The diabetes drug Ozempic has taken Hollywood by storm thanks to its weight loss side effects.
The treatment is injected weekly to help control blood sugar in type 2 diabetes patients, together with diet and exercise. It also reduces appetites and improves how the body breaks down fat. People with obesity are often less sensitive to the hormones that make them feel full, but taking drugs like Ozempic can restore these feelings of fullness by slowing down the rate at which the stomach empties. Today, doctors have been prescribing the injectables for weight loss.
Ozempic’s popularity continues to grow and, as of December 8, the hashtag #ozempic has amassed 3.5 billion views on TikTok. While most celebrities remain tight-lipped over whether they’re taking it, some have spilled the beans, endorsing the drug as a fat-melting miracle.
Here Newsweek has rounded up the celebrities who have admitted to using the drug, with some taking it for weight loss and others for diabetes.
Amy Schumer
The 42-year-old comedian revealed on Watch What Happens Live in June 2023 that while she tried Ozempic and got “so skinny,” she had to stop taking it because the drug made her feel “so sick.”
“[I] couldn’t play with my son,” she said. “I was so skinny and he’s throwing a ball at me and [I couldn’t].”
She also slammed celebrities who lie about using the weight-loss drug: “Everyone has been lying saying, “Oh smaller portions.’ Like shut the f*** up. You are on Ozempic or one of those things or you got work done. Just stop. Be real with the people. When I got lipo, I said I got lipo.”
Sharon Osbourne
In an interview with E! News in September 2023, Sharon Osbourne, 71, said her significant weight loss was thanks to Ozempic.
“In my life, the heaviest I was 230 pounds and I’m now under a hundred,” she said.
“And I want to maintain at about 105 because I’m too skinny. But I’m trying to have a healthy balance.”
In an interview with the Daily Mail in November, Osbourne said she started taking Ozempic in December last year, and within less than a year, she said she lost 42 pounds.
“I’m too gaunt and I can’t put any weight on. I want to, because I feel I’m too skinny. I’m under 100lb and I don’t want to be. Be careful what you wish for,” she said.
“You can lose so much weight and it’s easy to become addicted to that, which is very dangerous. I couldn’t stop losing weight and now I’ve lost 42lb and I can’t afford to lose any more.”
She added: “I started on Ozempic last December and I’ve been off it for a while now, but my warning is don’t give it to teenagers, it’s just too easy.”
Chelsea Handler
The Chelsea Lately host revealed in an interview with Variety in December 2022 that a doctor gave her the medication under a different name without her realizing it was Ozempic.
“Apparently, it makes you lose your appetite, But I like having an appetite. It made me nauseous, and I don’t like to be nauseous. Only in this f****** town,” the 48-year-old said.
Handler also spoke about the drug during her appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast.
“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 lbs., this is good,'” she revealed.
“I came back from a vacation and I injected myself with it. I went to lunch with a girlfriend a few days later, and she was like, ‘I’m not really eating anything. I’m so nauseous, I’m on Ozempic.’ And I was like, ‘I’m kind of nauseous too.’ But I had just come back from Spain and was jet-lagged.
“I’m not on it anymore. That’s too irresponsible. I’m an irresponsible drug user, but I’m not gonna take a diabetic drug. I tried it, and I’m not gonna do that. That’s not for me. That’s not right for me.
“I’ve injected about four or five of my friends with Ozempic because I realized I didn’t wanna use it cause it’s silly. It’s for heavy people. Everyone is on Ozempic. It’s gonna backfire, something bad is gonna happen.”
Tracy Morgan
In August 2023, the 55-year-old revealed to Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on the Today show that he takes Ozempic injections every Thursday.
Regarding the diabetes medication, the stand-up comedian declared, “I ain’t letting it go. It cuts my appetite in half. Now I only eat half a bag of Doritos.”
As for the actor’s gym routine, he said: “I get up at seven every morning, and I’m in the gym at 10. Then I go back to sleep. And that’s my life.”
Anthony Anderson
The actor and comedian, 53, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2002. He told People that “hopefully this trend will stop” of people who don’t have diabetes using the drug simply to lose weight.
“I will say this, it’s creating a shortage for those of us who need the medicine that we need and not for weight loss issues, but for our health,” he said, talking about how the drug’s popularity impacts those who are living with type 2 diabetes.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, 52, has no problems with acknowledging that his secret to his weight loss was Ozempic, as well as another drug that has similar effects.
The X, formerly Twitter, and Tesla CEO responded to a tweet asking him about the secret to his physique by tweeting “Fasting. And Wegovy.” Wegovy is another weight loss medicine that can help to regulate your appetite and reduce cravings.
He has also said his transformation was down to: “Fasting + Ozempic/Wegovy + no tasty food for me.”
Jeremy Clarkson
Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, 63, admitted in his column for The Sunday Times that he started using Ozempic after quizzing people on how they were able to remain slender.
“It turned out they’d all started taking a new Danish drug called Ozempic, and when questioned they all raved about it,” he wrote. “You inject yourself once a week, upping the dose each time, and it dulls your appetite.
“You can look at a Sunday roast, with gravy and beef and perfect Yorkshire puddings, and you think: ‘I’ll just have a stick of celery instead.'”
Clarkson explained he had gone to a clinic in London for blood and ultrasound tests before being prescribed the drug to prevent him from becoming diabetic.
“It’s genuinely incredible,” he wrote. “I can open the fridge, where there’s half a chicken and a juicy bottle of rosé, and I want neither. Of course, I’ll have to insert some balance in the future, or I’ll, you know, die. But for now it’s tremendous.”
Emily Simpson
The 47-year-old Real Housewives of Orange County star admitted that she used Ozempic to kickstart her weight loss before going for liposuction and a breast reduction during her appearance on Jeff Lewis Live in June 2023.
“I didn’t like the way it made me feel lethargic and it made me just not have a lot of energy, which was hard with three little kids,” she said. “But it does make you feel full and it does make you, for me, it was like a refresh.”
Dolores Catania
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star admitted that she used Ozempic to lose weight in preparation for filming the Season 13 reunion.
The 52-year-old told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live on April 4 that she “got on the bandwagon because I wasn’t going to come to the reunion looking any bigger than anyone else.”
In response to Cohen’s question regarding the adverse effects, Catania said, “Just not hungry.”
Jennifer Fessler
Jennifer Fessler, 55, is another The Real Housewives of New Jersey who uses a variation of the drug to help her drop some pounds.
On her podcast Two Jersey Js, she revealed that she was hospitalized for an “impacted bowel” due to her semaglutide use—also sold under brand names Ozempic and Wegovy—but that it hasn’t stopped her from continuing to take it.
“I have been on, and I’m not going to call it Ozempic — that’s been the umbrella name. But I’ve been on semaglutide for over a year now, and I’ve lost maybe 22 pounds,” she told co-star Jackie Goldschneider.
“I’m not afraid of Ozempic and I will tell you I have had an experience that was not good — and I’m pretty positive it was about the semaglutide — where I had to go to the hospital for an impacted bowel … and I’m still not nervous about it.”
Heather Gay
Heather Gay is an American television personality and businesswoman best known for being a cast member on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at Variety‘s Women of Reality TV event on November 29, the 49-year-old said she has been using Ozempic but is yet to notice a big difference in her weight.
“I’ve been on it for a long time, but hadn’t really seen much results. And I haven’t had massive results, but enough for people to notice, which is great,” she said.
“You lose five pounds, people are nicer to you. I don’t know why. It’s just the way the world works and that makes me sad for women. But happy that I’m down five.”
Remi Bader
Model and TikTok creator Remi Bader, 28, revealed on an episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast that she began using Ozempic after receiving a prescription for the medication from her physician. The TikTok creator did, however, caution viewers that she “gained double the weight back” after she stopped taking the drug.
“I saw a doctor and they were like, ‘It’s 100% because you went on Ozempic,'” she said. “It was making me think I wasn’t hungry for so long. I lost some weight. I didn’t wanna be obsessed with being on it long term. I was like, I bet the second I got off I’m gonna get starving again. I did, and my bingeing got so much worse. So then I kind of blamed Ozempic.”
She also asked that people don’t take the drug unless they need it, explaining: “You’re stopping it from even being in the market because there’s not enough for people who need it.”
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