Whoopi Goldberg Reveals She Used Weight Loss Medication Mounjaro After Hitting 300 Lbs.: ‘That’s a Lot of Me’

Whoopi Goldberg stands with her ex Color Purple actress Oprah Winfrey.

While discussing the former ABC talk show host’s special on the conversation surrounding the use of popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, the EGOT winner told the audience on Tuesday’s episode View that she also took medicine.

She made the decision after the recording To2022 biographical drama about Mamie Till-Bradley, a teacher who exacts justice after the August 1955 murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett.

“I’ll tell you, I was almost 300 pounds when I did it To“, said Goldberg, who starred in and produced the film.

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At the time, Goldberg was also recovering from a near-fatal health scare that left her in the hospital for nearly a month. She was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs and had sepsis, a potentially fatal condition caused by the body’s response to infection that can lead to tissue damage and organ failure.

“I took all these steroids, I was on all these things,” Goldberg said Tuesday. “And one of the things that helped me lose weight was Mounjaro. That’s what I used.”

The comedian further admitted that she was not aware of how much weight she had gained until she looked in the mirror one day. I always felt like myself, she said. “And then I saw myself and thought, ‘Oh! That’s a lot of me!’ ”

Oprah Winfrey tackles key weight loss drug issues amid obesity epidemic: ‘Very personal for me’

Whoopi Goldberg attends the premiere of ‘Till’ during the 60th New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on October 1, 2022 in New York City.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Winfrey, 70, revealed to PEOPLE in December that she has been using prescription weight-loss drugs as part of her health and wellness regimen, along with regular exercise and other lifestyle changes. She did not disclose what medications she was taking.

On The Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt, and the Weight Loss Revolutionthe media giant spoke with several medical experts about obesity, which was declared a disease by the American Medical Association in 2013. She also discussed her own ups and downs with her weight and the shame she felt when her gains and losses were publicly mocked.

“For 25 years, making fun of my weight was a national sport,” Winfrey said, recalling the painful headlines she read about herself over the decades and her own decision to starve herself to lose weight.

Oprah Winfrey hosts a sit-down conversation about the radical effects of prescription weight-loss drugs in the main event, ‘The Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt and the Weight-Loss Revolution.’

Disney/Eric McCandless

Oprah Winfrey recalls the child she ‘starved’ for ‘5 months’, says obesity is a ‘disease’, not a ‘character flaw’

A turning point for Winfrey’s approach to using pharmaceutical aids came in July 2022 when she had an “aha moment” during a taped panel discussion with weight loss experts and clinicians. (Invited Weight conditionthe conversation was part of Oprah Daily The life you want series).

“I realized that all these years I’ve been blaming myself for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower can control,” she said on Monday’s show. “Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower – it’s about the brain.”

– When I tell you how many times I blamed myself – Winfrey continued during a particularly emotional conversation. “Because you think you’re smart enough to figure this out, and then you keep hearing that you’re fighting your brain.”

Whoopi Goldberg attends the 39th Annual FGI Night of Stars Gala at The Plaza on October 17, 2023 in New York City.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Goldberg related to it, and suggest to View Tuesday for viewers to be a little kinder to each other and to themselves.

“Maybe the key is to stop judging everyone. Maybe that’s the key,” she said.

“My weight has been up and down, up and down, but it’s never been a problem for me because I don’t listen to what other people say about me, so it’s never been a problem. But I think it’s very difficult for people to just know what a normal weight would be.” , she added, noting that others often don’t know how to talk to someone when they’ve gone through weight gain. “Everybody has something to say, but nobody said, ‘How are you?’ Because it involves so many other things.”

“I think it’s about how we treat ourselves,” Goldberg noted.

View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC. The Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt, and the Weight Loss Revolution now streaming on Hulu.

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Source: HIS Education