The CBB star has had 58 surgical procedures, leaving him with a rotting hole in his nose, unable to smell and paralysed in both arms - but the reason behind his surgery isn't pure vanity
LOTS of little boys dream of growing up to look like their Action Man toys, with big muscles and chiselled faces.
But for CBB star Rodrigo Alves, the obsession to look like his plastic dolls went further than anyone could have ever imagined - and the truth behind his shiny plastic facade is harrowing.
The 35-year-old 'human Ken Doll' has spent the past two decades having £500,000 of painful surgery - including ten nose jobs, face lifts, bum implants, muscle and pec implants and ‘hand-painted blue eyes’ - after being targeted by cruel bullies throughout his childhood.
Five years ago the star was diagnosed with body dysmorphia - a mental health condition where a person spends an obsessive amount of time worrying about flaws in their appearance.
Here, we look at the tragic story behind Rodrigo's painful quest for perfection.
Even today Rodrigo, who was born in Brazil and then moved to Spain, admits he finds it hard to think about the past.
Rodrigo suffered with a hormone dysfunction which caused his breast tissue to grow at the rate of his female peers, and left him with a pair of breasts at the age of 16.
The CBB star was picked on tirelessly by his mates, who mocked his 'boobs' and pelted him with jibes about his weight and figure.
He was targeted for his “big nose” and nicknamed “potato nose” and “jelly belly”.
"I had my face pushed against the urinal because I had a wide nose," he told Sun Online.
“I do not like to focus on the past because it makes me upset,” he said, telling the Loose Women panel last August that he had been “pushed down the stairs and had my face pushed against the wall.”
“Growing up I felt alone as nobody wanted to be friends with me. Because of my body image and the fact that I was shy, I avoided social situations.”
As soon as he reached 17, Rodrigo went in for his first surgical procedure to have his unwanted breasts removed.
He paid £2,000 for the painful procedure and the scars still remain from the boob job.
It was the start of a surgery addiction that would span over 18 years - and one that could have killed him.
Since then, Rodrigo has had 57 procedures. Aged just 35, he's spent £500,000 on surgery.
His plastic face has received worldwide interest and he's earned thousands appearing magazines - which he's used - along with some inheritance - to fund more surgery,
The socialite now admits he has “put himself through so much plastic surgery and so much pain” - and has even risked his own life.
In 2016, he caught an infection after the sixth of his ten nose jobs.
It left him unable to breathe and his face began rotting away.
His body rejected the new nose and he suffered necrosis – an infection that sees the skin tissue die and wither away.
He was rushed to a hospital in Malaga, Spain when he saw a hole appear in his nose, and doctors warned the condition could cause his nose to become gangrenous and would need to be removed before it ate into his face.
Despite this, he had four more reconstructive nose jobs - one involving cartilage in his wrist being used to rebuild his nose.
His CBB housemates were shocked when he revealed to Sally Morgan and Nick Leeson that he wouldn’t mind sharing a bathroom with them because “my nose doesn’t work anyway, I have to breathe through my mouth.”
But Rodrigo's gammy nose isn't his most serious surgery-induced injury.
After splashing out £100,000 on surgery by the age of 30, Rodrigo then underwent a dangerous procedure that left him paralysed in both arms.
A Brazilian doctor injected a gel into his arms to make them appear more muscular, but Rodrigo, a flight attendant at the time, was left unable to wash and feed himself after catching a deadly bacterial infection.
“I was crying every day. I was extremely depressed. I would just pray and cry,” he recalled.
“It nearly got to the stage where they were talking about chopping my arm off.
"The doctors said if the bacteria had gone to my heart I would have died.”
After 30 days he regained feeling in his arms and went to see a psychologist - a turning point in his life.
It was then that he was diagnosed and treated for body dysmorphia – a mental disorder characterised by obsessing over flaws in appearance, often occurring alongside depression and anxiety.
He was in therapy for a year, but despite doctors advice, the CBB star went on to have even more procedures.
“When I look in the mirror, I don’t see what other people see. I see flaws that I want to fix,” he told LondonLive.
“It takes me ages to leave the house in the mornings because I have to correct everything.”
His morning routine includes taking three collagen tablets, scrubbing and fake-tanning his whole body and he can spend up to two hours on his make-up.
Stripping away any layer of the shy and bullied teenager he once was, Rodrigo is now planning a sex change when he grows older, as he is terrified of ageing.
After removing four of his ribs to gain a more feminine waist earlier this year, he says he will become a woman.
“I am very happy to be a man for now but I don't want to an old saggy man,” he says.
"I will do what Caitlyn Jenner did. When I reach my late 50s, I would rather be a sexy old lady than a saggy old man".
After years of bidding for perfection, it seems Rodrigo may never be happy with his body, but says surgery has been the right decision for him.
“I don’t recommend for anyone to follow my journey when it comes to that. There have been complications and it has been a long journey,” he told his housemates.
“But you do empower people. In life you have the decision to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do, aslong as you don’t cause harm to other people.
“I did what was right for me.”
