Courteney Cox, like so many other women in the public eye, has always felt an enormous amount of pressure to look a certain way. And, having grown up in the spotlight (she landed her first role back in 1984 at the age of 20), the glare of the media was particularly strong.

As she grew older, more and more tabloids began to comment on her physical appearance. So she turned to facial fillers – a cosmetic procedure where injections are used to plump the skin, thus smoothing out lines.

“The next thing you know, you’re layered and layered and layered,” she told newbeauty.com. “You have no idea because it’s gradual until you go, ‘Oh s***, this doesn’t look right.’ And it’s worse in pictures than in real life.”

Cox says she stopped the treatment when one of her best friends – who she chose not to identify by name – told her she thought she had gone too far.

Courteney Cox reveals her friends gave her the courage to embrace her “natural” face