Television mogul Oprah Winfrey is to leave the board of WeightWatchers in the wake of her admission she used weight-loss drugs as a “maintenance tool.”
The star’s decision comes after she disclosed last December she relies on these drugs to maintain her weight.
Winfrey told People magazine she “released my own shame about it” and went to a doctor to get a prescription. She declined to name of the medication she relies on.
Winfrey added, “I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.”
Her departure from a position she has held since 2015 is a fresh blow to a company struggling to stay relevant in the Ozempic era.
U.S. producer and actress Oprah Winfrey arrives for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. ( MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
WW International Inc. shares plunged by 27 percent in extended trade in the wake of the Oprah news, Bloomberg reports, with the New York City-based weight loss company’s 2024 revenue forecast to fall short of expectations.
Winfrey said in a statement she would continue to work with WeightWatchers “in elevating the conversation around recognizing obesity as a chronic condition,” the BBC reports.
The influential talk show host and businesswoman also said she will donate all her shares in the firm to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Winfrey is one of the biggest shareholders in WeightWatchers with a stake of around 10 percent balanced against her own net worth estimated to be $2.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Her departure comes as the company contends with a structural shift in the weight-loss industry away from diet-specific answers to drug alternatives.
In March 2023, the company announced it would buy digital health company Sequence “as a natural step” given “the advancements in chronic weight management medications.”
WeightWatchers boss Sima Sistani said the $132m deal would allow members to benefit from both its approach to “nutrition and behaviour-change” as well as prescription medications.