These Celebrities Have Publicly Spoken About Taking Ozempic and Weight Loss Drugs
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Ozempic, perhaps the most popular medication with the active ingredient semaglutide, became a household name after several people on social media discussed using it to lose weight. In fact, celebrities have spoken about trying these medications and their opinions on weight loss drugs in general.
While Ozempic is technically only approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help manage blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, it’s gained popularity for its weight loss side effect. (Sister drug Wegovy is, however, approved to be used as a weight-loss medication.) Worth noting: Both Ozempic and Wegovy have been in a nationwide shortage for months.
Both drugs are in a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists, according to the Mayo Clinic. These work by mimicking a protein in your body called glucagon-like peptide 1, which causes an increase in insulin, a hormone that helps escort sugar into your cells where it’s used for energy. The medications also help slow the movement of food through your gut and can help you to feel fuller, longer, the Mayo Clinic says.
While many famous people (like Claudia Oshry and Anthony Anderson) have spoken about having a positive experience using semaglutide, not everyone loved their time taking the type of medication. Here’s what several celebrities have said about using these drugs, and where they stand on current events surrounding these medications.
Amy Schumer
The comedian-actress said she tried Ozempic but didn’t stay on it after dealing with uncomfortable side effects. “I was one of those people that felt so sick and couldn’t play with my son,” she shared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in June 2023, per CNN. “I was so skinny and he’s throwing a ball at me and [I couldn’t].”
Schumer also encouraged other celebrities to speak up about their Ozempic use. “Everyone has been lying saying, ‘Oh smaller portions,’” she said. “Like, shut the f— up. You are on Ozempic or one of those things or you got work done. Just stop.”
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah told People in December 2023 that she uses an unnamed medication to aid in weight management. “I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing,” she said. “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.”
Oprah also said that she made lifestyle tweaks, too. “I worked so damn hard,” she said. “I know that if I’m not also working out and vigilant about all the other things, it doesn’t work for me.”
Oprah stressed that weight loss medications aren’t for everyone, and she also addressed the stigma surrounding their use. “Whatever your choice is for your body and your weight health, it should be yours to own and not to be shamed about it,” she said. “I hope this conversation begins the un-shaming of it.”
Sharon Osbourne
Sharon has spoken out several times about using Ozempic for weight loss, noting that she felt like she lost too much weight on the medication. “I’ve lost 42 pounds and I can’t afford to lose any more,” she told The Daily Mail in November 2023. “I’m too gaunt and I can’t put any weight on. I want to, because I feel I’m too skinny.”
Osbourne later said on the U.K. talk show Loose Women that she doesn’t regret using the medication. “Everything with weight with me was, ‘I want it now.’ The injections that I was on worked, but it just seems that now I can’t put anything on really,” she said.
Heather Gay
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star told People in November 2023 that she’s “on the Ozempic train.”
“I’ve been on it for a long time, but hadn’t really seen much results,” she shared. “And I haven’t had massive results, but enough for people to notice, which is great.” Gay also shared that her weight loss has changed the way people interact with her. “You lose five pounds, people are nicer to you,” she said.“I don’t know why. It’s just the way the world works and that makes me sad for women. But happy that I’m down five.”
Tracy Morgan
The comedian revealed in a 2023 appearance on Today that he’s been using Ozempic. Morgan shared that he goes to the gym every morning, but credited his weight loss to Ozempic. “That’s how this weight got lost,” he said “I went and got a prescription and I got Ozempic. And I ain’t letting it go.”
Morgan shared that he takes the injections every Thursday. “It cuts my appetite in half. Now I only eat half a bag of Doritos,” he said.
Chelsea Handler
Comedian Chelsea Handler shared in January 2023 that she was on Ozempic, but said she didn't realize it. “So, my anti-aging doctor just hands it out to anybody,” Handler said on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “I didn’t even know I was on it. She said, ‘If you ever want to drop five pounds, this is good.’”
Handler said she only realized she was on Ozempic after a friend told her. “I came back from a vacation and I injected myself with it. I went to lunch with a girlfriend a few days later, and she was like, ‘I’m not really eating anything. I’m so nauseous, I’m on Ozempic,’” Handler said. “And I was like, ‘I’m kind of nauseous too.’ But I had just come back from Spain and was jet-lagged.”
Handler said she told her friend that she was “on semaglutide,” before her friend pointed out that that is what’s in Ozempic. “I’m not on it anymore. That’s too irresponsible,” she said. “I’m an irresponsible drug user, but I’m not gonna take a diabetic drug. I tried it, and I’m not gonna do that. That’s not for me. That’s not right for me.”
Handler also said that “everyone” is on the drug. “It’s gonna backfire, something bad is gonna happen,” she added.
Claudia Oshry
The comedian told Entertainment Tonight that she used Ozempic in secret for a year. “Up until this point, everything I’ve ever said onstage and every joke I’ve ever made is about being fat, and now that I’m on Ozempic and I’m so skinny I don’t know what I’m gonna make jokes about anymore,” she said. “When you stop being fat and you’re still funny, let me tell you, that’s a lethal combo. Opportunities come knocking.”
Oshry also spoke out on her podcast, The Toast, about her Ozempic use. “I was on the drug for about a year before I decided to do a podcast and share it with my community,” she said. “I’m always seeing really negative about the drugs and people being shamed for taking it that I thought I was doing everyone a disservice by not sharing my side of the story and my truth and it’s been such a wonderful thing.”
Anthony Anderson
The Black-ish star has type 2 diabetes and told People that “hopefully this trend will stop” of people using medications like Ozempic for weight loss.
“I will say this, it’s creating a shortage for those of us who need the medicine that we need and not for weight loss issues, but for our health,” he said last year.
Emily Simpson
The Real Housewives of Orange County star shared on Jeff Lewis Live in June 2023 that she briefly tried Ozempic. “I did that in December for one month,” she said. Simpson said that the medication “made me more conscientious of what I was eating and so that was a really great kickstart for me.”
But while Simpson said that she lost five to seven pounds on the drug, she stopped taking it because she didn’t like how it made her feel. “It made me feel lethargic and it made me just not have a lot of energy, which was hard with three little kids,” she said.
Dolores Catania
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star said on Watch What Happens Live that she had been using Ozempic. “You look thin… Are you on Ozempic?” host Andy Cohen asked her. Catania replied, “Yeah.”
“I wasn’t going to come to [the] reunion looking bigger than anyone else, so I got on the bandwagon,” she said. Catania said she didn’t have side effects from the medication, adding that she’s “just not hungry.”
Patti Stanger
The Millionaire Matchmaker star said on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast that she tried several medications to lose weight, including Ozempic. “I’m on the shot,” she said. “I’m gonna tell you the truth. I went on semaglutide, which is the ingredient in Ozempic.”
Stanger said she “got the worst acid reflux and I was not feeling good. So, I stopped three weeks in.” Stanger said she eventually switched to Mounjaro, which is FDA-approved for weight loss.
“I waited, and all my hairdresser friends went on Mounjaro,” she said. “I’m not diabetic, but I do take a sugar pill twice a day to keep my sugar down. So my doctor recommended it, and she said, ‘I’ll give you the vial of tirzepatide,’ which is the ingredient.” Now, Stanger said, “I am not nauseous like everybody else.”
Remi Bader
The TikTok star and model revealed on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast that she tried Ozempic after her doctors recommended it.
“I had a lot of mixed feelings,” she said. “A few months later, I went off it and got into the bad binging. I saw a doctor and they were like, it’s 100% because I went on Ozempic. It was making me think I wasn’t hungry for so long, I lost some weight.”
Bader said “my binging got so much worse” after she went off the medication, noting that she “gained double the weight back.”
Elon Musk
Elon Musk kept things short when asked by a user on X (formerly Twitter) how he looks “healthy.” His response: “Fasting... And Wegovy.”
Lauren Manzo
The Real Housewives of New Jersey alum said on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast in May 2023, that she lost weight while taking Mounjaro. “Since February, I’ve lost 30 pounds from Mounjaro,” she said. “And I get it—people don’t like it, people don’t applaud it, people aren’t whatever, but it’s a shot in your stomach once a week. … You guys have seen the struggle with this since I’m 20 years old, and it’s been really hard for me.”
Manzo also said that the medication “is the one thing—even above weight loss surgery—that has helped me a lot and cured me and mentally made me so much better. And I’m really grateful for it.”
Golnesa ‘GG’ Gharachedaghi
Gharachedaghi, who stars in Shahs of Sunset, shared in an Instagram video in June 2023 that she used Ozempic for weight loss. “When I started semaglutide shots, I was 138 pounds Now, I’m about 110 pounds. As you can see, I’ve lost a little more weight than I was anticipating to lose,” she said.
Now, she said she’s planning to use the medication for “maintenance.” She added, “Will I come off of it? Maybe. Will I gain it all back? Maybe. But for now, I’m enjoying the way I look. I’m enjoying what it’s doing for me."
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