
“I knew full well I would get a lot of hate, and a lot of people sharing their opinions about it — mostly negative,” said Arnold, though she did acknowledge that some of her fans were super supportive.
But she wants people to know that she doesn’t care about the haters because it’s her body.
“I don’t care if I’m going to get [the hate] because it’s my body, it’s my life, and that’s how I want everyone to feel about their own body and their own lives,” said the professional dancer.
She added, “It’s something that I really wanted to do for me, truly for just me. I want to help other people understand that it’s OK to do that. It’s OK to do things for yourself. It’s not selfish. It’s self-love, and I hope that it kind of helped remove some of that stigma around that surgery.”
Arnold went on to say that she just wants to be her authentic self on social media, and part of that is being open and honest about getting breast augmentation surgery.
“My whole mentality with social media is I’m always gonna show up and be myself. I’m never gonna pretend. I don’t wanna hide. That’s just not who I am as a person, and so I’ve always known that I would never do that on social media,” said Arnold, adding, “But more importantly, I feel like it’s so normal on social media now to judge others and the decisions that they make for their own selves, for their own bodies, for their lives, and I just wanted to be somebody who shows that, one, it’s gonna happen, but don’t let that change your decisions and what you feel is best for you.”
Arnold finished by saying, “Don’t let the outside noise get to you, and just be confident in the things that you know will make you happy.”
Arnold was last seen on Dancing With the Stars in season 30 with partner Matt James. She previously won the Mirrorball in season 25 with partner Jordan Fisher. She told People that her decision to step away was so that she could spend more time with her daughters, Sage, 4, and June, 2.
“A lot of my priorities and where I wanted to spend my time… it just shifted,” said Arnold. “My mindset shifted. Time goes 10 times faster when you have kids, and I just know that this time is so precious and something that you don’t get back.”
Arnold’s younger sister, Rylee Arnold, has taken up the mantle, though, appearing as a pro on the show first in the “Juniors” season and now as a full-fledged pro in seasons 32 and 33. In season 33, Rylee and partner Stephen Nedoroscik finished in fourth place.
Dancing With the Stars returns in fall 2025 with its 34th season on ABC and Hulu.
