Chrissy Teigen is speaking out about taking Ozempic to lose weight after experiencing a miscarriage.
The 39-year-old actor revealed in 2020 that she and her husband, John Legend, lost their son Jack at 20 weeks as a result of a pregnancy complication. In 2022, she clarified what happened, saying it took her “over a year” to realize she had a life-saving abortion and not a miscarriage.
“I had two babies and then I lost a baby a little over 20 weeks. And then my body was just completely stuck. It was like in shock almost,” she told author Johann Hari during Thursday’s episode of her podcast, Self-Conscious with Chrissy Teigen. “When I had lost that baby at 20 weeks, I had probably gained an extra 40 pounds that I wasn't comfortable with.”
The model and mom-of-four went on to reveal that she turned to the popular weight loss drug Ozempic, a weekly injectable typically used to treat Type 2 diabetes, to help her shed lingering pounds after her pregnancy loss.
She didn’t specify when she started taking Ozempic, but said she tried it for about a year. While she “noticed no results” for three to four months, the GLP-1 medication did eventually help her with weight loss — but it came with side effects, too.
“All of a sudden, I was finally able to lose the weight that was so reminding me of the baby that I had lost,” she explained. “I felt mentally better because I wasn’t constantly, like, in this deep depression of seeing this pregnant belly with no baby in it. I also felt released from the prison of thinking about food in bad ways. Good food in bad ways.”
“It’s insane what it did for not only me physically, but mentally,” Teigen added.
Elaborating on the “frustrating” aspects of using the weight loss drug, Teigen said: “[Eating felt] like force-feeding sometimes just so I could go about my day and go about my job. And that, for me, is almost torturous: not being hungry at all and consuming food,” she explained. “I hate that. I love being hungry. I love craving food. I love desiring food. I get so excited to make it, to try it, to taste every part of it.”
“So until I got that right dosage [of Ozempic], it took a while before I would even get feelings of hunger,” she continued. She detailed the cycle of “pushing” to eat food after the shot, followed by a few days of being able to eat more until it was time for another weekly injection.
Teigen, author of three cookbooks, also explained to listeners why she felt guilty for taking Ozempic.
“I sell food to people. I sell indulgent food to people. I sell cookbooks. I eat food that I want, and I’m not being truthful. That was like a really big thing. And then also that I could actually afford this,” she said, noting that she started taking Ozempic when there was a shortage of it. “So you really couldn't f***ing talk about it without looking like the biggest a**hole on the f***ing planet.”
Teigen posted about the podcast episode on Instagram, which included a screenshot of her comments about her losing her appetite on Ozempic.
“It’s time to talk about that dirty little buzzword word. The one that gossip writers adore for the sheer fact it is such a polarizing, clickbaity topic that really gets people talking (and judging). Ozempic,” she wrote, before recalling how she took the weight loss drug after the 2020 miscarriage.
“I was, existing in a body that didn’t feel like mine, with absolutely nothing to celebrate - just the constant reminder that this body that once carried life for 20 weeks, was now just a…sad reminder.” she added.
However, many people in the comments of the post have criticized Teigen for her remarks, despite her honesty.
“I’m sorry I love you but this is incredibly tone deaf (which is why no one talks about it),” one wrote. “I really appreciate your content most of the time but complaining about this is something you do with friends, not on a public forum.”
“Giving up something you deeply love just so you can continue to be skinny is so bleak,” another wrote.
