Oprah Winfrey isn't afraid to admit how weight stigma has changed her life, even as someone as successful as she is.
The 69-year-old star opened up about decades of being shamed for her size during a recent panel on Oprah Daily, called "The State of Weight," where she discussed her own experience gaining weight in the public eye, as well as the current cultural obsession with drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, known for their ability to induce weight loss.
For the discussion, Winfrey was joined by obesity specialists Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford and Dr. Melanie Jay, psychologist Rachel Goldman and Sima Sistani, CEO of WeightWatchers. Winfrey has been an investor in and on the board of WeightWatchers since 2015. Earlier this year, the company bought a telehealth platform that facilitates access to the new weight-loss drugs.
"You all know I’ve been on this journey for most of my life," Winfrey told the panel audience. "My highest weight was 237 pounds. I don’t know if there is another public person whose weight struggle has been exploited as much as mine over the years."
"You all have watched me diet and diet and diet," she continued. "It’s a recurring thing because my body always seems to want to go back to a certain weight."
Winfrey went on to share that when she weighed over 200 pounds, she could notice a difference in the way people treated her.
"This is a world that has shamed people for being overweight forever, and all of us who’ve lived it know that people treat you differently — they just do," she explained.
"I get treated differently if I’m 200-plus pounds versus under 200 pounds. I had to deal with that when I walk into a store. It’s that thing where people are like, 'Let me show you the gloves. Would you like to look at the handbags? Because we know that there’s nothing in here for you.' There is a condescension. There is stigma."
But, as the former talk show host pointed out, there can also be stigma and shame tied to how people chose to lose weight.
"Even when I first started hearing about the weight loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery, and I felt (like) I’ve got to do this on my own because if I take the drug, that’s the easy way out," Winfrey recalled. "There’s a part of me that feels (how) I think a lot of people felt with or feel with bariatric surgery — that I’ve got to do it the hard way. I’ve got to keep climbing the mountains. I got to keep suffering. I've got to do that because otherwise I somehow cheated myself."
That's why she's shedding light on the science of obesity as a chronic illness and how, for many people with obesity, losing weight isn't a matter of simple willpower.
"One of the things that I’ve been so ashamed ... about and was shamed in the tabloids every week about for 25 years is not having the willpower," she said.
In response, Cody explained that "(willpower) is just not in the science of (obesity)."
"We call (obesity a) disease because there is malfunction in how the body is operating, (in the two) pathways of the brain that actually regulate weight," she said.
"This isn’t me just making people feel good about it not being a willpower issue. It literally is not part of that regulation, those pathways. It’s how our bodies regulate weight. And each of us is different. Each of us is unique, not one is to superior to another," Cody added.
The silver lining of Winfrey's experience is that she's now using it to help others and stand up against all kinds of weight shaming.
"Your choices for your body and your ... health, it should be yours to own and not to be shamed about it," she said to conclude the panel. "As a person who’s been shamed for so many years, I’m just sick of it."