EXCLUSIVE: Brandi Glanville Beats the Odds — Inside Story of How Chronically Ill Beauty Was Forced to Undergo Life-Saving Breast Implant Surgery
Brandi Granville has gotten a life-saving breast implant surgery amid chronic illness struggles.
Feb. 25 2026, Published 7:00 a.m. ET
Chronically ill beauty Brandi Glanville was recently forced to undergo life-saving surgery to remove her breast implants, which she said were causing devastating symptoms, including blurred vision, stiff muscles, fatigue and premature aging, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum said her silicone implants, which she got after the birth of son Jake, now 18, in 2007, are no longer even on the market.
"They're illegal," the mother of two – who shares Jake and Mason, 22, with former husband Eddie Cibrian – explained.
Mystery Illness After Morocco Trip
Brandi Glanville said she underwent life-saving surgery to remove ruptured breast implants linked to severe health symptoms.
They've been the cause of some of the cascade of health problems that the 53-year-old traces to her time filming The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in Morocco three years ago. While there, she believes she contracted a parasite from food that had been left sitting out for hours while they filmed.
Ever since, the former model has been battling a mysterious microorganism that's left her face swollen and disfigured. Despite numerous visits to doctors and a hospital stay, she never got an actual diagnosis.
"So you do labs every time, and it's, like, $1,000 just to get to see a new doctor," the Drinking and Tweeting author said. "You kind of feel like you're getting passed around but not getting any answers."
Meanwhile, her symptoms continued to worsen – she always felt tired and was losing strength.
"I would go to sit down, and it would take me, like, seven minutes to stand up," she recalled.
Another time: "I went to grab my bag [at Del Taco], but I dropped it. I was like, 'Oh my God, I literally have no strength in my left arm.'"
Implants Linked to Health Crisis
Glanville revealed a sonogram showed a slow leak and silicone in her lymph nodes.
But doctors never connected her implants with her mysterious illness.
The $200,000 in medical bills drained her bank account.
"I wasn't working but having to pay for groceries, my rent, my car insurance," she said.
With no money coming in, "I lost my house because I couldn't afford it anymore, so I had to move," she shared.
Overwhelmed and despairing over her three-year health struggle, she said she even began having suicidal thoughts.
Ironically, what may have seemed like a last straw – one day, a few weeks ago, she noticed that her right breast appeared smaller than the left – may have saved her life.
Ruptured Implants Spark Health Scare
Yolanda Hadid urged Glanville to remove her implants as she battled a mysterious illness following 'The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.'
That's when she finally decided to get a sonogram.
"The woman [who] did the sonogram was, like, 'Brandi, you need to get those [implants] out yesterday,'" the Traitors alum recalled.
"You have a slow leak in your left [implant] and your right [implant] is completely ruptured, and it's in all of your lymph nodes under both arms.'
"That's probably why, whatever's going on in your face, it can't drain because your lymph nodes are clogged with silicone," Glanville recalled being told.
Her former Housewives castmate Yolanda Hadid, who has chronic Lyme disease, also urged her, "Get your implants out."
No More Silicone Ever
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Glanville chose Dr. Ariel Ourian to perform the urgent implant removal procedure.
With time of the essence, Glanvillestarted researching doctors and eventually chose Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Ariel Ourian.
"The plan is to take them out," the Brandi Glanville Unfiltered podcast host reports, but scar tissue from a previous lumpectomy to remove a noncancerous lump under her right breast has complicated the procedure.
"[Dr. Ourian] said he doesn't know what he's going to find in the lymph nodes and how much scraping he's going to have to do, so our second plan would be to put another implant in – which I was, like, 'Nope!'... I don't want silicone in my body at all."
Glanville said finally getting a diagnosis has changed her mindset from despair to optimism.
"I wanna look better again, I wanna work again, I wanna have energy again," she said.
