The company says the move will “eliminate any perceived conflict of interest.”
Weeks after announcing she’d be exiting WeightWatchers’s board of directors — a role she’d held for nearly a decade — Oprah Winfrey clarified the reasons behind her decision to step away.
On the March 14 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Winfrey said she left because she wanted to “be able to talk about whatever I want to talk about” on the subject of her weight loss journey. And it seems like she’ll be doing just that in her upcoming primetime special that delves into weight loss drugs and airs March 18.
The television mogul has served on the board of the weight-loss company since 2015, and she’s also been a public voice for the company, including in the commercial in which she famously (and dramatically) declared, “I. Love. Bread.” — and explained that she was able to enjoy it every day, thanks to the WeightWatchers program. And while her relationship with the company isn’t being severed completely, it will look quite different moving forward. Here’s what we know.
Why is Oprah stepping down from the WeightWatchers board?
Winfrey’s February announcement about her departure came two months after announcing she’d started using a weight loss drug. Many media outlets pointed out that her use of a drug designed for weight loss is at odds with the terms of her agreement with WeightWatchers, which states that she “will not engage in any other weight loss or weight management business, program, products, or services during the Strategic Term and for one year thereafter.” A statement from the company acknowledged that her exit would “eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight loss medications.”
Winfrey confirmed to Kimmel that the perceived conflict of interest was a factor in her exit, noting that WeightWatchers “is now in the business of being a weight-health company that also administers drug medications for weight.” (In March 2023, WeightWatchers purchased Sequence, a telehealth company that prescribes GLP-1s to subscribers.) Because of that, Winfrey explained, “I did not want to have the appearance of any conflict of interest.”
The choice also had to do with Winfrey’s upcoming primetime special, “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” which airs March 18 and brings 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,” according to a statement from Winfrey.
“This special was really important to me, and I wanted to be able to talk about whatever I want to talk about,” she told Kimmel.
Winfrey said last month that she will donate the entirety of her shares in the company to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The gift is a sizable one: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Winfrey’s stake in WeightWatchers was valued at $18 million before she publicly shared the news of her departure from the board — but the company’s stock did fall after she’d made the announcement and is down 78% since the start of the year. Variety says her 1.1 million shares are now worth about $2.5 million at the current stock price.
WeightWatchers said it was “supportive of Ms. Winfrey’s proposal to donate all of her WW stock to the NMAAHC.”
Even though she’ll no longer be a board member, Winfrey does plan to continue a relationship with the company.
“I look forward to continuing to advise and collaborate with WeightWatchers and CEO Sima Sistani in elevating the conversation around recognizing obesity as a chronic condition, working to reduce stigma, and advocating for health equity,” Winfrey said in a statement. “Weight health is a critically important topic and one that needs to be addressed at a broader scale. I plan to participate in a number of public forums and events where I will be a vocal advocate in advancing this conversation.”
Thilo Semmelbauer, chairman of the WeightWatchers board said in a statement of his own: “Oprah has been an inspiring presence and passionate advocate for our members, providing critical insights and counsel that has helped shape WeightWatchers over these last 8 years. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank her for her energy, dedication, and for continuing to play a role as collaborator and thought partner going forward. What I know for sure, we will dearly miss her presence on the Board.”
Oprah’s weight loss journey
Weight has been a significant part of Winfrey’s personal journey throughout her decades in the spotlight, and she’s made high-profile media moments out of her shifting body shape. One of the most memorable moments of The Oprah Winfrey Show was a 1988 episode in which she wheeled out a wagon containing 67 pounds of fat, which illustrated the amount of weight she’d recently lost.
She later called that stunt “one of the biggest ego trips of my life” and described it as a “big, big, big, big, big, big, big mistake.” So why did she do it? She said she felt like she needed to explain how she’d accomplished it — even though her method back then was admittedly unhealthy.
“At the time, I felt it was important to show it in that way because I had literally starved for four months,” she said on a TV Guide special in 2012. “I thought, well, everybody’s going to want to know how you lost the weight, so you might as well tell them.”
In January 2009, she appeared on a memorable cover of O Magazine that featured a photo of her posing next to a much-slimmer self from a few years before, alongside the headline, “How did I let this happen again?” She said in the accompanying piece that she’d recently been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which was slowing down her metabolism and contributing to weight gain.
“The thyroid diagnosis felt like some kind of prison sentence. I was so frustrated that I started eating whatever I wanted — and that’s never good,” Winfrey wrote. “My drug of choice is food. I use food for the same reasons an addict uses drugs: to comfort, to soothe, to ease stress.”
In the 2023 conversation with PEOPLE in which she revealed her use of weight loss medication, Winfrey described the emotional toll of the media attention around her body over the years: “It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years. I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself.” But she added that she’s since “released my own shame about it” and feels healthier than ever today.
Where to watch the Oprah special
Oprah’s special will gather a number of experts, plus patients from across the country who used weight loss drugs. The medical experts include Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. W. Scott Butsch, ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton, ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Dr. Amanda Velazquez. They’ll answer questions such as who GLP-1s are really intended for, explore the short- and long-term side effects, and more.
Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, said in a statement, “We are thrilled to work with Oprah and the voices she has assembled to open a dialogue that destigmatizes and educates viewers on the important and polarizing topic of weight loss.”
“An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution” was filmed in front of a live studio audience and will air March 18 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, and will be available to stream on Hulu the following day.
