At a Glance
- Oprah Winfrey revealed on The View that she endured decades of public ridicule over her weight
- A 1985 Tonight Show appearance with Joan Rivers left her humiliated when Rivers scolded her for not losing weight
- Winfrey’s new book, Enough, co-written with Dr. Ania Jastreboff, explores health, weight, and freedom from shame
- Why it matters: Her story spotlights how celebrity culture normalized public body shaming and its lasting emotional toll
Oprah Winfrey says she spent years blaming herself every time comedians mocked her weight, accepting the ridicule because she believed she “should” be thinner. During a January 14 appearance on The View, the 71-year-old media icon recalled that internalized shame while promoting her new book, Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It’s Like to Be Free, co-authored with obesity-medicine specialist Dr. Ania Jastreboff.
The 1985 Incident That Still Stings
Winfrey’s first late-night interview became one of her most painful memories. Invited to The Tonight Show in 1985, the then-rising daytime host bought new shoes and spent her entire paycheck preparing for the milestone. Mid-interview, Joan Rivers turned the conversation to Winfrey’s body.
“Shame, shame, shame on you for not losing the weight. How did you gain the weight?” Rivers said on air, according to Winfrey’s recollection.
The moment crushed the young host. “I remember leaving feeling embarrassed,” she told The View panel. Rivers capped the humiliation by telling Winfrey she could return to the show only if she lost 15 pounds. Instead of anger, Winfrey turned the criticism inward. “I wasn’t even upset with her. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get on it, I’ve got to lose those 15 pounds.'”
Accepting the Punchlines
That Tonight Show exchange reflected a pattern Winfrey says lasted throughout her early television career. Comedians regularly joked about her size, and she absorbed every barb as deserved punishment.
Key moments of self-blame she shared:
- Felt embarrassment each time weight returned after losing it
- Believed she “should” be able to keep pounds off permanently
- Concluded she was fair game for comics because the failure was hers alone
- Internalized the message that her body was a legitimate public target
“What I felt all those years, the shame and the blame that I gave to myself, I felt it was because it was my fault,” she explained. The ridicule, she added, seemed like a logical consequence of not meeting her own expectations.
A Rare Reprieve in Hollywood
The same year Rivers chastised her on national television, Winfrey landed the role of Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple. Playing the strong-willed character offered an escape from self-loathing.
“She owned it, she owned the weight, she carried the weight,” Winfrey said of Sofia. For once, she experienced comfort inside a body onscreen because it belonged to someone else-an ironic freedom from her own scrutiny. “The only time I ever felt comfortable was when I wasn’t myself, playing somebody else,” she told the View co-hosts.
From Self-Blame to Self-Understanding
Decades later, Winfrey approaches weight and health through a medical lens. In Enough, she and Dr. Jastreboff frame obesity as a chronic, treatable disease rather than a personal failing. The book argues that biology, not willpower, drives weight regulation, a shift that undercuts the shame Winfrey once accepted.
By recounting the Rivers incident and other public jabs, Winfrey illustrates how cultural narratives equated body size with laziness. She now rejects that equation, urging readers to separate self-worth from the number on a scale.
Key Takeaways
- Public humiliation: A single televised body-shaming moment can echo for nearly 40 years
- Internalized stigma: Repeated jokes led Winfrey to blame herself rather than challenge the cruelty
- Medical reframing: Understanding obesity as biology-based diminishes shame and opens paths to treatment
- Cultural shift: Winfrey’s story underscores how mainstream comedy once normalized mocking women’s bodies without backlash
Winfrey’s decision to revisit the 1985 Tonight Show clip shows how far conversations around weight have moved-and how far they still have to go. By naming the harm, she reclaims the narrative, turning an old wound into evidence that change, not self-blame, is finally gaining ground.
