The Real Housewives Of London burst onto streaming platform Hayu last August, delivering a high-gloss glimpse into a world of wealth, glamour and elite society in the UK spin-off of this global franchise.
Fronted by six affluent women, including socialites Amanda Cronin, Juliet Angus, Panthea Parker, Nessie Welschinger and fashion designer Karen Loderick-Peace, the show revels in excess and opulence, but behind the polished facade, the pressure to look perfect is very real.
Just ask castmate Juliet Mayhew.
Known to friends as ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ Juliet’s off-camera reality tells a different story. As filming ramped up, she found herself on a mission to refresh her appearance for the unforgiving lens of reality TV.
The Australian-born actress-turned-lifestyle entrepreneur understands the role she plays in a world where every detail is scrutinised, and perfection is expected. And as she got older, the signs of ageing became harder to ignore on TV.
Her once-bright sparkling blue eyes, she says, were increasingly overshadowed by sagging eyelids. By last December, she decided to act.
Juliet discreetly underwent a series of procedures, including upper eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), a mini facelift and stem-cell treatments worth £28,000 under renowned surgeon Tunc Tiryaki, who is often dubbed the ‘Da Vinci of facelifts’ and is the co-founder of the London Regenerative Institute.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Juliet said: ‘I think that a lot of women struggle with their appearance and we need to be very open about the processes we’re going through, and I think that brings freedom to what used to be almost scandalous.’
As the Real Housewives of London castmate Juliet Mayhew (pictured before her facelift, left, and after, right) approaches 50, ageing, inevitable for anyone, has become harder to ignore, she told the Daily Mail
While she may not fit the traditional mould of a housewife, Juliet’s home life is firmly rooted in luxury.
She lives with her hedge fund manager husband, Antony ‘Tiggy’ Mayhew, and their two children on an exclusive street in Kensington and Chelsea, which remains one of London’s most prestigious conservation areas.
The couple will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary this year, and she recalls a candid conversation just a week before they married.
‘I said to him, darling, I have no issues with my self-esteem before you start saying I need help. There will be a time when I will vanish for a week or so, and I will come back refreshed, and that’s all there is going to be, and if you aren’t going to agree with it from the outset, it’s a no-go for the marriage.’
‘He just looked at me and said, “but I’m going to love you whatever which way you look”.’
Reflecting on that moment now, she adds, ‘The worst part of this whole conversation is my husband has not changed one iota since we got married. He still looks as young. People meet him and say, “Tiggy, you look younger than you did”.
‘Whereas I’m the one who’s ageing. I was like, well, because I’ve given birth to two children and I’m running this household, and running businesses. I feel like I’m multitasking.’
Despite her husband’s unwavering loyalty, Juliet believes the entertainment industry is far less forgiving when it comes to beauty standards.
Known to friends as ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ Juliet’s (pictured after her facelift) off-camera reality tells a different story. As filming ramped up, she found herself on a mission to refresh her appearance for the unforgiving lens of reality TV
Juliet (pictured before the procedures) discreetly underwent a series of procedures, including upper eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), a mini facelift and stem-cell treatments worth £28,000 under renowned surgeon Tunc Tiryaki, who is often dubbed the ‘Da Vinci of facelifts’ and is the co-founder of the London Regenerative Institute
‘I’ve got the camera in my face, up close and personal,’ she says. ‘I definitely noticed in some of the scenes, the hood of my eye, was sagging and I felt like they’re a little heavier, and I want that brightness back.’
For Juliet, expression is everything. ‘The eyes are the windows to the soul, and I have big eyes, and I communicate a lot with my eyes. I’m a very happy, bright, sunny person, and I smile a lot, and the pros and cons with smiling a lot, is you get a lot of wrinkles and a lot of creases.’
The mother of two, who was educated at the Arts Educational School Tring, founded by Dame Alicia Markova, explains how even small details have changed: ‘Even the way that I put on eyeshadow I had to be careful because it not only enhances the fact that I’ve got a bit of a hooded eye but that I look older.’
As a wealthy housewife, Juliet has made maintaining a polished image part of her daily life. ‘Some people may call it glamorous but I think it’s being well-groomed and disciplined.’
She adds: ‘I think the other side of that is often people don’t want to spend time looking after themselves because they have to then address how they feel about themselves.’
Self-preservation, she says, is essential. ‘I basically eat well and work out because this body is all I’ve got to work with, and I need to take care of it from the inside out and equally, I do not want to go in and a stylist sends me dresses and not be able to fit because I’ve gone and eaten 20 doughnuts that I don’t need to eat. I can enjoy a doughnut, but I don’t need to eat 20 of them.’
She is equally candid about ageing and appearance. ‘As I age, my boobs will go south. Why do I not want them to help keep them going north, and to keep myself looking younger? I don’t think it should be taboo that we are doing something to enhance our looks. I guess I want to always look beautiful for my husband.’
However, she acknowledges that her perspective clashes with that of her parents, who are both from medical backgrounds.
‘I come from a line of medics who spend their lives saving lives. I can hear my father and my mother going, “Are you absolutely insane? Why would you put yourself in a situation for something that you do not need? This is vanity and absolutely not saving a life here, Juliet, it’s like, why would you do those things to yourself for the sake of beauty? Like, we love you as the way you are”.’
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Juliet (pictured before her facelift, left, and after, right) said: ‘I think that a lot of women struggle with their appearance and we need to be very open about the processes we’re going through, and I think that brings freedom to what used to be almost scandalous’
As a wealthy housewife, Juliet has made maintaining a polished image part of her daily life. ‘Some people may call it glamorous but I think it’s being well-groomed and disciplined’
She recognises the contradiction in her own thinking. ‘Then I’ve got the other side saying, do you know what, I absolutely hate needles and will faint every single time I have a blood test, and yet I will never miss my Botox appointment. So it’s all to do with vanity.’
Still, Juliet is unapologetic. ‘Who is not led by vanity that has the camera in their face? You want to look your best. You want to put your best foot forward.
Juliet cemented her decision after a consultation with Dr Tiryaki at the Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea in October last year, when she opted for a lower face and neck lift, eyelid surgery, and a stem-cell–enhanced fat transfer using fat taken from her thighs.
A pioneer in facial regeneration, Dr Tiryaki was among the first to use fat-derived stem cells in facelift procedures. His method restores volume with fat while deploying stem cells to improve skin quality and support ageing facial structure, making it a procedure that tackles more than just surface sagging.
‘A facelift alone isn’t enough if definition is lost,’ he says, explaining that his approach also targets bone resorption and skin health to achieve a more natural result.
The three-hour procedure lifts and refines the neck, jawline, and face while subtly reinforcing the cheeks, chin, and temples creating a more balanced, youthful contour.
Juliet, he adds, was an ideal candidate as patients without prior fillers tend to deliver the best results, as their natural facial structure allows for a cleaner, more seamless outcome.
But was it worth it in the end?
The Daily Mail followed Juliet before, during, and after her December procedure, documenting her transformation.
Juliet (pictured after her facelift) cemented her decision after a consultation with Dr Tiryaki at the Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea in October last year, when she opted for a lower face and neck lift, eyelid surgery, and a stem-cell–enhanced fat transfer using fat taken from her thighs
Far from the comfort of her home in SW3, she still found herself surrounded by luxury when she checked into Acibadem Maslak Hospital in Istanbul, widely regarded for its 360-degree approach to specialist aesthetic care.
Placed under general anaesthetic, Juliet woke to a stark new reality. As she recalls: ‘They had ice packs on my face every 20 minutes to reduce swelling around the clock, and I was using Arnica cream. So, I was basically resting and I slept a lot for the first two days. I was just swollen.
‘Having surgical drains in is not particularly pleasant, but the nurses even assisted me and washed my hair for me, they were so amazing. So that first 24 hours is a bit of a shock.’
Following her 48-hour stay at Acibadem Maslak Hospital, Juliet made the precautionary decision to remain in Turkey for an additional three days.
It wasn’t Juliet’s body alone that needed rest as mentally, she realised this pause was just as necessary.
‘I literally felt like being isolated despite the fact I had an operation. I went into that operation at the end of last year pretty exhausted as it was probably one of the most intense years of my life with Season 1 of the Real Housewives London and everything else going on including my daughter going away to university.’
She reflects: ‘There was so many big changes that happened that I think my body was just ready to rest.
‘So, I didn’t really go in battling resting and I think if you’re going in trying to multitask while you’re going through this operation, it’s probably going to backfire.
Juliet (pictured before her facelift) believes her new face supports the ‘longevity’ she’s aiming for on camera and on stage as she recently joined the cast of Titanique in the West End
‘I was drinking a lot of water, eating anti-inflammatory foods, fresh fruit and vegetables and was walking every day for a good hour. I felt replenished and spent time reading books. I hadn’t done that for a long time. I wasn’t on my phone and I was able to take recovery seriously and do it properly.’
The medical care from Dr Tiryaki and his team didn’t end when Juliet returned to London. As she explains: ‘I was then greeted by Tunc here in the UK and his nurse.
‘They checked me on the day I left and, on the day, I arrived, and then every second day after that, and then a week later they were on the phone.’
Back home, however, there were more personal challenges. Juliet admits she hadn’t fully prepared her children, Ophelia, visiting from university, and her son Orlando, who was studying for his A-levels, for her appearance post-surgery.
‘I think the negative was when I returned to London, I hadn’t probably prepped the children enough and they were a bit like, “Mummy”, because I was still quite swollen, “you look so different. You’re not going to stay like this are you?” And I was like, “no, no, no, it’s going down every day”.
‘I probably should have discussed it with them. I think that for any child, they don’t want their parents to change. So they did see me in a state of recovery, which took a good couple of weeks for the swelling to really diminish.’
Another test for Juliet was returning back to filming for The Real Housewives Of London.
‘I was going straight back into filming after 1 month, so it wasn’t even like I had a 3-month recovery and no one noticed.
‘My big test was to see if anyone did actually notice. I turned up with my makeup as I normally do. I did red carpets. Not one person said a thing until literally a couple of weeks ago when we were on set filming and one of the housewives said, “have you done something to your face?”
And I said, “well, you’ve all known I was planning on having my eyes done”. And they said, “gosh, they looked amazing, but did you have anything else? You look really refreshed”. And I said, “well, actually, yes, I have had a facelift”. And they just went, “oh”, they could not believe it because, you know, there was no drama around it.’
Juliet is thankful the surgery turned out well, as she knows the opposite could have derailed her on-screen career.
‘I’ve seen people where their mouths are widened grossly, they look a lot wider, they look like frogs. I’ve seen eyes where they’re not in the same shape. I’ve seen scarring that’s been bad. There was none of that. So this was, as I say, a couture facelift. The, proof is in the pudding,’ she says.
Indeed, when Juliet and I sit down for our interview I also notice the results speak for themselves: excess skin around her eyelids, neck, and jowls has been removed, leaving her face visibly tighter and more defined.
Juliet’s new look has taken her down memory lane as she reveals, ‘I actually found some photos from the ’90s which I think were quite nostalgic but also quite funny to kind of do a comparison. I think that this has definitely brought life back into my face. I won’t really see the full results until after a good year because the face is all amalgamating.’
Almost four months later, Juliet admits she still feels the effects of the surgery.
‘The stem cells are living and breathing, so I’m changing as the full swelling goes down and there’s still a little bit of tightness behind the ears and the neck because the skin’s stretching, and it’s working to a new shape.
‘But honestly, I’ve had other major operations like two emergency caesarean sections, and I think recovering from that was far worse than recovering from this.’
Juliet believes her new face supports the ‘longevity’ she’s aiming for on camera and on stage as she recently joined the cast of Titanique in the West End.
‘It’s enhanced my work, so there’s only been a plus side,’ she says. ‘I thought the surgery was a positive risk as I was thinking of longevity in an industry that I’m in, and people have to look at this mugshot regularly. I thought let’s make it aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I don’t sabotage what I have because this is the tool that am selling.’
She adds: ‘Perhaps I feel a little bit more confident, knowing my eyes are a little brighter than they were, but does that change my approach to life?
‘No, because I would say your confidence comes from within and you can enhance the exterior, but it doesn’t change the way you feel about yourself.’
