Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy watching Oprah Winfrey just as much as the next guy, but the way the media has run with her latest confession you’d think that she was taking over Joe Biden’s job as future vice-president.
So, what’s the big news from the big O?
Apparently, the queen of talk has been doing more eating than chatting and she has ballooned to 200 pounds.
According to a written confession appearing in the January issue of O magazine, Winfrey reveals that she has packed 40 pounds onto her former 160-pound self and declares: “I’m mad at myself because I’ve fallen off the wagon.”
The 54-year-old media mogul goes on to write: “I’m embarrassed … I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?’ ”
Winfrey also confesses that it took less than two years for her to gain the 40 pounds, but much of it was due to the fact that she suffers from a thyroid problem, which “prompted a fear of working out.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Winfrey’s weight and height put her body mass index at 31.8, which is considered obese. The queen of talk is also at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, says the CDC.
Winfrey’s magazine confession is the first step in her public battle to lose the weight. The self-proclaimed “food addict” intends to address the issue on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” during “Best Life Week” January 5th. Winfrey says she is inviting her personal trainer Bob Greene and Dr. Mehmet Oz to her show during the first week of January, along with spirituality experts, sex therapists and financial expert Suze Orman.
For the record, it’s been 20 years since Winfrey memorably wheeled out a wagon loaded with fat to represent the 67 pounds she had shed. On that episode, she also sported a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans and declared to the world that she was a “new person.”
Winfrey’s weight has been a consistent topic on her show. In 1990 she tipped the scales at 237 pounds and now at 200 pounds Winfrey says she once again feels like “a fat cow.”
What do you make of the way the media has made Oprah’s confession “breaking news?”