- Baywatch Star Nicole Eggert has opened up about her decision to get breast implants at 18.
- “I regret it now, of course,” he said.
- The 52-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer in December.
In its early days Baywatch, running on Emerald Bay Beach next to Pamela Anderson was Nicole Eggert. The actress, now 52, left the show after two seasons, but those two years took a huge toll on her – physically and emotionally. First, she got breast implants after realizing she’d be spending most of the shoot in a swimsuit — a “stupid 18-year-old decision” she now regrets, she said recently. People.
When Eggert auditioned for the show, she didn’t realize it was lifeguard-focused — she thought it was a spin-off series about kids at a Malibu high school, she recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, sh*t,'” she said. “Oh my god, are we going to be in bathing suits all day every day?”
Eggert recalled the now-iconic bright red suit as uncomfortable. “All the girls were working out and they were super tiny and fit and I was like, ‘Oops.’ And the one-piece swimsuits were not flattering. I didn’t want to wear it at all,” she said. She didn’t particularly like how her swimsuit top fit her breasts. “When you have to wear that bodysuit and it’s like you’re so flat it’s like pushing,” she continued. You say, “What is this?” You can’t do anything. You can’t fill it with anything. You can not do anything.”
And so, on a break from filming, he chose to go under the knife. “I regret it now, of course,” he said. “I look at all these smaller girls doing it and I think, ‘Oh my God, leave your bodies alone!’
Since then, the mom of two has undergone multiple subsequent breast augmentations, per People. In 2015, she appeared Wrong reduce her cup size.
Eggert and some of her Baywatch the co-stars will further elaborate on their personal ordeals that took place off-screen in upcoming documentaries that he also helped produce, Baywatch: The American Dream. The series was directed by director Matthew Felker announced in 2019 and it took years to pay off. ONE Position made by the show’s official Instagram explained why: “Life,” the caption read. “Watching life and its twists and turns takes time.”
One of those twists is Eggert’s recent stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis cryptic carcinoma (a rare and slow-growing form) which he received in December 2023, per People. She sought a diagnosis after experiencing pain and discovering a lump in her left breast. “I can definitely feel it,” he said. “It’s there. It has to be removed. So it’s a matter of whether I have to have treatment before the surgery or can they do the surgery and then have the treatment afterwards.”
He continued: “I’m panicking where I am, just take it out of me. You sit there and he’s inside you and you’re like, every second that goes by and he’s inside me. It’s growing, and you just want it out.”
Eggert admitted the “journey was tough,” adding, “This was not a quick sell in life.” But she does her best to stay positive. “I’m always reading inspirational quotes and weird stuff,” he said. “But it gets me through.”
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer-editor covering health, nutrition and lifestyle topics for various publications including Prevention, Everyday Health, SELF, People, and more. She is always open to conversations about nourishing ourselves with delicious dishes, overcoming beauty standards and finding new, gentle ways to take care of our bodies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio State University with a concentration in women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and public health, and is a born-and-raised Midwesterner who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two spoiled kittens.
