Oprah Winfrey has some choice words for those who critiqued her weight for decades.
“I have to say that I took on the shame that the world gave to me. For 25 years, making fun of my weight was national sport,” Winfrey said on “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” which aired Monday night on ABC.
Winfrey recalled the cover of TV Guide calling her “bumpy, lumpy and downright dumpy” in 1990 and read out headlines over the years that obsessed over her appearance.
“I come to this conversation with 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 and, most importantly, to stop shaming ourselves,” the media mogul said.
She added, “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. And after losing 67 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, y’all, the very next day I started to gain it back.”
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In the Monday night special, Winfrey spoke with medical experts and guests who have taken weight-loss medications and experienced drastic physical and mental changes (mostly positive, though some negative).
Winfrey, who in December admitted to using weight loss medication, empathized with the guests who shared why they turned to prescription medications such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, Victoza and Wegovy.
“This is what I got for the first time after I took the medication. 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,” Winfrey said. “And now I realize: y’all weren’t even thinking about the food! It’s not that you had the willpower; you weren’t obsessing about it!”
In taking weight-loss medication, the former talk show host revealed “I’m not constantly thinking about what the next meal is gonna be.” She uses it in combination with “hiking 3 to 5 miles a day,” running, weight resistance training and eating a “healthy diet.”
Winfrey got choked up as she spoke with a woman who participated in her “The State of Weight” panel last year and whose relationship with food “completely changed” after starting a weight-loss medication.
“There is now a sense of hope and you no longer blame yourself,” she said. “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!”
Winfrey signed off acknowledging medication might not be for everyone.
“For people who feel happy and healthy in celebrating life in a bigger body and don’t want the medications, I say: ‘Bless you.’ And for all the people who believe diet and exercise is the best and only way to lose excess weight, bless you too if that works for you,” she said.
“And for all the people who think that this could be the relief and support and freedom … that you’ve been looking for your whole life, bless you because there is space for all points of view.”
