Oprah Confirms She’s Using Weight-Loss Drug: ‘I’m Done with the Shaming’

Oprah Winfrey is opening up about her weight loss in a People exclusive.

In a new cover story, Oprah reveals she is putting in the work and using a weight-loss medication as a tool in her journey.

"It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years," Winfrey explained. "I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself."

That chapter is over. Now, she’s focusing on diet, exercise, and consistency.

She said her weight "occupied five decades of space in my brain, yo-yoing and feeling lik, ‘Why can’t I just conquer this thing?,’ believing willpower was my failing,"

Oprah had knee surgery about two years ago and said afterward, “I started hiking and setting new distance goals each week. I could eventually hike three to five miles every day and a 10-mile straight-up hike on weekends. I felt stronger, more fit, and more alive than I’d felt in years."

The star, who turns 70 next month, is also mindful about what she’s eating. "I eat my last meal at 4 o’clock, drink a gallon of water a day, and use the WeightWatchers principles of counting points. I had an awareness of [weight-loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way."

The talk show host explained, "I was actually recommending it to people long before I was on it myself."

Her perspective on the medications changed in July after she spoke with experts in the field during a panel called “The State of Weight,” which was filmed for Oprah Daily’s “Life You Want” series.

She began to understand “obesity is a disease” and “about the brain” and “not about willpower.”

Oprah released her shame around the pharmaceuticals and received a prescription from her doctor. She did not reveal the name of the medication, but said, "I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.”

She said, "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. I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."

The drug, however, is just a tool. She explained, "I know everybody thought I was on it, but I worked so damn hard. I know that if I’m not also working out and vigilant about all the other things, it doesn’t work for me."

And she used the medication at Thanksgiving to “quiet the food noise,” saying, “instead of gaining eight pounds like I did last year, I gained half a pound."

Oprah shared she is less than 10 lbs. from her goal of 160 lbs., but insisted, “It’s not about the number… It was a second shot for me to live a more vital and vibrant life.”

“Extra’s” Melvin Robert just spoke with the icon at “The Color Purple” premiere, telling her, “You look so beautiful. Do you feel as good as you look?”

Winfrey, who is an executive producer on the film, replied, “I feel better… Whatever I look like, I feel a hundred times better.”