About a year ago, Renee Zellweger had significant, noticeable work done to her face. She’d obviously had some kind of eye lift, which may have been medically necessary. Some of you commented at the time that she may have needed the surgery to correct eyelid droopiness. Whatever the reason, you could definitely see the difference in her face. Here’s a before and after photo we posted at the time.

Renee laid low for about a year. We saw the occasional photo of her out with her boyfriend (a musician and old college friend named Doyle Bramhall II, they’ve been together around two years now) and she would attend a rare event, but she stayed under the radar. Then Renee went to the Elle Women in Hollywood event over the weekend. Everyone was like “woah she looks like a different person.” Instead of admitting to doing something to change her appearance, Renee told People that she’s happy and more fulfilled and we must be noticing that.

“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,” Zellweger, 45, says of the attention she received after an appearance at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards in Beverly Hills on Monday.

Calling the conversation about her appearance “silly,” she says she is choosing to address it because “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.”

“My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy,” Zellweger continues. “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.”

That healthier, slower-paced lifestyle – and her happy relationship with boyfriend Doyle Bramhall – helped her turn a corner. “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,” she says.

“People don’t know me in my 40s,” says Zellweger, who prefers to lead a quiet life with Bramhall and a close circle of friends. Recently, she pitched in to help her pal and longtime publicist, Nanci Ryder, who is battling ALS, at the ALS Association Golden West Chapter’s annual Walk to Defeat ALS in Los Angeles.

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

[From People]

Renee did lose weight in the past few months, and that contributes to her face looking thinner, but give me a break. People aren’t “digging around for some nefarious truth,” they’re noticing that she looks nothing like herself. This is a Jennifer Grey level of plastic surgery change.

I like Zellweger so I’m not going to parse her defensive word salad too much, but she sounds like Ashley Judd here. “Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion.” Is she referring to a visit a dermatologist as a “bad choice”? Is that a vague hint? Renee is a very private person, but if she would have admitted that she had something done, maybe that it was medically necessary, she would sound more genuine. She could remain vague and say she’s not ready to get into specifics. Instead, it’s all everyone else’s fault for noticing and Renee has gotten older and taken time to “recalibrate,” resulting in her eyes magically changing shape. I’m disappointed. It’s great that she’s in a good place now, though. She seems happy with her boyfriend with the giant ‘fro.

Here are comparison photos of Renee. This isn’t from weight loss. It’s a shame because she was beautiful. She still is, she’s just much different looking.