Carrie Underwood's 2017 Accident, Explained

Carrie Underwood is having a full-circle moment when she takes Katy Perry's place on the judges panel of Season 23 of American Idol. Carrie got her start on the singing competition show, winning it all on Season 4. Since then, she's become one of the most successful winners of the beloved reality TV show.

With American Idol returning in March, fans are talking about the country singer more than ever. However, fans are taking notice of Carrie's appearance. Ever since the "I'm Gonna Love You" artist experienced a scary accident at her home in 2017, people have constantly made wild assumptions about changing physical appearance.

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What Happened To Carrie Underwood In 2017?

American Idol winner Carrie Underwood's physical appearance has been talked about for years. Fans have speculated that the "Before He Cheats" songstress had gotten plastic surgery after comparing older photos of her. For instance, when Carrie shared a promotional photo of herself for Body Armor in May 2024, her comment section was filled with followers questioning her appearance.

"We need more natural. I thought this was AI," a comment read. "This doesn’t remotely look like Carrie. 😔," another follower wrote.

"Too bad she succumbed to the vainness of Hollywood. She was beautiful the way she was."

There has been so much negativity surrounding the country singer's appearance. However, did fans forget that Carrie succumbed to serious injuries to her face in 2017?

In November 2017, Carrie experienced a significant event in her life when she ended up with major injuries after a nasty fall at her home in Tennessee. At first, the singer told her fans that she was walking her dog when she fell down her steps and injured her wrist. However, it wasn't until January that the singer revealed that she required 40–50 stitches around her face, including above her lips and inside her mouth. Carrie's injuries were very serious and she needed surgery.

The songstress also told her fans that she might look different.

“There is also another part of the story that I haven’t been ready to talk about since I have still been living it and there has been much uncertainty as to how things will end up. In addition to breaking my wrist, I somehow managed to injure my face as well. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but when I came out of surgery the night of my fall, the doctor told [Underwood’s husband] Mike that he had put between 40 and 50 stitches in."

"I’m still healing and not quite looking the same. I honestly don’t know how things are going to end up but I do know this: I am grateful."

Because of her fall, Carrie even had to postpone the release of her album, Cry Pretty, and several performances because she had to recover from her extensive injuries.

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Carrie Admitted To Feeling Self-Conscious Over Her Looks After The Injuries To Her Face

In May 2018, just a few months after her fall, Carrie sat down for her first TV interview with Today's Hoda Kotb. Recalling the scary incident, Carrie told Hoda, "Plain and simple, it was kind of a freak accident. I just fell, I just tripped taking my dogs out to do their business. It could have happened to anybody. I say if I'd fallen anywhere else it wouldn't have been a problem, but this one little step, I went to catch myself on, and I missed."

Carrie looked relieved when Hoda told her that she "looked the same" after the fall. The singer had previously shared that she was nervous about how much her appearance would change. "Every day I feel a little more back to normal," she shared.

In an interview with Redbook, Carrie recalled having to regain her confidence. The country superstar expressed that even though, at a glance, people would tell her she looked the same, knowing how her face looks, it was much harder for Carrie to adjust.

"Any time someone gets injured, it looks pretty bad in the beginning, and you’re like, ‘What is this going to wind up like?’ You just don’t know.'"

She continued, "It was also a perception thing, because I look at myself [now] and I see it quite a bit, but other people are like, ‘I wouldn’t have even noticed.’ Nobody else looks at you as much as you think they do. Nobody notices as much as you think they will, so that’s been nice to learn.”

Unfortunately, gossip magazines ran with a story that Carrie had fabricated her fall to cover up getting plastic surgery. She told Redbook, "I’m on some magazine every other week for something crazy. It’s a little sad, because the truth is just as interesting. I wish I’d gotten some awesome plastic surgery to make this [scar] look better. But I try not to worry too much about it."

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Carrie Got Back On Stage 5 Months After Her Fall

In Carrie's same message to her fans where she revealed that she had injured her face pretty seriously, she also shared that she believed she looked "a little bit different."

“And when I am ready to get in front of a camera, I want you all to understand why I might look a bit different,” she wrote. “I’m hoping that, by then, the differences are minimal, but, again, I just don’t know how it’s all going to end up," she wrote.

Carrie is the most awarded artist in the history of the CMT Awards, with 25 wins.

Just five months after her fall and having fully recovered, Carrie took the stage for the first time at the ACM Awards in April. Carrie stood solo on the stage with just her microphone and belted out her song "Cry Pretty." It was the first time she performed in front of a live audience. After she sang, Carrie received a standing invitation.

That May, she performed her song on the American Idol stage. The following month, she won her 18th CMT Award.

Carrie returns to American Idol as a judge on March 9.