A lawsuit filed against the producers of the hit TV show Extreme Makeover begins with the line, "Deleese Williams is considered ugly." The remaining 31 pages of the complaint tell the story of a Texas wife and mother who was promised a series of cosmetic surgeries that would "transform her life and destiny." That dream was shattered, however, when one of the dental surgeons reported that Williams's recovery time would be longer than expected. She was pulled from the show the night before her surgeries were scheduled to begin, and sent back to Texas the next day.

According to the lawsuit, Williams sobbed uncontrollably when she was given the news. "How can I go back as ugly as I left?" she said, "I was supposed to come home pretty." Wesley Cordova, an attorney for Williams, claims that her suffering continues: "Deleese is so hurt and humiliated she won't leave the house now. She grocery shops at midnight."

The lawsuit also claims that Williams's family has been severely impacted. The producers coached them to focus on nothing accept Deleese's physical flaws, and even pushed them to verbally express their opinions on taped interviews—which Deleese later saw. The lawsuit claims, "Now that she returned in the same condition in which she left, there were no secrets, no hidden feelings, no rewards."

Finally, Cordova alleges that the emotional stress of the entire situation had a tragic impact on Deleese's sister, Kellie. "Kellie could not live with the fact that she had said horrible things that hurt her sister," said Cordova. "She fell to pieces. Four months later, she ended her life with an overdose of pills, alcohol, and cocaine." The lawsuit concludes: "The family is shredded. There is a human cost to this."