Renee Zellweger unrecognizable: Did she get plastic surgery?

Renee Zellweger looked different as she attended Elle‘s Women in Hollywood Awards in Beverly Hills on October 20.

On the next day, the 45-year-old actress explained: “I’m glad folks think I look different! I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows.”

Renee Zellweger last appeared in 2010’s My Own Love Song.

Though she thinks discussions about her appearance are “silly,” Renee Zellweger told People magazine: “It seems the folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth which doesn’t exist won’t get off my porch until I answer the door.”

Renee Zellweger, who next stars in The Whole Truth, doesn’t understand the hubbub.

“My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy,” she said.

“For a long time I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn’t allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things.”

“I did work that allows for being still, making a home, loving someone, learning new things, growing as a creative person and finally growing into myself,” said Renee Zellweger, who’s still dating Doyle Bramhall II, 45.

“People don’t know me in my 40s,” added Renee Zellweger, who famously gained weight for her roles in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

“People don’t know me [as] healthy for a while. Perhaps I look different. Who doesn’t as they get older?! Ha. But I am different. I’m happy.”

Renee Zellweger tends to avoid the limelight, though she agreed to attend the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards to honor her friend and co-star Gugu Mbatha-Raw.