Oprah Winfrey is reflecting on your weight loss journey, including the ups and downs which has been the subject of tabloids and comedians for years, and as she believes has become a major component in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
The 70-year-old media mogul teamed up with WeightWatchers for a three-hour live YouTube specialduring which she discussed abandoning food culture with actresses Rebel Wilson, Amber Riley, WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani and several doctors and other expert voices. As part of the Making the change In the conversation, Winfrey recalled how the media’s heavy focus on her weight made her obsess over her appearance and do anything to lose weight.
“I want to acknowledge that I have been a firm participant in this diet culture,” she said during the event’s live stream. “Through my platforms, the magazine, the talk show for 25 years and online, I have contributed a lot to this. I can’t tell you how many weight loss and makeover shows I’ve done and they’ve been a staple since I started working in television.”
She continued: “I told how that famous fat wagon The Oprah Show It’s one of my biggest regrets. It sent a message that starving yourself on a liquid diet set a standard for people watching that I nor anyone else could uphold. The next day I started gaining the weight back… That fat moment was triggered after years and years of thinking my struggle with my weight was my fault and it took me until last week to process the shame I felt in private when my moments Yo-yo dieting audiences have become a national joke.”
Winfrey previously discussed how she was a victim of public shame and humiliation for decades during her primetime special, An Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt, and the Weight-Loss Revolution.
The March special featured interviews with medical experts and people who have struggled with their weight for years in an effort to combat the stigma surrounding the increasing use of weight loss medications.
“In an effort to combat all the shame, I starved myself for almost five months and then pulled on that fat wagon that the internet will never let me forget,” Winfrey confessed during the special, recalling the infamous episode of her talk show. “And after losing 30 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, guys, the the next dayI started to get it back.”
An example of Winfrey’s public shaming was a 1985 appearance in Tonight’s program when the late Joan Rivers guest-hosted Johnny Carson. The former beauty pageant winner was 31 years old at the time and had just started presenting her I AM Chicago morning program.
Rivers, a comedian known for criticizing people as she did for her plastic surgery, told Winfrey, “So how did you gain weight? You shouldn’t let that happen to you. You’re very beautiful. I don’t want to hear that. You is a pretty, single girl. You should lose weight.
When Winfrey mentioned Nell Carter, Rivers said she was “still really chubby” after recently losing weight, and told Winfrey, “Don’t you think you should lose more? People should help their friends with this diet. Tell the truth to a friend .You must say you are still a pig, lose more weight.”
“That was on national television, I was so embarrassed,” Winfrey recalled during Making the change. “All I thought was, ‘I can come back if I lose 15 pounds…’ I left there and gained 25 pounds. This was the beginning of a vicious cycle that ended on the liquid diet, where I starved myself for months and the result was that now famous fat wagon moment.”
“Last week someone brought it up and said, ‘Oh, you must have been so angry,’ and I’ll tell you all, it never occurred to me to be angry because I thought I deserved it,” she confessed.
Before the premiere of An Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt, and the Weight-Loss RevolutionWinfrey spoke with ET at the 55th NAACP Image Awards about their hopes for how viewers would receive the special.
“I’m so excited about this show that I’m doing… about shame and guilt and the weight loss revolution,” said Winfrey, who confirmed his own use of weight loss medications, shared. “I’m really excited about this because, as you know, I spent years in this business and I was also embarrassed. And I just want people to be freed, and to know that, for so many people in this country who are suffering from weight and obesity, it’s not really your fault – it’s your brain’s fault.”
“So once you figure that out, you can start getting help to help you deal with it, however you decide to do it,” Winfrey added. “So I want people to stop being blamed for the choices they make regarding their health.”
“We had to look at everything,” Winfrey told ET about having medical experts participate in the drug conversation. “They’ve been taking this medication for 20 years. I didn’t know that. They’ve been taking this medication for 20 years and we’re only now hearing about it.”
Watch Winfrey Making the change in partnership with WeightWatchers below.
An Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt, and the Weight-Loss Revolution is available to stream on Hulu.