Oprah Winfrey is taking a look in the mirror at how she has played a “major” role in setting a standard for weight loss and dieting that nobody “could uphold” — herself included.
The media icon, 70, got candid about her role in the public’s approach to body image — as well as the effect of having her own figure so often commented upon — during Thursday’s live YouTube special, “Making the Shift,” which featured doctors, experts and stars like Rebel Wilson and Busy Philipps.
The three-hour event, presented by Winfrey and Weight Watchers, comes just over two months after Winfrey left the weight-loss company’s board of directors.
“I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture,” she said during the special. “Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years and 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.”
She pointed to the “famous wagon of fat” she wheeled out during a 1988 episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” — to signify the 67 pounds she’d dropped at the time.
During “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution” earlier this year, Winfrey revealed that previous weight loss was the result of having “starved myself for nearly five months,” and that she “started to gain it back” the day after the wagon stunt.
Winfrey on Thursday admitted the wagon “set a standard for people watching that I nor anybody else could uphold.”
“That wagon of fat moment … set into motion years and years of thinking that my struggle with my weight was my fault,” she continued. “It has taken me even up until last week to process the shame I felt privately as my very public yo-yo diet moments became a national joke.”
Late last year, Winfrey confirmed her recent use of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy “as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.” Though intended for those with type 2 diabetes, Winfrey is one of many famous faces who have used such drugs as a means of weight loss or maintenance.
