Two hosts of ABC’s “The View” have joined the list of celebrities opening up about using a prescription weight-loss medication for cosmetic purposes.
While discussing Oprah Winfrey’s ABC project “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin revealed what ultimately led to their decisions to turn to Mounjaro — which is FDA-approved to treat type 2 diabetes — at various stages in their lives.
“I had taken all those steroids, I was on all this stuff,” Goldberg said on Tuesday, People reported. “And one of the things that’s helped me drop the weight was the Mounjaro. That’s what I used.”
Goldberg said she weighed almost 300 pounds while producing and acting in the 2022 biographical drama “Till,” which centers on Mamie Till-Mobley, an educator who sought justice following the August 1955 murder of her 14-year-old son, Emmett.
In addition, she was healing from a near-death medical incident that required over a month in the hospital. She had pneumonia in both lungs and was diagnosed with sepsis, a potentially fatal illness brought on by the body’s reaction to an infection that can result in tissue damage and organ failure.
The EGOT winner admitted that she was unaware of her weight gain until she looked in the mirror one day. “I just always felt like me,” she recalled. “And then I saw me, and I thought, ‘Oh! That’s a lot of me!'”
According to People, Hostin began taking the medication after gaining weight during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She asserted that “there is shame when you’ve gained weight” and that “I had never experienced that kind of shame before.”
“During COVID, I gained 40 pounds,” said Hostin. “All I did was eat… I love to cook, and I found out, I love to eat. And I was horrified about the fact that I would have to come out on air. So I also took Mounjaro.”
She also cited health effects, noting that her cholesterol went up to 200 when she gained the extra weight.
“And I use Mounjaro, and my cholesterol is 140 now,” she added. “I feel better, I think I look better, and that’s what this is about for people.”
Winfrey shared in December that she was using a prescription weight-loss drug as part of her overall health and wellness routine, though she declined to reveal the brand name.
During the ABC special – which centers on the conversation regarding the use of popular drugs for non-medically required reasons – she discussed her long-standing shame over her weight and recalled how, for 25 years, people ridiculed her as if it was a “national sport.”
Her ability to heal did not occur until she started eliminating blame from her thoughts. “I realized I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control,” said Winfrey. “Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it’s about the brain.”
“When I tell you how many times I have blamed myself,” added Winfrey. “Because you think you’re smart enough to have figured this out, and then you hear, all along, it’s you fighting your brain.”
Hostin commended Winfrey for her candidness and said she hoped the discussion around obesity would help shift public opinion. Goldberg concurred and advised the audience to treat themselves and one another kinder.
“Maybe the key is to stop judging everybody,” she said, People reported. “Maybe that’s the key.”
She concluded: “I think it is a matter of how we treat ourselves.”
Never miss a beat: Get our daily stories straight to your inbox with theGrio’s newsletter.