Great Van Susteren's New Look

ByABC News via logo
February 5, 2002, 10:15 AM

N E W   Y O R K, Feb. 5 -- All eyes are on Greta Van Susteren's changed face as the veteran CNN legal affairs analyst settles into her new role at Fox News. Van Susteren underwent cosmetic surgery before her debut and she's not afraid to talk about it.

"What I'm told is that I'm the first in the news business that's talking about it," Van Susteren said in an interview with ABCNEWS' Dr. Nancy Snyderman on Good Morning America. "But it wasn't like an admission of a crime to me, it was like well, here it is."

On Monday night's premiere of her new talk show on Fox, On the Record, Van Susteren was open about her surgery, which was performed last month to remove the bags under her eyes.

"My only hope is that the swelling is gone before my 30th high school reunion this summer," she told Fox viewers. "As I'm sure you all understand out there, I'm hoping to make jealous all those guys who wouldn't date me in high school."

The 47-year-old lawyer-turned-TV personality decided to have the work done after she found herself with an unexpected month off before her new show's debut.

"I was sitting with my husband and I look in the mirror and I thought 'Oh My God!,'" she said on Good Morning America.

Van Susteren's husband of 23 years offered what she said was the right response: "Whatever you want. I love you this way, and I love you that way." She decided to have the eye-lift.

Van Susteren started at CNN as a legal analyst in 1991 but gained fame during her coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial.

She said she would never undergo surgery at a network's request. "I did this because I wanted to do it and for no other reason," she said.