Media mogul Oprah Winfrey decried decades of fat “shaming” and talked about starving herself for months in a recent special about the weight-loss medications currently taking Hollywood by storm.
“In my lifetime, I never dreamed that we would be talking about medicine that is providing hope for people like me who have struggled for years with being overweight or obesity,” Winfrey said in an ABC special, titled, An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame And The Weight Loss Revolution.
“So, I come to this conversation in the hope that we can start releasing the stigma and the shame and the judgment to stop shaming other people for being overweight or how they choose to lose or not lose weight,” Winfrey continued. “And more importantly, to stop shaming ourselves.”
Winfrey went on to say that she “took on the shame that the world gave to me,” adding that “for 25 years making fun of my weight was a national sport.”
The Oprah Winfrey Show host said she will “never forget” being described on TV Guides as “bumpy, lumpy, and downright dumpy.”
“I was ridiculed on every late-night talk show for 25 years, and tabloid covers for 25 years,” she said. “In an effort to combat all the shame, I starved myself for nearly five months, and then wheeled out that wagon of fat that the internet will never let me forget.”
Winfrey was referring to a talk-show appearance in 1988, when she wheeled out a wagon containing 67 pounds of animal fat to show her audience how much weight she had lost while on a liquid diet.
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“And after losing 67 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, the very next day, I started to gain it back,” she added. “Feeling the shame of fighting a losing battle with weight is a story all too familiar.”
In December 2023, in the wake of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro having become so widely talked about, Winfrey told People that she had taken weight-loss medication, but did not disclose which one.
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” Winfrey told the magazine.
“I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself,” she added.
During the recent ABC special, Winfrey noted that the undisclosed weight-loss drug has caused her to eat food in smaller portions, causing her to believe that this is how people who don’t have obesity problems must feel all the time.
“Now I realize y’all weren’t even thinking about the food,” she said.
“All these years I thought all of the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower and for some reason, stronger than me,” Winfrey declared. “It’s not that you had the willpower, you weren’t obsessing over it — that’s the big thing I learned.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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