The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Dolores Catania is getting real about her insecurities.
“I’ve been ashamed of my legs for so long,” Dolores, 53, told Us Weekly exclusively while detailing her recent Renuvion treatment. “I’ve been to so many doctors. I want a leg lift, and I keep going, and nobody really had the right thing to help me.”
The Bravo star was most concerned with the area “around the knees” and would never wear shorts or skirts — especially not on camera.
“I would say to the camera men, I’d be like, ‘Please be kind to me.’ Do not get my legs ever in anything. I always wear long dresses,” she said. “You will never really see me in shorts. It’s been a rare occasion if I did.”
Dolores said she was “very self-conscious” during her first season on the show. (Dolores has been on RHONJ since season 7 in 2016.)
“When we filmed in Italy, I forget who on Instagram — it was one of the bad people — took a picture of a baby’s face on a sonogram and put it next to my knee,” she recalled of the trip, which took place during season 8. “I was wearing a pair of ripped jeans in Italy, which I should have never done.”
Dolores continued, “It was very early that I didn’t really know the proper way to dress, and [it was] my first time in Europe. They made fun of me. They put a side by side of my knee and this picture.”
The RHONJ star finally found something to help with her legs thanks to Renuvion, a minimally invasive body contouring treatment that targets loose skin at the source. Her doctor in New York City promised “great results” and it ended up being exactly what Dolores was looking for.
“That’s how I wound up with it, I just never stopped. I kept looking,” Dolores explained. “I said, eventually something’s going to come out that can actually tighten my skin. It has to happen eventually. So, this is a godsend.”
She described the process “almost” like Liposuction (which Dolores has done “several” times over the years.)
“I was under general anesthesia for about an hour. It was simple. I don’t even think you really have to go under anesthesia for it if you chose not to,” Dolores said. “It’s a small cannula that goes underneath the skin and it targets the tissue that has no collagen. … It contracts the loose skin, and that’s what you get your results from.”
Dolores “was sore” but there wasn’t a lot of downtime. She said that it will take six months to see full results but after three weeks can already “see a difference.”
She added, “One session and it can last up to seven to eight years.”
