Oprah Winfrey Says It Was a 'Public Sport' to Make Fun of Her Weight Over the Years: 'I Felt Hurt'

Speaking with People, Winfrey said that she was often "blamed and shamed" for even the slightest fluctuation in her weight, especially when her eponymous hit talk show was on TV.

"It was a public sport to make fun of me for 25 years," Winfrey shared. "The things that were said about me, said to me, around me, the jokes that were made. You could not get away with it in the slightest sense today."

A low point came when Winfrey said she was put on fashion critic Mr. Blackwell's list.

"I was on the cover of some magazine and it said, 'Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy,'" Winfrey recalled, telling the outlet that she was hurt by the name calling.

She continued, "I just accepted that as that's what it is, and I didn't feel angry. I felt sad. I felt hurt. I felt shame."

While she was upset over the comments, the Selma star said it "didn't occur" to her that she could even feel angry over it.

"I swallowed the shame, and I accepted that it was my fault," Winfrey added.

After years of dieting and ups and downs in her weight, the multihyphenate said she had an "aha moment" in July, during a taped panel conversation with weight loss experts and clinicians, called The State of Weight, part of Oprah Daily's Life You Want series.

"I had the biggest aha along with many people in that audience," Winfrey said of the discussion," "I realized I'd been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control."

She continued, "Obesity is a disease. It's not about willpower -- it's about the brain."

After coming to this understanding, Winfrey said she was able to "release" her own shame about it and consult a doctor, who ended up prescribing her weight-loss medication.

Winfrey, who is gearing up to turn 70 next month, said she uses it as a tool to "manage not yo-yoing."

While she wouldn't name the drug she's using, there's been plenty of speculation that Winfrey has been taking the highly popular weight-loss aide, Ozempic, after showing off her more slimmed-down figure while promoting the latest adaptation of The Color Purple.

"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," Winfrey told the outlet. "I'm absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."