Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out About Hollywood Weight Loss Drug Ozempic

The diabetes medication Ozempic has become an ubiquitous part of the public conversation in recent months, not least because it has been touted as something of a weight loss wonder drug on social media.

Celebrities and influencers alike have endorsed the drug as a fat-melting miracle, and the hashtag #ozempic has amassed hundreds of millions of views on TikTok.

Ozempic is an injectable prescription drug that is used to manage blood sugar levels in patients with Type 2 diabetes. It is based on a naturally occurring human hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which plays an important role in regulating appetite and blood sugar levels.

The active ingredient in Ozempic is a molecule called semaglutide, which acts as a GLP-1 agonist. In other words, it mimics the structure of GLP-1 and activates its receptors.

Studies have shown that people with obesity are often less sensitive to the hormones that make us feel full. But by slowing gastric emptying, drugs like Ozempic can restore feelings of fullness in these patients.

However, the drug has also become immensely popular outside of those requiring it for medical use, with a host of people with already-enviable physiques leaning on it to appear all the more svelte.

A host of celebrities have also spoken out about having used Ozempic themselves. Others have given less glowing reviews, either through mockery or outright condemnation.

Chelsea Handler

On Sunday, Chelsea Handler drew laughs from the star-studded audience at the Critics Choice Awards, when she joked about the drug's use in Hollywood.

While entertaining the crowd with a list of jokes in her opening monologue as presenter, the comedian turned her attention to Julia Roberts, who recently won acclaim for her role as Martha Mitchell in Gaslit.

"We love you, Julia," Handler said. "The word 'gaslighting' was actually Merriam-Webster's word of the year. And for those of you who don't know, gaslighting is when someone tries to convince you that your own perceptions of reality are wrong. Like when celebrities say they lost weight by drinking water, but really it's because everyone's on Ozempic."

As the audience broke into raucous laughter, Handler added: "Even my housekeeper's on Ozempic."

And Handler has had personal experience with the drug. In an interview with Variety in December 2022, the erstwhile Chelsea Lately host said that a doctor gave her the medication under a different name without her realizing it was Ozempic.

"Apparently, it makes you lose your appetite," Handler said while eating her pizza. "But I like having an appetite. It made me nauseous, and I don't like to be nauseous. Only in this f****** town."

Khloé Kardashian

Earlier this month, Khloé Kardashian shot down speculation that she has ever used Ozempic when questions were raised about her appearance after she shared photos from her photoshoot with Sorbet Magazine.

"I openly talk about my nose job and anyone who 'looks up' to me must know I've lost over 60 pounds over the years," Kardashian wrote in response to one since-deleted comment about her looks. "So recently the only change is the bangs. I didn't know I had to do a running list."

Another Instagram user then suggested that reality TV star and businesswoman Kardashian had used the injectable diabetes medicine to lose weight.

"The fact that she uses diabetic medicine to get this skinny is disturbing," the comment read, according to a screenshot shared on a Kardashian fan account.

"Let's not discredit my years of working out," Kardashian wrote in response. "I get up five days a week at 6am to train. Please stop with your assumptions. I guess new year still means mean people."

Kyle Richards

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards this week shot down assumptions that she had achieved her physique through the use of Ozempic.

Richards spoke out after multiple Instagram users left comments on a post from Page Six, which made note a recent bikini selfie that the TV personality had shared on her Instagram Story.

"Ozempic?" asked one user, prompting Richards to fire back: "I am NOT taking Ozempic. Never have."

"I think it's many visits to the plastic surgeon," read another comment, to which Richards responded: "I have never tried Ozempic and this is not from plastic surgery. I did have a breast reduction in May."

"I'm honest about what I do," she added. "But if giving plastic surgery the credit makes you feel better then pop off sister."

Jeremy Clarkson

Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson admitted over the weekend 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 in his column for The Sunday Times. "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 went on to explain that he went to a clinic in London for blood and ultrasound tests before being prescribed the drug to prevent him from becoming diabetic.

And while, as with any other drugs, there are risks associated with taking Ozempic, Clarkson said that he has not been deterred after reaping the benefits.

"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."

Elon Musk

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted in October 2022 to having used Ozempic's sister drug, Wegovy, to achieve his weight loss transformation.

On October 1, one of the South African-born businessman's followers uploaded a photo of him, and asked how he what his "secret" was.

"You look awesome, fit, ripped & healthy. Lifting weights? Eating healthy?" the Twitter user enquired.

"Fasting," Musk responded, before adding: "And Wegovy."

Remi Bader

TikTok star Remi Bader opened up about being prescribed Ozempic "before it was trendy," when she made an appearance on Amanda Hirsch's Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.

"I'm, like, almost annoyed that it's this trendy thing now, when I went on it for actual issues," Victoria's Secret ambassador Bader told Hirsch, per The Independent.

The influencer went on to explain that her doctor recommended the drug shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its use in 2020. Bader, who was pre-diabetic, had been experiencing issues with insulin resistance and weight gain.

However, Bader has given Ozempic a mixed review, as she found that her binge-eating became worse after she stopped taking the weekly injection.

"I saw a doctor and they were like, 'It's 100 per cent because you went on Ozempic,' because it was making me think I wasn't hungry," she said. "I lost some weight. I didn't want to be obsessed with being on it long-term, and I was like, 'I bet the second I go off, I'm going to get starving again,' and I did."

"My binging got so much worse, so then I kind of blamed Ozempic," she added. "I gained double the weight back after."

Jameela Jamil

The Good Place star Jameela Jamil has long been an outspoken critic of the promotion of fad diets, as well as the social media trends that may lead to unhealthy behaviors among the impressionable.

And she stayed true to form on Monday, releasing a statement in which she condemned the increased use of Ozempic by those who are taking it solely for the benefits of losing weight.

"I have said what I have said about the potential harm of people using the diabetes medication for weight loss only," Jamil wrote. "I fear for everyone in the next few years. Rich people are buying this stuff off prescription for upwards of $1,000. Actual diabetes are seeing shortages. It's now a mainstream craze in Hollywood."

British-born Jamil then expressed concerns that the trend will "end the same way we were told opioids were safe." She added that there is "little to no discussion of the side effects in any advertising online."

"I'm deeply concerned but I can't change any of your minds because fatphobia has our generation in a chokehold," she went on.

Captioning the post, Jamil stated: "I'm seeing people really struggle because of this stuff. It has become the exact uncontrollable wave I thought it would become and I hope that I'm worried for no reason, and that my doctors who have been advising me on this stuff are wrong."

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