For years, Oprah Winfrey has been a prominent spokesperson and board executive for the weight-loss company Weight Watchers — but her partnership with the company is now ending after a major recent admission.
The 70-year-old media mogul and and talk show host acquired a 10% stake in Weight Watchers, now renamed WW, in 2015, becoming its spokesperson and joining the board of directors.
But the high-profile partnership between Oprah and WW is coming to an end after nearly a decade — after Oprah revealed her weight loss journey involved more than diet control.
In December, Oprah told People that she has used an unspecified weight loss drug. “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 told the outlet. “Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it’s about the brain.”
She said that she “released her own shame” about weight-loss medication and her doctor wrote her a prescription.
“I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing,” she told People. “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.”
The revelation comes as prescription anti-obesity medications like Ozempic have been gaining popularity and widespread use.
Oprah’s admission was met with mixed reaction from fans: some praised her for her candidness about the topic, while others said she was a hypocrite after years of promoting diet programs. (Oprah told People that she still used the Weight Watchers point system in her daily weight regimen.)