Heidi Montag Says She ‘Died for a Minute’ After Plastic Surgery Marathon

In a radical move she has since come to regret, The Hills personality Heidi Montag underwent 10 cosmetic procedures in one day.

Keeping all her friends and family except for husband Spencer Pratt in the dark, Montag underwent a chin reduction, brow lifts, ear pinnings, a second rhinoplasty and a second breast augmentation among other things. But in an interview with PAPER released Thursday, she revealed the body overhaul almost had fatal complications.

“Spencer thought he lost me. I died for a minute. With that much surgery, I had to have 24-hour nurse care and Spencer didn’t want to leave my side. I was at a recovery center and had Demerol to deal with the pain because it was so extreme,” Montag told the magazine.

At one point, she recalled, “My security guards called Spencer and told him, ‘Heidi’s heart stopped. She’s not going to make it.’ And I easily could’ve. Cutting yourself up isn’t something I’d recommend, and Demerol isn’t anything to play around with. That’s how Michael Jackson died.”

Years later, Montag had her size F breast implants removed, and has since been open about regretting going under the knife.

But the mistakes weren’t for nothing.

“A lot of positive things came out of that,” she said. “I had to look at myself in the mirror every day healing, and be like, ‘What did I do to myself? How did I get here? What is going on?’ I basically had to hit that rock-bottom moment in my life, to realize what was important to me.”

The cosmetic surgeries came when The Hills was a cultural phenomenon and she was constantly in the tabloids.

“Things that Spencer and I were shamed for, like, ‘Oh they’re so cheesy and over-the-top’ — now every A-list celebrity is doing, it’s just on their Instagram,” she said. “It’s the exact same thing, and it’s being seen by maybe even more people than what we had done. It’s fascinating that that’s accepted now, but it was cheesy and fame-whorey when we did it.”

Montag has since become a mom to son Gunner Pratt, who was born in October 2017, and said she can’t see herself anymore in the person who risked her “own life for vanity.” And for her infant son, she said, “I just want him to enjoy his life, and not live in his parents’ mistakes or shadows.”

While on The Hills, Montag said she felt like the villain of the show for her relationship with her now-husband and her feud with former roommate Lauren Conrad.

“There was a lot of Team Lauren. And it was just a different time when people took reality TV very seriously. They were invested in Lauren emotionally, because she had come from Laguna Beach and was the narrator for each episode. It was frustrating for me at the time — everyone just assuming I was this bad friend and bad person,” Montag said. “It was especially challenging when everyone was against my relationship [with Spencer]. The Hills machine was so powerful, and it was impossible to get over. The money definitely made it a little bit easier, but the repercussions were really hard.”

Today, she said, “It’s weird to think I was a person before Gunner.”

Even before she was on TV, Montag admits, “I’ve always wanted a family. I’ve been with Spencer for 11 years now, so I told him, ‘You had me alone for 10 straight years.’ We have a great marriage, and it was the perfect time for us to move into this next chapter.”

Now that she’s gotten her wish, she’s savoring every mommy moment. “The most sleep I get is two hours — sometimes three,” she said. “I’m usually up every hour with Gunner; it’s really intense. Gunner’s given me a whole new strength that I didn’t know. I feel like I am stronger than I’ve ever been emotionally. At the end of the day, I’m his mom, and that’s my main priority.”

Photo credit: Instagram/Heidi Pratt