Oprah Winfrey recalls feeling shame amid weight struggles

Oprah Winfrey once declined a party invite because she thought she was “too fat.”

The 70-year-old TV star embarked on a weight-loss journey in the late 1980s, but despite her best efforts, she quickly regained the weight she had lost.

“I didn’t have a morsel of food for five solid months in losing that weight on [the all-liquid diet] Optifast. Three days later, I was five lbs. heavier, and a week later I was 10 lbs. heavier,” Winfrey shared during an appearance on “The Jamie Kern Lima Show.”

“The week before Christmas, I remember Don Johnson – the Don Johnson, of ‘Miami Vice’ – was having a party and had invited me and some members of my show to come, and I wouldn’t go because I thought I was too fat to go,” she continued.

“I’d gone from 145 lbs. on the day of the show. I think I was 157 lbs. in the course of, like, a week and a half or two. And the shame started again,” Oprah recalled feeling a sense of shame about her weight struggles.

Despite this, Winfrey previously confessed to being a “steadfast participant” in America’s diet culture. The veteran TV star acknowledged that she’s played an influential role in shaping the conversation around diet and health in the US.

“I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture. Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years, and 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 said on a YouTube special earlier this year.