"I wish I could love my body"

Growing up, Jenny Lee had cheerleader good looks and a movie-star smile. Boys queued up to ask her out, strangers told her she should be a model. Her classmates even nominated her for the title of Most Beautiful Girl.

But fast forward to today, and Jenny, who is now 32, is so unrecognisable from her younger self, close friends ask: "Who's that?" when shown an old photo of her.

And the confusion's not down to a bit of weight gain or a new hairstyle. Over the past 12 years, Jenny, from Austin, Texas, has had 44 cosmetic surgery procedures to transform her into the blonde Barbie-doll lookalike she is today. These include four nose jobs, three boob jobs, cheek and lip implants and a full body lift.

She's spent almost £100,000 - and she's not done yet. So why has the mother of two gone out of her way to completely transform herself?

The most likely answer lies in the body dysmorphic disorder diagnosis Jenny was given six years ago - a psychological condition in which a person becomes obsessed with imaginary defects in their appearance.

She says that although she works hard to control it, it has made her miserable for much of her life.

And once she began having surgery, she couldn't stop.

Even now, when her psychiatrist has asked her to wait five years before having anymore procedures, she admits she couldn't give him her word.

"I told him I couldn't promise anything," Jenny says.

"When I look in the mirror, I see imperfections like wrinkles and lines and want to have them fixed. I'm much better than I used to be, though. There was a time when I'd have gone under the knife every day if I could.

"These days I've realised that perfection doesn't exist, but that doesn't stop me wanting to maintain what I have."

Jenny's self-esteem began to crumble at the age of 17 when she moved in with her childhood sweetheart, Brad* while pregnant with their daughter Kaleigh, now 14. Almost overnight, her loving boyfriend started criticising his girlfriend's appearance.

"He would say my nose was too big and my breasts were too small. His comments were said jokily, but he made them constantly, so I knew he wasn't kidding".

"That's what led to my first surgery when I was 20. My husband kept telling me my boobs were too small..."

Jenny began to believe that all the times people had told her she was pretty, they'd been lying.

"I thought Brad was the only one being honest," she says. "When I looked in the mirror, I began to see imperfections. Slowly, the bad relationship I had with him morphed into a bad relationship with myself, and my reflection."

To make matters worse, breastfeeding Kaleigh had made her breasts sag, leaving her feeling even more self-conscious.

So after doing some research, she booked herself in for surgery to take her from a 32B to a D cup.

"I thought it would stop Brad's nasty comments and make me feel better about my body," she admits.

Jenny at 15 with sister Lauren

Instead Brad, whom she married not long after their daughter's birth, was furious with her for having the operation and their relationship went from bad to worse.

However the operation did give Jenny the confidence she needed to leave her unhappy relationship.

"Our marriage had been a mistake. I'd felt pressured to stay because we had a child, but Brad had changed so much from the person I'd fallen in love with, I didn't know him any more," says Jenny.

But the damage was already done. Home alone, she started picking at her looks even more.

"I had plenty of time to spend looking at myself in the mirror," says Jenny. "But having surgery changed my focus from feeling sorry for myself to motivating me to take care of my daughter, get divorced and start saving for my next operation."

Jenny worked extra hours in sales and marketing, banking every penny she earned to save money for more surgery. Following the boob job in 1996, she began her reinvention in earnest in 1999. First, she had a nose job, 2nd breast augmentation with a lift, followed by full body liposuction.

"That worked wonders, and I loved how I looked after it. But the swelling around my nose didn't go down for a year, and when it did, I still wanted to go smaller," she admits.

" I'd think about plastic surgery all the time, every day, I was obsessed. If I could have surgery every day of my life, I would have. Many times I'd go to the plastic surgeon and beg for something else done and he'd send me away.

"But I felt if I made myself physically and emotionally happy, I could be a happy mum to Kaleigh," she insists.

"I always booked in for surgery when she was with her dad, so she never saw me in pain. But that was nothing compared to the pain of looking in the mirror and being unhappy with what I saw."

In 2002, Jenny decided to have a brow lift. "My face wasn't sagging but I thought a brow lift would stop me getting wrinkles in the future," she explains.

Still, she wasn't convinced she was beautiful. After procedures on her lips, cheeks and nose, she checked in for a full body lift.

Jenny with Kaleigh, 14, and Priscilla, 18 months

"I maxed out all my credit cards paying for ops. I would do it for the end result - hoping that something better would await me once it was all over."

Her obsession worried her friends and family, but if they dared voice any concern, she shot them down. "They knew the best thing to do if they wanted to be a part of my life was to keep their mouths shut," says Jenny.

And they did just that, even when she'd had so much surgery they barely recognised her.

"It was like some alien had taken over her body," says Jenny's half-sister Kim, 37. "Her voice was the only familiar thing about her.

"Out of my six sisters, Jenny looked like me most," Kim adds. "So all this work she's had done - changing her 'flaws' as she calls them, was like her saying she didn't want to look like me. She tells me I'm pretty, but how can she think that?"

Jenny married her second husband in August 2004. But a happy marriage and comfortable life haven't dulled her urge for more surgery.

Not even an emergency fourth nose job because her nose collapsed last year - after being weakened by her numerous ops - has put her off.

"I'm still not perfect - I had my stretch marks from my first pregnancy removed in the body lift, but I had my second daughter, Priscilla, 18 months ago and now I want to have a breast lift," she says. "I regularly have Botox injections and fillers. I plan to have a lower facelift when I'm 60.

"My husband thinks I'm beautiful as I am and wishes I'd stop. But I'm a surgery enthusiast and want to keep the work I've had done fresh. I'm constantly in 'maintenance mode'.

Jenny now runs a permanent make-up company. She says she tells her daughters all the time how beautiful they are and that they'll never need surgery.

She says: "Neither of them have ever looked like me - they take after their fathers. If my eldest daughter had resembled me more, I'd have given more thought to changing my appearance so drastically."

Now Jenny's trying to learn to love her body, but admits it's a daily struggle.

"I try to accept what I see in the mirror but it's hard," she says.

"I do regret not taking enough time to think about all the surgery I've had. I had the money to do it, so I did it. When people see old photos and say: 'What have you done to yourself?' I wish I'd never started this.

"My daughter doesn't even know what I look like as a natural person and I miss the resemblance I had with my father. But I have a battle with my poor self-esteem. I want to make peace with my reflection, but I don't think I ever will."

SURGERY SCHEDULE

Over the past 13 years, Jenny's undergone a whopping 44 procedures.

March 1996 (age 20) Boob job.

Aug 1999 Another boob job, plus a nose job, breast lift and liposuction on arms, abs, thighs, hips and knees. Botox.

May 2000 Botox, lip injections, a breast lift and nose job revisions.

May 2002 Brow lift, lip implants, breast lift and nose job revisions. Botox.

April 2003 Cheek implants, new lip implants, Botox, and a steroid injection in her nose.

Oct 2003 New lip implants, Botox, steroid injections in her nose and 20 teeth veneers.

June 2006 Body lift, boob job no 3, lower eyelid lift, Botox, and a steroid injection in her nose.

Feb 2008 Nose job revision and Botox.

June 2008 Botox & Juvéderm (anti-wrinkle fillers) in nose to mouth lines.

Dec 2008 Replacement of two veneers.

Feb 2009 Botox and Juvéderm in nose to mouth lines.

May 2009 Botox

TOTAL SPEND: £100,000

null

PHOTOGRAPHY: MARIA BERNAL/SPLASH NEWS HAIR: NECOLE MARLOW MAKE-UP: MARIS MALONE CALDERON *NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED