Comedian Matt Rife has been the subject of online speculation about his appearance for more a while now. And the 29-year-old is addressing the rumors head-on in his new memoir, Your Mom’s Gonna Love Me, released on Tuesday.
In the book, which is described as "one part memoir, one part comedy special" and one part first date," Rife says that changes to his face were caused not by a cosmetic surgeon's knife, but late-onset puberty.
"Over a few months, I went from looking like a 13-year-old to looking like, you know, my actual age," he writes in the book, via People. "Like an actual grown-ish man. My face got wider, my features became more prominent, I grew a few inches taller."
Rife blames his "bizarrely stunted journey through puberty" for about a "million-and-one internet conspiracies about all this elaborate plastic surgery I somehow had the time and money to undergo."
He also called out the "frightening lack of common sense" among internet doctors who have attempted to "diagnose" his supposed cosmetic surgery procedures, without ever having seen him as a patient.
“Straight up—if you are an actual doctor actually going on Tik-Tok to proclaim a guaranteed diagnosis about a dude you’ve never even met before, much less treated, how the hell do you not lose your license?" he incredulously asks. "Can the medical board please just issue an official certificate telling you to get a life? Something to help these people get their priorities straight, because they desperately need it."
In the book, Rife also eschews the notion that his fame has come effortlessly due to his looks, writing that "good-looking people don’t always have it easy."
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"If anything, as a comedian, it actually made sh-t harder," he contends. "It turns out that pretty people are f--ked-up, too. Who knew? I’m in therapy. I’ve had multiple anxiety attacks. I struggle with clinical depression and I have complicated feelings about life, about my mom, about loneliness."
This isn't the first time Rife has addressed the rumors. When asked whether he's had work done during a June 2023 appearance on the Cancelled with Tana Mongeau podcast, he responded: "Not a single f--king thing."
"I just kept getting older I guess, it’s so funny. The only thing I’ve had done is my teeth—I got veneers, obviously, because my teeth were f--ked when I was a kid," he said at the time. "I’ve had people who claim to be plastic surgeons that’ll be like: ‘He’s had this…' and I’m like, cool, you’re not only lying but you’re wrong at your job."
"People’s number one online insult is: 'Well, at least I don’t have plastic surgery.' Cool, neither do I," Rife added.
