THE DAILY BEAST
Megyn Kelly says she misses the “fat” Oprah Winfrey of old, claiming the iconic TV host has lost her heart, “along with the pounds,” as she’s recently opted to take a weight loss drug.
Kelly, the 53-year-old former Fox News anchor, told podcast listeners Friday that she finds Winfrey, 70, less trustworthy since she began taking a weight loss medication.
“I miss fat Oprah, she was just genuine,” Kelly said on the The Megyn Kelly Show. “Now this thin Ozempic Oprah has lost—along with the pounds, her heart—her sense of authenticity.”
Kelly’s lashing out came the morning after Winfrey appeared alongside Kamala Harris for a town hall in Michigan—an event that clearly irked Kelly, a very public supporter of Donald Trump.
Thursday evening’s event was attended virtually by celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, and Jennifer Lopez. Along with a live audience, they were treated to an interview of Harris, 59, that was akin to Winfrey’s sit down convos of old on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Winfrey’s full-throated support of Harris appears to have gotten under Kelly’s skin, with the Fox News veteran asserting she no longer considers herself a fan.
“I used to love Oprah, like most of us who grew up when we did,” Kelly said. “And only now did I realize I’ve been getting spoon-fed propaganda from this woman for years.”
Perhaps the most memorable moment from Harris’ interview last week came when the vice president claimed she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot a home intruder.
“If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot, sorry,” she said to a raucous applause. “Probably should not have said that, but my staff will deal with that later.”
Eliciting that comment wasn’t enough for Kelly, however. She said she’d like to have seen Winfrey push Harris harder on her gun control policies, claiming the “debacle” of an interview was “the ultimate culmination of her journalistic fails.”
Winfrey has not publicly addressed Kelly’s podcast comments, which have been posted online and aired on SiriusXM.
Comments about Winfrey’s appearance have persisted for decades as she’s battled with her fluctuating weight. She famously drug a red wagon on stage during an episode of her show in 1988 with it filled with fat that represented the 67 pounds she claimed to have lost on a liquid diet in a four-month span.
Now, however, Winfrey said she’s over “the shaming” that comes with people taking weight loss drugs. She told People in December that “it was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years” and that she’s sick of it, so she’s calling on the help of a safe, approved weight loss drug, though she has not specified the brand of the medication she’s using.
“[Weight fluctuations] occupied five decades of space in my brain, yo-yoing and feeling like why can’t I just conquer this thing, believing willpower was my failing,” she told People.
Now, she added, “I eat my last meal at 4 o’clock, drink a gallon of water a day, and use the WeightWatchers principles of counting points. I had an awareness of [weight-loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way.”
