‘I was fine just the way I was’ – Nicki Minaj expresses regret over having plastic surgery

During Thursday’s episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast, veteran rapper Nicki Minaj expressed her regret over having plastic surgery, saying that she was even shocked by some of the old photos of herself that she did not love before going under the knife.

“I guarantee you, if you change anything on your body and do anything surgical and all this, you’re going to — more than likely, not definitely, more than likely — look back one day and say, ‘I was fine just the way I was,’” the 40-year-old told hosts Chioma Nnadi and Chloe Malle, PEOPLE reported.

“And that’s what happened to me,” she continued. “I could not believe even some of the photos that I didn’t love.”

When the co-hosts touched on the Supa Bass rapper sitting alongside Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour at the Carolina Herrera Show in September 2011, Minaj explained that she opts not to look at her old photos because “I didn’t like the way I looked.”

“I didn’t like being skinny, having a flat butt, you know. Having boobs that didn’t sit high enough. It was a lot of things,” she added. “And when I look back at myself now, I literally was like, ‘Oh, I’m about to look like that girl again.’”

“The reason why I wasn’t able to look back at my old photos was I didn’t like the way I looked, right, physically,” the 40-year-old continued. “And now I love the way that person looks physically.”

Minaj also said that the changes she decided to make stemmed from her increasing popularity. She also said her love for music has taken her to a “very scary” space that looks a like “fish bowl” with “millions” of people monitoring her, PEOPLE reported.

But she said the way she viewed herself changed when she gave birth to her 3-year-old son. “I think pregnancy could’ve played a role because seeing my son did remind me of myself so much. My real self. And it made me think why didn’t I like this? So weird,” the Pink Friday rapper said.

“But seeing old photos, being able to look at old photos again made me realize, ‘These old photos are beautiful.’”