Are the recent pictures of Zac Efron with a red face and swollen lips real or fake? Viral images debunked

Hollywood actor Zac Efron is currently trending after images of him with a red face and swollen lips went viral on Facebook. The Spilling Celeb Tea page on the platform has been posting pictures since last week.

One of the first ones showed the High School Musical alum with actor-wrestler John Cena.

“Zac Efron & bestie-bro, John Cena, party up in da club like rockstars!” the post, dated June 26, was captioned.

The following day, Spilling Celeb Tea posted another picture of Zac Efron posing with actor Jeremy Allen White. Here, too, the Baywatch star appeared to have a crimson face with swollen lips.

“Zac Efron & dude-bro-bestie, Jeremy Allen White, party it up in da club,” the caption read.

However, the now-viral Facebook posts are fake. Zac Efron’s recent pictures on his Instagram do not show him with a red or swollen face and botched lips. Not only that, but Spilling Celeb Tea page is known for its satirical and fabricated content, seemingly meant for virality and sensationalism.

“Your go-to source for celebrity tea, pop culture buzz, & parodies cha-cha-cha!” the bio of the page reads.

The Facebook page is affiliated with spillingcelebtea.com, also known for its misleading content.

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Zac Efron’s pictures showing a red face and swollen lips are not real

Besides the two posts mentioned above, the Spilling Celeb Tea page uploaded other morphed images of Zac Efron. For instance, on June 28, a picture of the actor from 2017 was posted alongside that of the now-viral fake photo, in a then versus now moment.

“Zac Efron… 2017 vs. 2025…” the caption read.

Likewise, on June 29, the same digitally altered picture of Efron appeared posing with his co-stars from A Family Affair, Nicole Kidman and Joey King, with a caption reading:

“Zac Efron & besties Nicole Kidman & Joey King party it up in da club!”

Despite these now-debunked images circulating online, Zac hasn’t responded to them. Meanwhile, his last social media post showed him climbing out of a pool and wearing a pair of sunglasses. It was a collaboration with the brand, POLICE.

Efron's fake face, showing it as red and swollen. (Image via Facebook)

Previously, in April 2021, speculations emerged about Efron’s chin and whether he had undergone cosmetic surgery on his face. It happened after he appeared on Bill Nye’s Earth Day Musical special for Facebook Watch.

At the time, Zac’s friend and Australian talk show host Kyle Sandilands came to his defense and refuted claims of plastic surgery. In her podcast, The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Sandilands stated:

“I would know if he’d had any plastic surgery. It’s like getting a Picasso and having a kid finger paint all over it. Why bother?”

Later, in September 2022, Zac Efron told Entertainment Tonight during an interview that his face looked different from that in the past as he underwent surgery in 2013 for a jaw-related injury.

He added, the rumor about him getting cosmetic surgery was “funny.”

“My mom told me. I never really read the internet, so I don’t really care,” he shared back then.

Zac Efron added:

“It was funny. It sucks. I almost died, but we’re good.”

According to Men’s Health, in 2013, Zac Efron had a freak fall at his home and broke his jaw, and later had to have his mouth wired shut. He had also dislocated his shoulder, torn his ACL, fractured his wrist, and hurt his back at the time.

The Hairspray actor also explained to ET that when he appeared on Bill Nye’s show, he had paused physical therapy and rehab for a while, which led to facial issues.

In 2022, Zac told Men’s Health that his jaw got “really, really big” as “the masseters just grew,” which was part of his recovery. However, he didn’t care about people’s reactions to it.

“If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do,” he adds, “I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work,” he added.

In his June 2024 Netflix film, A Family Affair, Efron’s character Chris told Nicole Kidman’s Brooke about the rumor surrounding cosmetic surgery.

“People thought that my quad [muscles] were completely fake. Like, that I got implants. People magazine had a four-page spread on my quad job. They called me the ‘quad father.’ It’s not that funny, actually,” Chris told his love interest, Brooke.

Efron’s character added how he had to “sue” the magazine, but acknowledged the “surgery” was real, which he underwent after injuring his “chin” on “some broken glass.”

In the past, Zac has acknowledged using diuretics for his role in the 2017 movie, Baywatch, and training a lot to lose weight and gain muscle for his role as pro-wrestler Kevin Von Erich in the 2024 movie, The Iron Claw.

Edited by Prem Deshpande