Years ago, Oprah Winfrey stopped being the queen of mornings on American television. In May 2011, after a quarter of a century, she said goodbye to her millions of viewers to dedicate herself to other tasks, including a new television channel and a media empire with magazines, film productions (such as the recent The color purple) and book clubs. She only returns to television in a big way, like when she interviewed Enrique of England and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, three years ago… or as she did this Monday night, March 18, to talk about herself and a growing concern for the US population: weight. More than 40% of the country's adults suffer from obesity, and by the end of this decade it will be half. Winfrey's concern for her weight, for hers and for her fellow citizens, has placed her in the star time slot with a special program to talk about the matter that has raised applause but also suspicions.
At eight o'clock in the afternoon Winfrey, 70, appeared before the viewers of the free-to-air network ABC – who were awaiting the arrival of a new episode of one of the greats. reality shows from the country, The Bachelorwhich was delayed until nine—with a special call Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution. In addition to interviewing several guests who had gained or lost pounds, he also talked about his own journey. Her weight has marked her entire career, she has always spoken about the matter, explaining the importance it had for her and changing her vision with the times: a purely aesthetic issue (in 2008 she regretted having surpassed 90 kilos, and explained that she felt “like a fat cow” and did not want to have her full body photos taken) to a health issue, mental and even “brain”, as she calls it now.
Oprah Winfrey was once again the presenter that so many remembered, bringing together personal stories, interviews with experts and also talking about her own suffering on her set: “For 25 years, making fun of my weight was the national sport.” “I wanted to make this special for the more than 100 million people in the United States and for the 1 billion people in the world who suffer from obesity. Maybe it's you or maybe it's someone you love,” she said. The fact that she returns to television to talk about this particular issue demonstrates the importance that the peso and its fluctuations have for the billionaire businesswoman. But also, for some, it is a way to justify her actions, since she has now started using drugs to lose weight, although she long ago publicly disowned them, calling them “the easy way out.”
Today his point of view is different. “Throughout my life I never dreamed that we would talk about medications that would give hope to people who, like me, have been struggling with overweight or obesity for years. I bring up this conversation in the hope that we can begin to free ourselves from stigma, shame, and judgment, that we stop shaming other people for being overweight or how they choose to lose or not lose weight. And, most importantly, that we stop shaming ourselves.” She herself, on the verge of tears, acknowledged that it was difficult for her to understand that obesity was a disease and that upon understanding it she felt true relief: “I can't explain how many times I have blamed myself. You think I’m smart enough to understand it and after hearing over and over again that it’s because of you, you fight your brain.” In addition, she also defended and recognized those who feel “healthy and happy” without being thin, those who only practice exercise and diet to lose weight and those who use specific medication: “There is room for all points of view. Let's stop shaming and blaming. There is no place for it.”
“I don't know if there is another person whose struggle with their weight has been as followed and exploited as mine,” he said at a recent event in New York. Last December, Winfrey spoke in a long interview with the magazine People about her path to losing weight and being healthier: with daily walks of between five and eight kilometers, drinking around four liters of water a day, having dinner no later than four o'clock and, as she has acknowledged, with medication that helps her. That is to say, he has started using some of the new weight loss drugs, such as Ozempic (from Novo Nordisk), although he did not specify the brand – this very Monday, precisely speaking about Winfrey's special, Whoopi Goldberg, a good friend of his , has announced that he uses Mounjaro, a best-seller from the pharmaceutical company Lily—or whether it is something specific or whether he is still undergoing treatment. “It's not one thing, it's many,” Winfrey said Monday night, in her attempt to put aside the stigma that surrounds both drugs and talking about diets.
For years, Winfrey has been open about her physique and has tried to help those who also suffer from it, among others by actively participating in companies in the field, such as WeightWatchers, a very popular weight loss system in the United States and in other countries, where It is often known as the points diet (since each food is assigned a score). In 2015 she bought 10% of the company and now, almost a decade later, she has divested herself of those shares, which she has donated to the National Museum of African American History. He has also decided not to continue holding a position on the company's board. Last week she explained on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show that precisely his return to television had to do with all of this. “This special is really important to me and I want to be able to talk about whatever I want. And WeightWatchers is now in the business of becoming a health and weight company that also administers weight medications. “I didn’t want it to seem like there was a conflict of interest.” In 2023, WeightWatchers bought a telematic health service called Sequence, which includes prescriptions, and which has grown its subscribers although, for now, not its revenue.
For the moment, it seems that this Winfrey program is something unique, a timely television return to talk about a topic that has been central to her life for decades and about which she has been learning and changing her opinion. With an estimated fortune of about 2.8 billion dollars (almost 2.6 billion euros), he does not need to make programs again. Furthermore, not everyone liked his intervention. The change of schedule The Bachelor It outraged many viewers. Some of them accused the presenter of sneaking into the prime time to broadcast “a long covert Ozempic ad” or “a pharmaceutical companies ad.”
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