Oprah Winfrey says she has changed ‘everything’ to achieve her health and fitness goals.
The 69-year-old media mogul — who wowed at The Color Purple premiere in Los Angeles — has lost more than 40lbs in recent months and when asked what the key to her slim-down has been, she revealed that she has had to make a change in all aspects of her life and has no intentions of going back.
Asked what she’s done to achieve results, she told Entertainment Tonight at Wednesday’s premiere, ‘It’s not one thing, it’s everything. I intend to keep it that way.’
Meanwhile, the former talk show host went on to pay tribute to late TV producer Norman Lear — who was known as the creator of shows like as One Day At A Time and The Jeffersons — following his death on Tuesday at age 101.
She said: ‘He was one of the grand gentlemen of our time. I’ve had so much respect for him, I’ve interviewed him multiple times.’
‘I mean, in the very beginning, the 70s, his shows are what started the conversation about race and justice — All in the Family, The Jeffersons — in a way that America had not been prepared to [discuss] before.’
Oprah went on to declare that the ‘impact’ of Norman will be felt across the next several generations as she insisted that even those who are unfamiliar with his work are already ‘experiencing the benefit’ of what he did for television audiences across the US.
‘His impact and his legacy will be felt for generations to come. Even people who are not familiar with his shows are experiencing the benefits of what those shows did for us as a culture.’
It comes after Winfrey previously insisted that she has not turned to weight loss drugs to shed pounds.
She opened up about body image while speaking at a panel in New York City in September for Oprah Daily’s The Life You Want series.
Oprah was joined by multiple experts in the weight loss field, including Weight Watchers CEO Sima Sistani, psychologist Rachel Goldman, and obesity specialists Fatima Cody Stanford and Melanie Jay.
‘I don’t know that there is another public person whose weight struggles have been exploited as much as mine,’ Oprah said during the conversation.
‘One of the things I carried so much shame for, and even when I first started hearing about the weight loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery and I felt, “I’ve got to do this on my own because if I take the drug, that’s the easy way out,”‘ she said.
She continued: ‘There’s a part of me that feels — like I think a lot of people feel with bariatric surgery — that I’ve got to do it the hard way, I’ve got to keep climbing the mountains, I’ve got to keep suffering and I’ve got to do that because otherwise I somehow cheated myself.’
Oprah added that she was ‘just sick of’ the idea ‘as a person who has been shamed for so many years’ in regards to her fluctuating weight.
‘This is a world that has shamed people for being overweight forever and all of us who have lived it know that people just treat you differently — they just do,’ she said.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
