Renee Zellweger addresses plastic surgery controversy while in Australia.

She’s the woman whose character became an icon.

The icon that assured us no drink was too many, no cigarette too far and no weight the standard of beauty.

It was okay to fail. It was okay to be Bridget Jones.

It is with a cruel sense of irony that the face behind Jones, actress Renee Zellweger, could not be spared the judgement her character so happily escaped.

In the past year, the question on everybody’s lips has been, did Renee Zellweger undergo plastic surgery?

It was a question that began an onslaught: of commentary, of side-by-side photo comparisons. A question that sparked Zellweger to reply in an essay of her own.

Zellweger has now explained what compelled her to respond to the rumours with Leigh Sales on ABC’s 7:30.

Sales asked Zellweger why she wrote the piece and whether its core message was simply that nobody should need to feel ‘perfect’.

“Why did you choose to write that and what other points were you hoping to make with that?” Sales asked.

“I needed to respond to some things that have been, you know, said about me personally,” Zellweger said.

The essay, ‘We Can Do Better’, famously speared the journalists who speculated and the industry that profited from speculation altogether.

“I can’t imagine there’s dignity in explaining yourself to those who trade in contrived scandal, or in seeking the approval of those who make fun of others for sport,” she wrote.

Zellweger’s response continued before she attacked the idea of the speculation directly.

“Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes.”

Prior to the essay, Zellweger had famously remained silent and largely ignored the speculation.

Sales asked Zellweger what it was that made her decide to face the rumours so directly.

"Speculation became the truth and it seems if you repeat a thing enough it becomes the truth," she said.

"I don't want to perpetuate any negativity by commenting on it, so that then they can say, "Well, she denies" suggesting that I'm lying or something."

Watch the hilarious official trailer for Bridget Jones' Baby. Post continues...

The Oscar winner said she placed very little weight on the approval of those cruel enough to speculate.

"I don't think there's any dignity in seeking the approval of people you don't know and who make fun of other people. I don't see that there's dignity in that," she said.

Sales ended the interview with a quick roundup on what the actress had been doing since her brief hiatus from the spotlight.

Zellweger is currently touring Australia to promote the latest installment of the series that made her so iconic: Bridget Jones' Baby.