Talk show legend-turned-mogul Oprah Winfrey has publicly apologized for encouraging her fans to lose weight, admitting she was a "major contributor" to America's frustrating, dangerous fat-shaming "diet culture."
During a three-hour event livestreamed Thursday on YouTube, Winfrey expressed remorse over using her influence, including while a board member for WeightWatchers, to help set what she called unrealistic body standards.
"I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture," she saidt. "Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years and online, I've been a major contributor to it."
Winfrey, 70, added: "I cannot tell you how many weight-loss shows and makeovers I have done and they have been a staple since I've been working in television."
Winfrey said she was "done with the shaming," and urged others to do the same, ABC News noted.
Winfrey also brought up the 1988 show during which she wheeled out a wagon of fat to illustrate the 67 pounds she lost over four months by following a liquid diet plan, calling it "one of my biggest regrets."
"It sent a message that starving yourself with a liquid diet set a standard for people watching that I nor anybody else could uphold," she said. "The very next day I began to gain the weight back."
Winfrey said she spent "years and years of thinking that my struggle with my weight was my fault." She added: "It has taken me even up until last week to process the shame I felt privately as my very public yo-yo diet moments became a national joke."
The online show, "Making the Shift: A New Way to Think About Weight," was presented by WeightWatchers, on whose board Winfrey began serving after she bought a 10% stake in the company in 2015.
In February, WeightWatchers said she would leave the board and donate her $6 million-plus worth of stock to help "eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight loss medications," Reuters reported at the time.
Winfrey is worth an estimated $3 billion, according to Forbes.
