The billionaire said she “set a standard for people watching that I nor anybody else could uphold.”
Oprah Winfrey is apologizing for being a “major contributor” to toxic diet culture.
While hosting the WeightWatchers live special, ”Making the Shift,” on Thursday, the billionaire media mogul expressed regret for playing a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
“I’ve been a steadfast participant in this diet culture,” Winfrey, 70, explained. “Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years, through online ― I’ve been a major contributor to it. I cannot tell you how many weight loss shows and makeovers I have done, and they have been a staple since I’ve been working in television.”
Winfrey went on to slam the famous “wagon of fat” moment that happened on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in the late ’80s as “one of my biggest regrets.”
“It sent a message that starving yourself with a liquid diet set a standard for people watching that I nor anybody else could uphold,” she said. “And I’ve said this before, the very next day, I began to gain the weight back.”
The talk show host shared that the moment came to be after she “starved” herself for months while on a liquid diet.
“That was the start of a vicious cycle of yo-yoing that ended up with that liquid diet where I literally starved myself for months, and the result was that now famous wagon of fat moment.”
“It’s really hard to love your own body when the whole world is telling you it wasn’t worth loving,” she added.
Winfrey’s comments come months after she told People magazine in December that she has added a weight-loss medication to her regimen. She didn’t confirm which medication.
“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,” she said at the time. “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
Back in March, Winfrey announced that she will not stand for reelection on the board of WeightWatchers after nearly a decade.
Watch the full WeightWatchers live special below.
