Actors Who Took Ozempic

Ozempic is the brand name for an injectable drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes which has found a second, more popular, and somewhat controversial use as a weight loss medication. The active ingredient in Ozempic and other antidiabetic medications like Wegovy and Zepbound is semaglutide, which lowers blood sugar levels and regulates insulin; it also imitates a naturally occurring hormone which signals to the user's body that they are full, which can cause rapid weight loss. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Ozempic for diabetes treatment in 2014 but has not approved it for weight loss (both Wegovy, a similar medication with a higher dose of semaglutide, and Zepbound were approved as weight loss meds by the FDA in 2021 and 2023). However, that hasn't stopped millions from seeking out Ozempic to lose weight, including numerous celebrities and social media influencers.

The stratospheric popularity of Ozempic is not without complications: diabetic patients have been forced to contend with supply shortages, while non-diabetics have found that the medication has dramatic side effects, including nausea, dehydration, and even malnourishment. There has also been a wave of "Ozempic shaming" by news outlets and social media posts that criticize its use for weight loss. But that hasn't stopped celebrities from test-driving the drug. Following is a list of actors and other personalities who have admitted to using Ozempic.

Rebel Wilson rose to fame playing plus-sized characters in films like "Bridesmaids" and the "Pitch Perfect" series, but found that her mental and physical health were ultimately more important that her career arc. In 2020, she committed to what she told the Sunday Times was a "year of health" through exercise and diet — and Ozempic. The "Senior Year" star told the Times, "Someone like me could have a bottomless appetite for sweets. So I think those drugs can be good."

For many people, a healthy lifestyle is easier to attain with support; according to the Mayo Clinic, long-term weight-loss success can often depend on friends and family who back such goals. But Wilson told the Times that many of the people in her life weren't on board with her year of health. "No one apart from my mom wanted me to lose weight," she explained. "People thought I'd lose my pigeonhole in my career, playing the fat funny character, and they wanted me to continue in that." Wilson disregarded their thinking and lost 77 pounds in 2020, but noted in 2024 that stress had led to her regaining 30 pounds.

For every celebrity who claims to have succeeded in losing weight with Ozempic, it seems that there's one who has struggled with its side effects. Add to that latter number actor and comedian Amy Schumer, who said that the diabetes medication made her feel too sick to even play with her young son. During a 2023 appearance on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" (via E! News), Schumer said that she tried Ozempic in 2022 but felt too ill to continue using it.

"I was one of those people that felt so sick and couldn't play with my son," she explained. "I was so skinny and he's throwing a ball at me and [I couldn't]." She explained to Cohen that she had started using Ozempic because many of the people in her social circle were also taking the medication. But after feeling ill, she stopped: "You're like, 'Okay, this isn't livable for me.'"

Schumer also took time during her "Watch What Happens" interview to criticize other celebrities who weren't being honest about using Ozempic for their weight loss goals. "Everyone has been lying, saying, 'Oh, smaller portions,'" she explained. "Like shut the f*** up. You are on Ozempic or one of those things or you got work done." Schumer cited her own revelation about getting liposuction on a 2022 episode of Chelsea Handler's podcast "Dear Chelsea" as an example of honesty. "Be real with the people," said Schumer. "When I got lipo, I said I got lipo."

On a 2024 episode of the BBC 4 podcast "Ruthie's Table," British actor, author, and activist Stephen Fry admitted, "I'm a bit obsessed with my weight." That fixation prompted Fry — whose credits include "Blackadder," "The Hobbit," and narrating the 2022 "Harry Potter" reunion special — to try Ozempic while in America. "The first week or so, I was thinking, 'This is astonishing,'" he said. "'Not only do I not want to eat, I don't want any alcohol of any kind. This is going to be brilliant.'"

Unfortunately, Fry's prediction proved disastrously inaccurate. "I started feeling sick, and I started getting sicker and sicker and sicker," he told host Ruthie Rogers."I was literally throwing up four, five times a day and I thought, 'I can't do this.' So that's it." Vomiting and other forms of gastrointestinal distress are commonly listed as side effects of Ozempic use.

As for Fry, he's found more satisfying weight loss results from simple exercise. "I walk a lot and that helps my mood as well, I find," he told BBC Breakfast (via Yahoo! News UK) in 2019. Fry, who has a form of bipolar disorder, has produced several television specials about depression and is a president of the mental health charity Mind.

Comedian Tracy Morgan has long held a reputation for outrageous, surreal, and decidedly NSFW comments. The former "30 Rock" cast member issued another confounding comment, this time about his experiences with Ozempic, during an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." When Fallon paid him a compliment about looking fit, Morgan said that it was all due to the semaglutide medication before adding, "I've learned to out-eat Ozempic. I gained 40 pounds."

As Fallon rightly noted, weight gain is not a typical or even unusual side effect of Ozempic use. Morgan quickly set the record straight — more or less — by telling E! News that his "Tonight Show" comments were made in jest. "Ozempic did great by me and I was glad to use it," he said. Of course, Morgan couldn't resist the opportunity to generate another gag from the situation. "Now I only eat half a bag of Doritos," he joked.

For reality TV star Heather Gay, Ozempic was a double-edged sword. It helped her achieve her weight loss goals, but also left her feeling uncomfortable about putting too much emphasis on her appearance as the key to personal happiness. In an interview with ABC News, the "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" cast member said that she felt pressure to try the diabetes medication after seeing others yield positive results with it. "I didn't want to show up at another party and see all of my friends 20 pounds thinner and just be resentful," she admitted.

Gay explained that she lost 30 pounds on Ozempic and earned compliments from friends. "Even after being on television, writing a New York Times bestselling book, for the first time, I was being valued — by my castmates, by the public — in a way that I had never been valued before," she said. But the outpouring of positivity only made Gay question why she valued that feedback — and what sort of message she was giving her three daughters by using the medication.

"I don't want to lie to them and say, '[Appearance] doesn't matter. What matters is on the inside,'" she told ABC News. "But it does matter. I don't know why that's the way it is in the world, but that has been my experience."

Though Heather Gay appears to have some regrets about using Ozempic, "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Dolores Catania has been open about using the medication for weight loss. Catania told the U.S. Sun in 2023 that she took Ozempic for two years before switching to another antidiabetic, Mounjaro. The change led to her losing 20 pounds and brought her close to her weight loss goal of being in the low 130s. "Right now, I'm 137," she told the Sun. "I was 157 when I started."

Catania was also honest about Ozempic's reputation as a miracle cure. "It doesn't happen overnight," she said. "[The weight] doesn't come off easy." Catania said that her weight loss is also due to diet and exercise. "There is no easy fix for weight loss and I have to watch what I eat," she explained. She also noted that while Ozempic can yield results, its cost can be prohibitive (the average cost is about $915 per injection pen without insurance). "I stopped taking it because it was expensive and everything," she said. "But being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle is cheap — it's free!"

Ozempic seems to be everywhere in the entertainment industry — a notion underscored by an interview with comedian Chelsea Handler, who said that she used the drug after receiving it from a doctor. On a 2023 episode of the podcast "Call Her Daddy," Handler told host Alex Cooper, "My anti-aging doctor just hands it out to anybody." The doctor suggested that the drug — which, according to Handler, was never actually identified as Ozempic — would help her drop five pounds. But Ozempic is supposed to be used only by individuals with clinical obesity.

Additionally, users start taking Ozempic at a low dose and build up their intake over time. But Handler took the full dose all at once, and soon felt the side effects. "I went to lunch with a girlfriend a few days later, and she was like, 'I'm not really eating anything, I'm so nauseous, I'm on Ozempic,'" said Handler. "And I was like, 'I'm kind of nauseous, too.'" When the friend asked Handler if she was on Ozempic, Handler demurred, stating that she was on semaglutide. "That's Ozempic," the friend stated.

Handler soon stopped taking Ozempic, "I'm an irresponsible drug user, but I'm not gonna take a diabetic drug," she told Cooper. She also added that the popularity of Ozempic might have a downside. "Everyone is on Ozempic," she said. "It's gonna backfire, something bad is going to happen."

After the birth of her fifth child, Beau, in 2017, actress Tori Spelling found herself struggling to lose the baby weight. "At my heaviest, I was 120 pounds my entire life," she said on a 2024 episode of her podcast "misSPELLING." "And after Beau, I was 160 pounds." The former "Beverly Hills 90210" star's doctor told her that the stubborn weight was an outcome of her age at the time of her son's birth — she was 43 at the time — but exercise and diet weren't yielding the results she wanted. "I did whatever anyone told me to do that was safe and it just wasn't working," she recalled.

So Spelling turned to Ozempic, but again, the results were disappointing: "I tried Ozempic and it didn't work for me." Spelling's doctor then prescribed Mounjaro, a brand name for the drug tirzepatide, which, like Ozempic, was intended as an anti-diabetic medication before also proving successful for weight loss. This time, the new drug did the trick, and according to Spelling, she stopped taking Mounjaro in January 2024. "I had hit my ideal weight and I felt like I didn't want to get any thinner," she explained.

For Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi, Ozempic was perhaps a little too effective in helping her meet her weight goals. The "Shahs of Sunset" star answered questions from fans about the diabetic medication in an Instagram video posted in 2023. In it, she noted that she weighed 138 pounds when she started semaglutide treatments, and weighed 110 pounds when she shot the video. "I've lost a little more weight than I was anticipating to lose," she admitted. "That's when I started cutting down on units and going backwards and backwards until finally now, I'm just on maintenance."

Gharachedaghi was pleased with the end result, but also viewed it as possibly just a temporary change. "Will I gain it all back? Maybe, but for now, I'm enjoying the way I look," she explained. She also noted that she managed to avoid the "Ozempic face" — a condition in which the user's face sags due to the rapid and significant weight loss — but added that her other weight and beauty regimens may have been responsible. "Yes, I do get fillers and Botox," she explained before displaying her cheeks. "But I haven't gotten anything recently. So just so you can see, nothing is sagging."

In typical fashion, talk show host and reality TV star Sharon Osbourne pulled no punches when it came to discussing her experiences with Ozempic. According to the former "Talk" co-host - who's still bitter about being fired from the show — she lost too much weight after using the medication, and struggled to add pounds after giving it up. "I started on Ozempic last December and I've been off it for a while now," she told the Daily Mail in 2023. "I'm too gaunt and I can't put any weight on. I want to, because I feel too skinny. I'm under 100 pounds and I don't want to be."

Osbourne was also candid in her Daily Mail interview about warning young people about Ozempic. "My warning is don't give it to teenagers, because it's just too easy," the wife of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne said. "You can lose so much weight and it's easy to become addicted to that, which is very dangerous. I couldn't stop losing weight and now I've lost 42 pounds, and I can't afford to lose any more."