Oprah Winfrey returned to TV on Monday night with a special focused on how weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are changing the lives of people with obesity — a health journey she’s experienced herself.
Toward the end of the one-hour program, Winfrey got emotional when she recalled how she used to think of herself and her weight for most of her life, before she started taking weight loss medication and fully understood how obesity is a disease requiring treatment.
“There is now a sense of hope, No. 1, and No. 2, you no longer blame yourself,” she explained. “When I tell you how many times I have blamed myself because you think, ‘I’m smart enough to figure this out,’ and then to hear all along, it’s you fighting your brain.”
She also recalled how she “starved” herself for five months before bringing out the infamous wagon of fat on her talk show in 1988.
“After losing 67 pounds on liquid diet, the next day, the very next day, I started to gain it back,” Winfrey said.
But now, Winfrey said she’s learned so much about the shame and stigma that come with having obesity, and how she wants to fight it.
“All these years, I thought all of the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower and they were for some reason stronger than me,” she said.
“But now I realize y’all weren’t even thinking about the food,” she quipped. “It’s not that you had the willpower. You weren’t even thinking about it. You weren’t obsessing about it.”
The media mogul confirmed in December 2023 that she’s taking a weight-loss medication, though she didn’t specify which one.
Winfrey, who has appeared visibly slimmer in recent months, said she’s also eating a healthy diet and exercising, including hiking 3 to 5 miles a day or running.
Her new prime-time program on ABC, titled “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” was recorded in front of a live audience in a studio that looked similar to the set she used for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which…
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