Slimmed-down Oprah Winfrey is looking back on the emotional turmoil she faced during her decades-long struggle with her weight.
“It was a public sport to make fun of me for 25 years,” Winfrey told People in an article published Thursday, adding that she was often “blamed and shamed” on her journey.
“The things that were said about me, said to me, around me, the jokes that were made. You could not get away with it in the slightest sense today.”
The legendary talk show host, 69, noted that landing on cutting fashion critic Mr. Blackwell’s list early in her career crushed her emotionally.
“I was on the cover of some magazine, and it said, ‘Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy,'” she recalled.
“I just accepted that as that’s what it is, and I didn’t feel angry. I felt sad. I felt hurt. I felt shame, but it didn’t occur to me that I could even feel angry,” Winfrey continued.
“I swallowed the shame, and I accepted that it was my fault.”
The “Color Purple” star admitted in her People cover story to using a weight-loss drug not only to help her lose weight but also to assist in maintaining her figure.
“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,” she told the magazine.
“I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
She didn’t specify whether she was using celebrity-beloved Ozempic.
Winfrey also confessed that she “blamed” herself for “being overweight” but eventually realized she had a “predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control.”
The Oscar winner hasn’t reached her goal weight of 160 pounds but acknowledged that it’s “not about the number.”
“It was a second shot for me to live a more vital and vibrant life,” she said.
