The uncomfortable truth about the reaction to Anne Hathaway's 'new face'.

Anne Hathaway made headlines over the weekend after her appearance at the Ralph Lauren fashion show in New York, in which she looked absolutely stunning. But, unfortunately, the commentary wasn't exactly flattering.

She's just the latest victim, with Hilary Duff also getting flamed recently for looking "different".

Anne Hathaway rocked a trench coat, glittering ripped pants and a severe high ponytail to rival Ariana Grande's at the show and, of course, she looked beautiful.

Apparently too beautiful, if the excessive and invasive commentary on how she achieved this look is anything to go by.

Watch: Anne Hathaway on The Kelly Clarkson. Post continues below.

Speculation has erupted about whether the 42-year-old actress has had some recent work done, with some publications even referring to her as having a "taut face" — an odd use of wording given this speculation comes as the result of her looking good.

She is but that’s all Botox and filler her face never moves even when she smiles

— Æwielltun (@Kilp123) April 18, 2025

Commenters online are insisting she's had a face lift, or at the very least, some subtle surgery, because she looks so young with barely a wrinkle or smile line visible.

"Money well spent, I can't even tell," one person wrote online.

"These plastic surgeons are getting real good," said another.

Others suggested perhaps the tight ponytail was what was making Hathaway look so snatched, or maybe it was just a lot of makeup.

Anne Hathaway’s face card never declines pic.twitter.com/XMJSWxkakc

— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) April 18, 2025

While these comments might appear as compliments, they still perpetuate a pretty toxic cycle of picking apart a woman's face as though she is an object and not a person, reducing her looks to a series of decisions and (non-)moving parts, rather than her actual face.

And then there's also the fact that Anne Hathaway is only in her 40s — hardly a senior citizen, though you wouldn't know it by how shocked people are at her beauty.

Hilary Duff copped similar social media commentary when she posted some portraits to Instagram recently. The comments were filled with people criticising what they deemed to be 'too heavy' cheek filler or anti-wrinkle injectiond.

"Why did she do Botox, I swear to god everyone else is the same," says one of the top comments on her post.

It was potentially hurtful for Hilary to read; her husband must have thought so, because he left a comment telling people to "get fckd."

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A post shared by Hilary Duff (@hilaryduff)

If a celebrity's cosmetic injections are botched, we all clack our fingers on our keyboards with glee, ready to laugh about it with the girls. I know I've been guilty of scrolling through listicles of celebrities with buccal fat removals, picking apart who looks better with it and who looks worse.

But on the flipside, celebrities who get work done that is flattering or imperceptible are also not safe from this treatment. We still pick them apart, always at the ready to be morally superior armchair stylists.

It's a hard conversation to navigate because, on the one hand, it's good to be critical of celebrity beauty standards and keep things real. We don't want to lose sight of what normal ageing looks like and begin chasing faces that can't be achieved naturally.

During the era of weight-loss injections, skincare and renewed obsessions with youthful beauty, it's a good thing that we can recognise when we are being sold a fantasy.

On the other hand though, aren't these female celebrities also victims of the beauty standards they perpetuate? Aren't they just as vulnerable — maybe even more so given their role in the public eye — to objectification and the pressure to look perfect?

Hathaway has spoken previously about how hard it is to stay true to yourself in this industry.

She's said that she really wanted a nose job growing up, and told The Express in 2008 that there is an immense amount of pressure on young women to have work done.

"You just want to be cookie-cutter beautiful. And sometimes you think, 'Maybe I could change something about myself to fit that mould,'" she said.

"I'm no exception to that."

In a candid conversation with Women's Health, Duff mentioned she's been going to therapy to work on her mental health, and spoke of the pressure to look her best.

"We bust our ass to get our bodies in shape and to look the best we can," she said.

"We get facials and Botox and our hair done and highlights and brows and lash lifts and all this s**t. But I want to work on the inside. That's the most important part of the system."

So yes, let's keep unattainable beauty standards honest — but let's also remember that the women whose features we pick apart are actually people who are even more deeply entrenched in the toxicity of needing to be 'pretty' and 'skinny' than we are.

A little bit of kindness goes a long way.

Feature image: Getty.