There is no bigger A-lister than Oprah Winfrey – but the Hollywood heavyweight shocked fans recently when she stepped out with a dramatically slimmed-down figure.
Winfrey, one month off her 70th birthday, looked incredible in figure-hugging dresses at several recent red carpet events, and overnight she revealed her weight loss secret in a new interview with People: Ozempic.
“I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing,” she said of the weight loss drug.
“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.”
But Winfrey’s not the only celebrity who’s undergone a dramatic transformation in 2023: Time and again this year, stars have hit the headlines when they stepped out at red carpet events having lost significant amounts of weight.
Here are the celeb slim-downs that made the news in 2023:
Kelly Clarkson
The singer and talk show queen appearing to lose a significant amount of weight in just a few months this year. Fans flooded her social media posts in October, asking her to share the secret to her transformation, but so far she’s remained tight-lipped.
John Goodman
Roseanne actor Goodman’s weight loss was more gradual, taking place over several years, but he made headlines in June when he stepped out at an event having lost an incredible 90kg. He credited a Mediterranean-style eating plan”, quitting drinking and hiring a personal trainer with his major transformation.
Mindy Kaling
Former The Office star Kaling said in February that her weight loss was due to “making small, slow changes” with her diet and exercise routine.
“I wish there was something more juicy or dynamic about the way that I’ve lost a little bit of weight, but that’s the way I’ve done it,” she said.
“I eat what I like to eat … I just eat less of it.”
Erika Jayne
Several cast members from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills had noticeable slim-downs between seasons, but it was Erika Jayne’s transformation that raised the most eyebrows. 52-year-old Erika’s explanation, when her castmates asked why she’d suddenly lost so much weight? “Hormones.” Not everyone was convinced: “Oh, are hormones spelled OZEMPIC?” fellow Real Housewife Dorit Kemsley asked on the show.
Sharon Osbourne
Another celeb who has explicitly stated their weight loss is due to Ozempic, Osbourne conceded this year that she’d gone too far and was trying to put some weight back on.
“In my life, the heaviest I was 230 pounds (104kg) and I’m now under a hundred. And I want to maintain at about 105 (47kg) because I’m too skinny. But I’m trying to have a healthy balance,” she said.
Julia Fox
Fox’s sudden rise to Hollywood ‘it girl’ in 2022 also coincided with a dramatic slimdown for the star, who rejected claims she’d gone on Ozempic. “All these people are coming for me saying that I take the weight-loss things – people are saying that I’m taking Ozempic or whatever it’s called – I’m not, and I never have,” Fox told Entertainment Tonight. “I would never do that. There are diabetics that need it.”
Billy Gardell
The actor, best known for his starring role in the TV series Mike and Molly about two overweight singles who find love, shocked fans with his dramatically slimmer frame when he attended an Oscars gala in March. The former diabetic later revealed he’d undergone gastric bypass surgery and taken Ozempic in a quest to lose more than 75kg.
Jackie O
Aussie celebs weren’t immune to the weight loss trend, with radio superstar Jackie O the most noticeable local celeb to drastically slim down in 2022. She credited her 18kg weight loss to “meditation, therapy, eating well, and exercising,” and said she was sick of speculation she’d hopped on the Ozempic bandwagon.
“If I see that (Ozempic) word one more time in my feed … put me on a lie-detector test. I don’t take that,” she said.
Post Malone
The American rapper reportedly lost up to 27kg going into 2023, and he credited removing one item from his diet with helping him make the change: “Soda is so bad. It’s so good, but so bad,” he said in August, revealing he now limits himself to only an occasional can.
Jonah Hill
Another celeb whose transformation occurred over several years, Hill turned heads in August when he was photographed looking thinner than ever – all while he was weathering the scandal of an ex-girlfriend accusing him of abuse.
Mark Labbett
The Chase Australia star revealed in June that he weighed 184kg at his heaviest.
“I’m on a high protein diet,” he said on UK chat show Loose Women.
“So eating an awful lot of lean meat, and as much as I love chips and other carbs, I’m having quite a bit less than I used to.”
“And it’s sort of become a virtuous cycle. I’m not feeling that hungry, so you eat less, so you lose weight, so you’re not as hungry.”