Oprah Winfrey has faced constant criticism regarding her weight throughout her career.
“It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years,” Winfrey told PEOPLE. “I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself.”
One particularly painful experience occurred early in her career when she found herself listed by the sharp-tongued fashion critic Mr. Blackwell.
“I was on the cover of some magazine, and it said, ‘Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy,'” she recalled. “I didn’t feel angry, I felt sad, I felt hurt, I swallowed the shame, I accepted that it was my fault.”
Winfrey said she has gained a more practical grasp on maintaining a healthy weight in the long run and is determined to eliminate any feelings of shame. Additionally, she adopted a comprehensive approach that involves consistent exercise and other lifestyle adjustments, incorporating weight-loss medication into her routine.
“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. I felt stronger, more fit, and more alive than I’d felt in years,” Winfrey said.
She added, “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.”
“I realized I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control,” she said. “Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it’s about the brain.”
Nevertheless, Winfrey acknowledges the attention surrounding the rising popularity of weight loss medications such as Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro. However, she emphasizes that these medications have not been a miraculous cure-all or the sole solution to her journey.
“I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing,” she said, “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.”
