Sarah Jessica Parker's refusal to submit to the surgeon's scalpel marked her out in an industry where cosmetic surgery is the norm.

But she has finally bowed to pressure to have her distinctive mole removed.

The decision followed increasing criticism and downright abuse from fans who complained that they found it 'distracting'.

The distinctive beauty spot was firmly in evidence in May, at the London premiere of the Sex and the City movie in Leicester Square. It was still there last month at a charity event in New York.

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Concealed or removed? Sarah Jessica Parker, pictured last night in New York (left) appeared to be missing her famous mole (right)

But only a faint mark remained where the mole used to be when the 43-year-old fashion icon attended a baseball game in the Big Apple.

The publicist for the actress known to many by her initials SJP insisted yesterday that she had not undergone cosmetic surgery.

She said: 'Nothing has been removed.' But the transformation from prominent mole to almost invisible blemish seemed far too dramatic to be the result of make-up artistry.

And a few hours later, a source close to the star confirmed that she had the mole removed in the past two weeks.

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The source said: 'I don't know when exactly she had it done but she has definitely had a procedure. She's kept it really quiet though.'

Miss Parker's fellow thespian Ewan McGregor had two moles removed from his face last year following a trip round Africa.

He said: 'I just went to have them checked. You have to be careful with moles if you're pale-skinned and you spend time in the sun. So I went to see a specialist who thought they were better to be removed and indeed he was correct.'

Former supermodel Cindy Crawford, 42, still has a dark mole above her top lip, however. 

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She was encouraged to have it removed at the beginning of her career but refused - and it didn't do her earning power any harm.

Kate Sowerbutts, clinical nurse specialist at the Mole Clinic in London, said: 'Sarah Jessica Parker looks like she has a compound mole which is quite unlikely to be cancerous. It is more likely she had it removed for cosmetic purposes.

'These type of inherited moles continue to grow and grow as we get older which may account for why she decided to have it removed. It's such an easy procedure, she would have been home within an hour.'