Oprah Winfrey to discuss rise of prescription weight loss drugs in gritty new documentary - after star  admitted she DID use medication for dramatic 40lbs transformation

Oprah Winfrey will discuss the rise of prescription weight loss drugs in a new documentary - three months after she admitted she used medication to drop 40lbs.

The TV icon, 70, who had previously denied she would ever take Ozempic but came clean about her use of weight loss medication - will present An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution set to air on March 18.

In a statement announcing the ABC programme she said: 'It is a very personal topic for me and for the hundreds of millions of people impacted around the globe who have for years struggled with weight and obesity.

'This special will bring together medical experts, leaders in the space and people in the day-to-day struggle to talk about health equity and obesity with the intention to ultimately release the shame, judgment and stigma surrounding weight.'

Last month Winfrey revealed she would leave the board of WeightWatchers, months after she admitted to taking weight loss medications. 

Oprah Winfrey will discuss the rise of prescription weight loss drugs in a new documentary - three months after she admitted she used medication to drop 40lbs (pictured last month)

In December Winfrey admitted she did use weight-loss medication for her dramatic body transformation - after previously denying she would ever take Ozempic or similar drugs to lose weight (seen left last week and right in 2019)

The talk show host, who has been a board member since 2015, will not be standing for re-election at the 2024 annual shareholder meeting.

Currently, there are two approved treatments in the United States for chronic weight management - Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.

Winfrey will donate the shares of the company owned by her to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), WeightWatchers said, adding the decision would 'eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight loss medications.'

She owned 1.13 million shares worth $6.34 million as of Jan. 1, LSEG data showed.

Winfrey also intends to donate any future proceeds from her WW stock options to NMAAHC.

She had been slammed in the wake of her weight loss drug reveal for plugging weight loss support group WW since 2017, after she previously stated drugs like Ozempic would be 'the easy way out.' 

In December, the host who has been dogged by rumors she was using medical weight loss aids for years, said she was coming clean as she was 'done with the shaming' after losing more than 40lbs in recent months.

The admission comes after Winfrey said she would not take Ozempic and similar drugs in the class of weight-loss medications because she viewed them as an 'easy way out' during a discussion with WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani.

In a statement announcing the ABC programme she said: 'It is a very personal topic for me and for the hundreds of millions of people impacted around the globe who have for years struggled with weight and obesity' (pictured December)

She told People: 'I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing' - but did not name the drug that she uses.

'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' and added she had actively recommended the weight loss aid to other people before deciding to take it herself.

The star revealed she had taken the medication before Thanksgiving as she knew she would have 'two solid weeks of eating' and credits the drug for causing her to only gain half a pound rather than eight pounds, adding it 'quiets the food noise.' 

She told People : 'I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing' - but did not name the drug that she uses(pictured left December 6 and right in 2009 )

Winfrey said she is now seven pounds away from her goal weight of 160lbs but said 'it's not about the number.'

Oprah weighed 237lbs (107.5kg) at her heaviest, she has previously revealed. 

She said undergoing knee surgery in 2021 kickstarted a journey for her to improve her health and live a 'more vital and vibrant life.' 

The broadcast icon said she now eats her last meal at 4pm, drinks a gallon of water a day and uses WeightWatchers principles of counting points, along with regular hikes.

She added that her fitness and health routine are integral to maintaining her weight loss saying: 'It’s everything. 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.'

She said: '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.'

Winfrey said she was encouraged to use medical weight loss drugs after the taped panel conversation in July with weight loss experts and clinicians - which led to her 'biggest aha moment.' The conversation was released online in September and saw Winfrey staunchly denying she would ever take weight loss drugs.

She said: '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. Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it's about the brain.

During the discussion, the experts insisted that obesity is a metabolic disease with some bodies 'more predisposed to storing more fat' - also known as adipose tissue.

The star hosted a panel in front of a live audience in New York City as part of Oprah Daily's The Life You Want series - where she denied she would ever take weight loss drugs 

Oprah candidly explained: 'For those of us that are adipose storers, no matter how many times... You've all watched me diet and diet and diet and diet, it's a recurring thing because my body always seems to want to go back to a certain weight.'

She added: 'If I ate an apple pie at 11 o'clock at night, I would be two pounds heavier in the morning. I can't eat after a certain time.'

The TV personality, who claimed she had 'yoyoed her whole life,' later said: 'This is a world that has shamed people for being overweight forever and all of  us who have lived it know that people just treat you differently. They just do.

'And I am Oprah Winfrey and I know all that comes with that and I get treated differently if I am 200 plus pounds versus under 200 pounds...

'There is a condescension. There is a stigma.'

Oprah said that the key was to have friends and partners around you that offered support and 'rejoiced in your victory.'

Following a more in depth discussion of the weight-loss drugs currently available - including Ozempic and Wegovy - the media mogul said: 'Shouldn't we all just be more accepting of whatever body you choose to be in? That should be your choice. 

Throughout her decades-long weight-loss journey, Oprah has never shied away from discussing her problems in public. Pictured in 1988 (left) and 1992 (right) 

'One of the things I carried so much shame for, and even when I first started hearing about the weight-loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery and I felt, "I've got to do this on my own because if I take the drug, that's the easy way out."

'There's a part of me that feels - like I think a lot of people feel with bariatric surgery - that I've got to do it the hard way, I've got to keep climbing the mountains, I've got to keep suffering and I've got to do that because otherwise I somehow cheated myself.'

She concluded: 'As a person who has been shamed for so many years [about my weight], I am just sick of it.'

The star said after this chat, she released her 'own shame' and consulted her doctor, who prescribed the weight loss medication. 

Asked what she's done to achieve results last week, she told Entertainment Tonight: 'It's not one thing, it's everything. I intend to keep it that way.'

Her issues with weight began in 1976, when she landed her first 'big job' at age 22.

The then 148-pound reporter said she struggled to come to grips with the immense pressure that was put on her, and began to pig out on things like 'corn dogs,' 'chocolate chip cookies,' and fast food from the mall food court to suppress her emotions and 'numb her negative feelings.'

Her weight soon soared to over 200 pounds, and she began trying 'every diet known to womankind.'

Winfrey has been fiercely honest with fans every step of the way, sharing even the most intimate details regarding her relationship with her body and 'food addiction.' Pictured in 1990

In 1988, just two years after the launched the Oprah Winfrey Show, the TV legend revealed during an episode that she had lost 67 pounds in four months thanks to an all-liquid diet - and celebrated by wheeling out a wagon of fat onto the stage

In 1988, just two years after the launched the Oprah Winfrey Show, the TV legend revealed during an episode of her show that she had lost 67 pounds in four months thanks to an all-liquid diet.

In reality, she later revealed that she had 'starved herself' and messed up her 'metabolism,' which ultimately resulted in her gaining it all back and then-some pretty quickly.

By the early 1990s, the self-confessed yo-yo dieter was at her heaviest - 237 pounds - and feeling 'so ashamed' to have 'joined the ranks of the perpetually obese' that she said she could hardly look people in the eye.

She recalled feeling like a 'big fat failure.' But after connecting with a personal trainer at a spa in Colorado, he helped inspire her to turn things around.

For years after that, Oprah's weight fluctuated. With the help of her new trainer, it dropped down to 160 pounds by 2006, but within two years after that, it was back up to 200 pounds.

At the time, she said a slew of health woes were to blame for the weight gain, and admitted that she was once again feeling 'defeated' and was just about ready to 'give up' and let 'fat win.'

However, in 2015, she joined forces with the company Weight Watchers, and within a year, she said she had lost 40 pounds through the program.

But she had another set back in late 2021, with Oprah revealing in January 2022 that she was undergoing a diet 'reset' after consuming quite a lot during the holidays.