Heidi Montag: 'I Don't Want My Face to Fall Off Like Michael Jackson'

Sept. 3, 2010— -- In the middle of pursuing a split with estranged husband Spencer Pratt, juggling sex tape allegations and continuing to mourn the death of her plastic surgeon, Heidi Montag is facing another grim challenge.

"I don't want my face to fall off like Michael Jackson," the reality-TV star, who has been seen wearing surgical tape on her nose, told Life & Style magazine.

"The last time I didn't wear tape after surgery and my nose changed shape. The tape is supposed to keep the swelling down and hold my nose in place the way Dr. [Frank] Ryan sculpted it. ... I'm not taking any chances now that he's gone."

Ryan, the surgeon who performed extensive plastic surgery early this year on Montag, 23, died in August in a one-car accident in Los Angeles, according to reports.

Ryan was 50.

The surgeon was thrust into the spotlight in January when a radically reconfigured Montag announced that she had undergone 10 different plastic surgery procedures in one marathon session.

People magazine reported at the time that Montag's mother was "horrified" by her surgeries.

The magazine quoted an anonymous source "close to the [Montag] family" as saying that Montag's mother, Darlene Egelhoff, "is horrified and having a total breakdown. She can't wait to confront Heidi when she goes home."

But Montag told "Nightline" in a January interview that her mother knew she was going to have plastic surgery. Montag went on to say that she was even planning to schedule a "mommy makeover" with her plastic surgeon for her mom.

"Actually, she was excited for me and she's asking me ... for her surgery next," Montag said. "So, for Mother's Day, I have to ask Dr. Frank Ryan if he'll do the mommy makeover. But I think that she understands.

"And I think the first surgery was a little more weary for her, and a little more foreign to her, and she was a little more concerned."

Montag had breast implants, a brow lift, botox in her forehead, a nose job revision, fat injections in her cheeks, a chin reduction, neck liposuction and had her ears pinned back.

Edelhoff declined to comment publicly.

Montag: 'I'm Not Addicted' to Plastic Surgery

Montag caught the public's eye on MTV's "The Hills," and her star continued to rise on the reality show "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" Now she has released an album, one that she hopes will turn her into a pop phenomenon.

But Montag's blueprint for stardom is not limited to music. It also includes plastic surgery.

"Yeah, I had my legs liposuctioned on the inside and the outside," Montag said. "But it wasn't really to take out the fat. It was more just to contour the legs. And then I had my back scooped out a little bit to help give a curvier look and then a little bit on the sides, too."

Some hospitals don't allow elective plastic surgeries to extend beyond six hours because of complications, but Montag said she spent 10 hours under the knife. She admits the procedures were extremely painful and the recovery taxing.

"I went to an after-care place," Montag said. "And I was in so much pain, and like, literally crying, and just saying, ... I felt like I wanted to die almost."

As for critics who say she's addicted to surgery, or to fame itself, she said, "I would say that none of those people know me at all. And that's just a judgment. I'm not addicted."