'The View' co-host shared her story while discussing Oprah Winfrey's special on the use of weight-loss drugs.
After Oprah Winfrey's primetime special that focused on the radical impact of prescription weight-loss medications aired Monday night, Whoopi Goldberg shared her experience with the medication Mounjaro. While discussing Winfrey's special -- titled An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution -- with her View co-hosts on Tuesday's episode, Goldberg revealed to the audience that she decided to take Mounjaro after filming Till.
Golberg portrayed Alma Carthan, the grandmother of Emmett Till, in the 2022 drama that depicted Mamie Till Mobley's (Danielle Deadwyler) relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son (played by Jalyn Hall), who was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi in 1955.
At the time, Goldberg was recovering from being hospitalized after suffering from pneumonia and sepsis, a potentially deadly condition caused by the body’s response to an infection that can lead to tissue damage and organ failure. The health scare caused her to miss more than a month of the morning show after missing time due to severe back pain in 2021.
"I will tell you, I weighed almost 300 pounds when I made Till," Goldberg recalled. "I had taken all those steroids, I was on all this stuff. And one of the things that's helped me dropped the weight was the Mounjaro. That's what I use."
Mounjaro is the brand name for tirzepatide, which works by reducing appetite and improving how the body breaks down sugar and fat. The medication -- taken by injection in the thigh, stomach or arm -- is FDA-approved to treat Type 2 diabetes.
Mounjaro's competitor is Ozempic, the brand name for semaglutide, which works in the brain to impact satiety and is also FDA-approved to treat Type 2 diabetes. Similar to Mounjaro, Ozempic has been trending due to the uprise in overall use, including by celebrities.
Goldberg went on to admit that she didn't realize how much weight she had gained until she looked at herself in the mirror one day. "I just always felt like me," she said. "And then I saw me and I thought, 'Oh! That's a lot of me!'"
Goldberg's co-host, Sunny Hostin, shared that she also used the weight-loss shot. "During Covid, I gained 40 pounds," Hostin said. "All I did was eat. I love to cook and I found out I love to eat. And I was horrified by the fact that I would have to come out on air. So I took Mounjaro."
Hostin said the public reaction to her weight loss was surprisingly unpleasant. "I got all these nasty emails saying you're too skinny and why did you do this and you're taking the drug away from diabetics. So there is shame when you've gained weight and I had never experienced that kind of shame before."
Winfrey's special featured interviews with medical experts and people who have struggled with their weight for years in an effort to combat the stigma over the increasing use of weight loss medications. The media mogul herself took viewers on her own weight loss journey, including the highs and lows that have been fodder for tabloids and comedians for years.
The hurtful spotlight led Winfrey to obsess over her appearance and to go to extreme and unhealthy lengths to shed weight.
"In an effort to combat all the shame, I starved myself for nearly five months and then wheeled out that wagon of fat that the internet will never let me forget," Winfrey said, recalling a particularly infamous episode of her talk show. "And after losing 67 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, y'all, the very next day, I started to gain it back."
Goldberg said on Tuesday that perhaps the key to eliminating obesity is "to stop judging everybody. Maybe that's the key."
"My weight has come and gone and up and down, but it's never been an issue for me because I don't listen to what other people say about me, so it has never been a problem. But I think it's very hard for people to just know what a normal weight would be," she added, noting that others don't often know how to talk to someone when they've been through a weight gain. "Everyone has something to say, but no one said, 'How you doing?' Because it involves so many other things."
"I think it is a matter of how we treat ourselves," Goldberg noted.
Leading up to Monday's special, 70-year-old Winfrey spoke with ET at the 55th NAACP Image Awards about the TV special.
"I am so excited about this show that I am doing... on shame and blame and the weight loss revolution," Winfrey, who has confirmed her own use of weight-loss medication, shared. "I am so excited about it because, as you know, I've spent years in this business and been shamed myself. And I just want people to be liberated, and know that, for so many people in this country who are suffering from weight and obesity, it's really not your fault -- it's your brain."
"So once you figure that out, you can begin to get help to help you manage it, however you choose to do that," Winfrey added. "So I want people to stop being blamed for the choices that they make about their health."
"We had to break it down," Winfrey told ET about having medical experts weigh in on the conversation regarding the medications. "They've had these medications for the past 20 years. I didn't know that. They've been having this medication for 20 years and we're just now hearing about it."
An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution aired March 18 on ABC and will be available the next day on Hulu.
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