Oprah Winfrey praises Hugh Jackman and social media ban – but avoids key weight-loss detail
The 71-year-old former talk show host is on her first trip to Australia in 10 years in partnership with Lilly, which is next sending her to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne to inspire audiences by speaking about “the power of authenticity” and “necessity of resilience”, according to Oprah In Conversation: Presented by Lilly’s blurb.
On Monday, Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), issued a safety warning over the risk of suicidal thoughts and reduced effectiveness of oral contraception linked with GLP-1 receptor agonists, including Mounjaro, Ozempic, Wegovy and more.
No such drug was mentioned by Winfrey on stage on Thursday. The closest thing to an outright acknowledgement of GLP-1 receptor agonist medications, which Winfrey confirmed in 2023 she uses, was from a clip of a previous television appearance.
“I never dreamed that we would be talking about medicines that are providing hope for people like me who have struggled for years with being overweight or with obesity,” Winfrey said in the pre-recorded video, aired in a package that was played before she got on stage.
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It wasn’t until 52 minutes into her mammoth one-hour-and-40-minute-long sit-down that Winfrey mentioned her weight loss journey, alluding to her use of GLP-1 receptor agonists with the umbrella term “treatment”.
After making a promise to God as she recovered from double knee surgery in 2021, Winfrey hikes daily, she says, including at Wattamolla in the Royal National Park while she’s in Sydney, and Mount Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains.
Another game-changing element in her weight loss journey, Winfrey said, was discovering obesity is a disease, a storyline mirrored in the myriad copies of the free Let’s Talk magazine Lilly laid out in the auditorium’s lobby for attendees to take.
Winfrey was generous with her time on Thursday night, speaking for so long that moderator Melissa Doyle was unable to ask her questions that had been submitted by the audience due to time running out.Credit: Getty Images
“All the shame and blame I brought to myself all these years was unfounded because obesity is a disease,” Winfrey said on stage.
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“When I discovered that it’s a disease, I called my doctor and I started treatment. That is not one answer. It’s a combination of all the things that I’m doing. So I’m working out. I’m planking, I’m doing resistance training, I’m hiking and also eating a lot less. And through the treatment all of my food noise stopped.”
That GLP-1 receptor agonists were not overtly mentioned by Winfrey or in the Let’s Talk advertising magazine is a reflection of Australian rules forbidding the advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public. The TGA’s policy is to prevent self-diagnosis based on incomplete or misleading information, and to ensure treatment decisions are made with a healthcare professional.
Lilly advertised the event as a “rare opportunity” to hear reflections from Winfrey that will “resonate with anyone seeking purpose, inspiration, or a spark to reimagine their own path”, and they delivered. But by her failure to address the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists directly on Thursday night, attendees may have left confused as well as inspired.
