Oprah Winfrey made history when she shattered barriers in television. A media mogul, author, and cultural force, she continues to inspire as one of the most influential women of all time.
Throughout the 25-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show, thousands of guests shared their stories on a wide range of subjects.
But for Oprah Winfrey, one moment lingers as her greatest regret, involving weight and weight loss, a deeply personal struggle she has continued to face in recent years.
Following her farewell from television, Oprah has launched The Oprah Podcast and kept herself busy running her book club.
Some two years ago, she revealed that she began using GLP-1, a type 2 diabetes medication that can also trigger weight loss which helped her lose 50 pounds.
“One of the things that I realized the very first time I took a GLP-1 was that all these years I thought that thin people, those people just had more willpower,” Oprah said in her podcast.
“They ate better foods, they were able to stick to it longer, they never had a potato chip.”
She continued: “And then I realized the very first time I took the GLP-1 that, ‘Oh, they’re not even thinking about it. They’re only eating when they’re hungry and they’re stopping when they’re full,” before sharing the reason behind her decision to reveal that she was taking a weight loss drug.
“When I announced last January I was like an anomaly, an anomaly in that I was willing to say it,” Oprah concluded.
While she openly spoke of her struggles with weight loss, she also admitted that the topic of her weight has at one point become “a national sport,” telling People Magazine many were making fun of her appearance.
“I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years.”
Further, she recalled a magazine cover dubbing her “Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy.”
“I didn’t feel angry,” she told People. “I felt sad, I felt hurt, I swallowed the shame, I accepted that it was my fault.”
Now, she says she’s “done with shaming.”
“I’ve been a steadfast participant in this diet culture,” Oprah said. “Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years, through online — I’ve been a major contributor to it. I cannot tell you how many weight loss shows and makeovers I have done and they have been a staple since I’ve been working in television.”
Back in 1988, Oprah shocked viewers when she wheeled a wagon of fat onto the stage of her show, representing the weight she had shed through a liquid diet and intense exercise. She confessed she had gone months practically starving herself and went on to explain her struggle, saying, it “sent a message that starving yourself with a liquid diet and set a standard for people watching that I, nor anybody else, could uphold. The very next day, I began to gain the weight back.”
Oprah added: “I own what I’ve done, and now I want to do better.”
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