Oprah Winfrey has revealed that she recently switched to a weight loss medication after years of struggling with her weight.
In an interview with People magazine, the former talk show host recalled the decades of public ridicule she endured because of her height and how she internalized the criticism.
“For 25 years it was a public sport to make fun of me,” Winfrey told People: “I was blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself.”
She mentioned a particularly harsh case in which a magazine cover dubbed her “Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy.”
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“I wasn’t angry,” she told People. “I was sad. I felt violated. I swallowed the shame. I accepted that it was my fault.”
Winfrey's weight fluctuations have been well documented, but her health began to improve during rehabilitation from knee surgery in 2021.
She said she started hiking, focused on her fitness and made progress.
“I felt stronger, fitter and more alive than I had in years,” she told People.
Winfrey said she had been recommending weight-loss medications to others for years, but only considered them for herself when she appeared on a panel discussion with experts and doctors as part of the series “Oprah Daily's Life You Want,” which aired in September recorded weight loss.
During the panel, she said the weight-loss drug Ozempic was “the easy way out,” but she said she had an epiphany while speaking to the panelist.
“I, along with a lot of people in the audience, had the biggest 'aha,'” Winfrey told People. “I realized that I had been blaming myself for being overweight all these years, and I have a disposition that no amount of willpower can control.”
“Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower, it’s about the brain,” she added.
Winfrey said she changed her mind about weight-loss medications and got a prescription; She does not mention the medication in the interview.
However, Winfrey stressed that she has to work hard to maintain her weight loss, but she still views the medication as a “gift.”
“The fact that there is a doctor-approved prescription to manage my weight and stay healthier in my life feels like a relief, like a redemption, like a gift and not something to hide behind and again can be ridiculed. I’m done with that.” shaming other people and especially myself.
Last year saw high demand for semaglutide, the generic form of brand-name drugs Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus.
These drugs cause weight loss and are considered highly effective: A doctor told CBS News that the drugs can help people lose about 15% of their body weight – significantly more than previous generations of weight-loss drugs.
Semaglutide drugs work by mimicking a gut hormone called GLP1, or glucagon-like peptide hormone, which “enhances the action of this gut hormone to improve communication between the gut and the brain and make us feel full and also helps reduce appetite “said Dr. Amanda Velazquez, who works at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Health in Los Angeles.
Ozempic and similar drugs were originally developed to treat patients with diabetes because they produce insulin and lower blood sugar. They can cause serious side effects, and doctors warn that long-term effects remain unknown.