Celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey revealed that she takes weight-loss medication as part of her fitness regimen, explaining how she has battled body-shaming and body image issues in all the decades that she has been in the public eye.
"I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing," the global influencer, who will turn 70 next month, told People magazine, choosing not to share the name of the drug.
“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. I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."
A turning point in her weight-loss journey was a knee surgery in 2021 after which she starting making stricter efforts to maintain a healthier lifestyle.
"After knee surgery, I started hiking and setting new distance goals each week. I could eventually hike three to five miles every day and a 10-mile straight-up hike on weekends," she told People. "I felt stronger, more fit and more alive than I’d felt in years."
"I eat my last meal at 4 o’clock, drink a gallon of water a day, and use the WeightWatchers principles of counting points. I had an awareness of (weight-loss) medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way,” the billionaire said.
Oprah Winfrey is an investor in WW International (formerly Weight Watchers), a US-based company that offers weight-loss programmes.
In September, Winfrey had joined the conversation around Ozempic, a Type 2 diabetes drug that leads to weight-loss too, saying using the drug would be “the easy way out”.
“Even when I first started hearing about the weight loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery, and I felt, 'I've got to do this on my own.' Because if I take the drug, that's the easy way out,” she had said in a panel on weight-loss.
Winfrey, born in 1954, rose from a childhood of poverty and abuse in small-town Mississippi to become the world's first female African-American billionaire in 2003. She had said in the past that she was raped when she was a child, and had a baby at 14, who later died.
The multiple-award-winning interviewer has long promoted mindfulness and self-improvement, becoming a self-help guru for many.
Forbes magazine estimated her personal wealth at $2.7 billion.
In 2008, she endorsed Barack Obama's presidential bid, the first time she had ever publicly backed a candidate for office.
(With inputs from AFP)
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