'I'M SICK OF THE SHAMING

Oprah on the weight-loss drug Ozempic and why she prefers to lose weight naturally 

- NICI DE WET

SHE’S spent a significant chunk of her life getting people to open up about themselves. Love lives, tragic events, drug habits, royal fallouts, big jobs, major disappointments – Oprah Winfrey has heard them all and prised out as many details as she can.

But the queen of talk TV isn’t only a great interviewer with a one-of-a-kind couch-side manner: she’s a sharer too. It’s always been part of her charm.

Her traumatic childhood, her often fraught relationship with her parents, her complex relationship with food – she’s delved into it all. She’s always managed to make us feel better about ourselves because she has her issues too.

Oprah often talks about her experiences on her The Life You Want series on her Oprah Daily channel, which tackles issues such as menopause and ageing.

So when the recent topic was the State of Weight, featuring a panel of experts in front of a live audience talking about weight loss and obesity, Oprah had plenty to say.

The 69-year-old broadcast giant hadn’t yet publicly weighed in on the latest weight-loss craze to sweep the globe – the so-called wonder drug Ozempic – but she didn’t shy away from it when an audience member brought it up.

She’d lost 45kg with the help of the drug, the woman said, and it had changed her mindset and stopped her obsessing about food.

Oprah, who was guiding the discussion around destigmatising conversations about obesity, immediately said she was “ready to talk about this”.

“I don’t know if there is another public person whose weight struggle has been exploited as much as mine over the years.”