A Guide to All The Celebrities Who Have Spoken About Weight Loss Drug Ozempic

Celebrities have started admitting to taking the weight loss drug, Ozempic.

Definition: Ozempic is an injectible medication prescribed to adults with Type 2 Diabetes that helps manage blood sugar. However, one of the drug’s side effects, is that it boosts insulin sensitivity and suppresses appetite, often resulting in weight loss. Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Saxenda are other diabetes medications being used for weight loss.

Why does it matter?: The internet is obsessed with the weight loss drug Ozempic.

• Many social media users are convinced that the medication is the secret behind Mindy Kaling’s and Kim Kardashian’s recent body transformations. (Kim lost 16lbs in three weeks to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress for the Met Gala in May 2022)
• Ozempic is so widely used for weight loss in the entertainment industry that it has been dubbed “the worst kept secret in Hollywood.”
• The discourse around Ozempic has reached such a boiling point that celebrities are being forced to address rumors head-on regarding whether they have used the weight loss drug or not.

Chelsea Handler:

• In an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast on January 25, Chelsea Handler admitted to taking Ozempic — without realizing.
• Handler explains: “So, my anti-aging doctor just hands it out to anybody. I didn’t even know I was on it. She said, ‘If you ever want to drop five pounds, this is good.’ I came back from a vacation, and I injected myself with it.”
• Handler says she only discovered that she was injecting Ozempic when a girlfriend pointed it out.
• The comedian does not take Ozempic anymore as it is “too irresponsible” but she says many Hollywood stars take the weight loss drug: “Everyone is on Ozempic. It’s gonna backfire, something bad is gonna happen.”

Khloe Kardashian:

• In a comment on her Instagram post on January 4, Khloe Kardashian hit back a user who claimed she had used Diabetes medication like Ozempic to lose weight.
• When someone commented, “The fact that she uses dibetic [sic] medicine to get this skinny is disturbing,” Kardashian responded: “Let’s not discredit my years of working out. I get up 5 days a week at 6am to train. Please stop with your assumptions. I guess new year still means mean people.”

Dolores Catania:

• On Watch What Happens Live on April 4, Real Housewives of New Jersey star Dolores Catania said she has been taking Ozempic for six weeks and was “just not hungry” anymore. She told Andy Cohen: “I wasn’t going to come to the reunion looking any bigger than anyone else, so I got on the bandwagon.”
• Catania later clarified that she was on the weight-loss drug Mounjaro after battling with her weight for the last decade. “I’m on Mounjaro right now. It’s like the Ozempic thing,” she says.
• The reality TV star said she wanted to be honest and also joked that “not one” of her Real Housewives of New Jersey co-stars isn’t also taking Ozempic

Jeremy Clarkson:

• In a column for The Sunday Times on January 15, The Grand Tour host Jeremy Clarkson revealed he was taking Ozempic.
• Although he was prescribed the drug to prevent diabetes, Clarkson says the weight loss side-effects are “genuinely incredible.” He explains: “I can open the fridge, where there’s half a chicken and a juicy bottle of rosé, and I want neither.”
• Clarkson adds that he is excited about his body transformation on Ozempic: “I never used to know what Kate Moss was on about when she said that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, but I think, on my new wonder drug, I soon will.”
• In another column for The Sunday Times on March 26, Clarkson says he talked to all the celebrities at Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix 2023 about Ozempic. Clarkson writes: “So I went back into the tower, found a sofa and started to watch on TV. And that’s where I stayed, chatting to Bernie Ecclestone about cows and everyone else about Ozempic, until Max won.”

Remi Bader:

• In an interview on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast on January 10, TikTok star Remi Bader revealed she was prescribed Ozempic in 2020 because she was gaining weight as well as an insulin-resistant pre-diabetic.
• Bader says she “lost some weight” on Ozempic as it suppressed her hunger. However, Bader “gained double the weight back” and her “binging got so much worse” when she stopped using Ozempic.

Brittany Cartwright

• Former Vanderpump Rules star Brittany Cartwright denied using Ozempic to lose weight. When one follower commented on Cartwright’s photo on Instagram: “omg ozempic,” Cartwright replied: “It’s actually the .5 zoom on the iPhone camera lol.”

Kyle Richards:

• When Kyle Richards posted a gym selfie on her Instagram story on January 16, social media began speculating that she had been using Ozempic.
• In a comment on Instagram on January 17, Richards explicitly denied using Ozempic. When an Instagram user wrote “ozempic” under a post-workout group shot, Richards responded: “do not spread lies. I’m not on ozempic.”
• In a second comment on a Page Six post Instagram on January 17, Richards again denied taking Ozempic: “I am NOT taking Ozempic. Never have.” She also shut down accusations that her physique was down to plastic surgery.
• In an interview on the podcast Two T’s in a Pod on January 24, Richards insisted that her transformation was down to her diet and not Ozempic: “A lot of people think I’ve been taking Ozempic. To clarify I’ve never taken Ozempic.” She adds that she is not taking the diabetes drug Mounjaro or “any of the shots” such as Wegovy or Saxenda.
• On January 26, Richards reportedly liked a People Magazine Instagram post about “Ozempic face” — the term refers to the increased wrinkling or hollowing of the face when people lose weight on the diabetes drug.

Elon Musk:

• On October 1, 2022, Elon Musk tweeted that he was using the weight-loss drug Wegovy to stay in shape.
• On April 24, 2022, he endorsed Ozempic as an appetite suppressant on Twitter.

Julia Fox:

• In an interview with Entertainment Tonight on March 20, Julia Fox denied using Ozempic to lose weight and said she simply “works hard” for her body.
• Fox says: “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. I would never do that. There are diabetics that need it.”

Sophie Turner:

• On April 4, actress Sophie Turner condemned Ozempic adverts in a New York City subway station in an Instagram story. Turner re-shared a post with a caption: “The ozempic ads plastered across the Times Square subway station can f*** all the way off.”

Eric Andre:

• In an interview with Rolling Stone on March 14, comedian Eric Andre disclosed that he had recently lost 40lbs in weight.
• When Andre was asked whether he had used Ozempic to lose weight, he replied: “No Ozempic! But I considered peptides, which is the land between supplements and steroids, but I was too scared. Ozempic just makes you skinny, but Ozempic f*cks you up, man. That sh*t is gnarly.”

Jillian Michaels:

• In an interview with People on February 17, fitness star Jillian Michaels criticized Ozempic for making people feel “awful.” She also says that she convinced multiple friends to quit the weight loss drug.
• Michaels says: “I have taken at least eight family friends’ parents off of this drug. They’re getting heart palpitations, they’re nauseous, they feel like sh*t.”

Melissa Gorga:

• In an interview on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live show on January 26, Real Housewives of New Jersey star Melissa Gorga admitted that she thought Richards had used Ozempic to slim down. She says: “I’m not gonna lie, when I first saw her, I was like, ‘Oh she’s taking that stuff.'”
• But when Richards denied taking the weight loss drug, Gorga was not so sure anymore. Gorga says she has not asked Richards directly about Ozempic.

Meghan McCain

• In a column for the Daily Mail on February 20, television personality Meghan McCain revealed that she has been “urged” to take Ozempic to “melt away the baby weight” after giving birth in January.
• “I just gave birth and I’m being urged to take a ‘miracle shot’ of Ozempic as a quick fix … It’s horrifying, unfair and disturbing — and I refuse,” she writes.

Rosie O’Donnell:

• In a TikTok video on January 18, comedian Rosie O’Donnell revealed she had lost 10lbs in three weeks after being prescribed diabetes weight loss drug Mounjaro.
• In another TikTok video, O’Donnell also claimed that Ozempic use was rampant in the entertainment industry: “People are doing Ozempic parties here in L.A. where they all do Ozempic, but I have diabetes too, so that’s why I’m on it [Mounjaro].”

Jameela Jamil:

• In an Instagram post on January 16, The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil criticized Ozempic and its widespread use in Hollywood.
• Jamil writes: “I fear for everyone in the next few years. Rich people are buying this stuff off prescription for upwards of $1,000… It’s now a mainstream craze in Hollywood.”

Lala Kent and Scheana Shay:

• Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent condemned Ozempic for weight loss and the pressure within the entertainment industry to be a certain shape. In an interview with People on February 8, Kent says: “”Stop taking it for weight loss. Enough already “I think that Hollywood is all sorts of f—ed up. We’ve got to do better.”
• Meanwhile in another interview with People, Kent’s co-star Scheana Shay says that she has never heard of Ozempic. Instead she encouraged people to use Hydrocut — a family of dietary supplements that are marketed as an over-the-counter weight loss aid. Shay was previously a spokesperson for Hydroxycut,

Jackie Goldschneider

• In a comment on a People Magazine post on Instagram, Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jackie Goldschneider criticized Ozempic an “an eating disorder in a needle.” Goldschneider has battled an eating disorder for most of her life.

Jennifer Hessler

• In an interview with the Daily Mail, Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jennifer Fessler claims that she was unknowingly put on “a form of weight loss drug Ozempic” by her doctor when she had menopause symptoms. Fessler says she does not regret taking the drug and there are “many positives to it.”

What’s next: Ozempic continues to be exposed as the weight-loss drug of choice for the rich and famous. Like the nepo-baby debate, more celebrities will be pressured to speak out about it.

There is heightened discussion about medication, like Ozempic, being a part of the future of weight loss.

Update 05/26/2023 by Pesala Bandara: Information on Brittany Cartwright added.