Sunny Hostin recounts surgical relief, joy of reducing G-cup breasts

"The View" co-host calls the elective surgery “a health decision and a self-care decision."

Sunny Hostin is feeling great after undergoing breast reduction surgery last summer. 

“I feel like a better version of myself,” Hostin tells PEOPLE of having a breast reduction and lift, as well as liposuction on her waist and chin. “The View” co-host underwent the procedures in August 2022, calling the elective surgery “a health decision and a self-care decision.”

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 2022 Opening Night Gala
Sunny Hostin attends the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 2022 Opening Night Gala at New York City Center on Nov. 30, 2022, in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

The media personality struggled for years with back pain and body-image issues. So last year, she decided to do something about it. Hostin, 54, says her husband, Emmanuel Hostin, and her colleague Joy Behar tried to talk her out of having cosmetic surgery. 

Hostin tells PEOPLE in a separate interview published on Jan. 12 that Behar warned that she “could die with the anesthesia.”

Hostin’s husband, Emmanuel Hostin, hardly supported her desire to alter her body surgically, she says.

When she initially joined “The View” full-time in 2016, Hostin wore “a sports bra or a binder all the time,” she says, noting that her “waist was small, but my top was so big.”

It wasn’t until an incident last April that she finally made the decision to go under the knife. Hostin recalls having an emotional moment while getting dressed for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last spring. She couldn’t zip up her Toni Maticevski gown because the dress’ bra didn’t fit, so she had to wrap her chest in masking tape.

“I was crying,” says Hostin. “I sat there and didn’t eat anything. I couldn’t lift my hand because my boobs were going to fall out. Bell Biv DeVoe wanted to take a picture with me. I was like, ‘Oh God, they’re going to have these pictures of my boobs hanging out.'”

Hostin did not initially tell her husband about having the breast reduction procedure until two days before the operation that saw her go from a G-cup to a C-cup.

“Now I prance around nude all the time at my house — I feel great. I don’t know, you may see me naked on ‘The View!’ she says. 

“Joy said, ‘I should’ve done mine 20 years ago, man.’ I was like, ‘You almost talked me out of this!'” Hostin tells PEOPLE. “She was like, ‘I was wrong. You look great!’ “

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