Rosie O'Donnell Reveals Weight Loss After Going on Diabetes Drugs

Rosie O'Donnell has revealed that she has lost 10 pounds since Christmas after going on a course of drugs to treat her diabetes.

The comedian, 50, took to her TikTok account on Tuesday to make the announcement, before posting a series of follow-up videos to explain how she achieved the weight loss and how the medication has made her feel.

Former The View co-host O'Donnell told her followers: "I needed to let you know I lost 10 pounds since Christmas. Ten pounds! I'm very happy."

When a follower asked how she was able to shed the weight, the TV personality explained: "Two months ago, my doctor put me on—not Ozempic—Mounjaro... and Repatha. One I do every other week and one I do once a week."

Tirzepatide, which is sold under the brand name Mounjaro, is an injectable prescription drug used to treat type 2 diabetes; Repatha is the trade name for Evolocumab, a monoclonal antibody medication designed to treat hyperlipidemia (an excess of fats in the blood).

Further explaining other steps she took to aid her weight loss journey, O'Donnell continued: "At Christmas I stopped drinking anything except water. Now I have had champagne one night that was a toast, and some wine one night. So it hasn't been 100 percent.

"But I really stopped drinking like five or six Diet Cokes a day. All I drink is water now, and I'm not eating sugar as much as I can. And my appetite has decreased significantly—it's probably the meds—and I'm trying to move more. So, you know, all those things combined, that's what it is."

In another video, O'Donnell told her followers that "you have to have diabetes to get a prescription. That's what I heard. I don't know. People are doing Ozempic parties here in L.A., where they all do Ozempic. But I have diabetes, too, and that's why I'm on it."

Diabetes medication Ozempic has become a 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. It has also become something of a talking point among celebrities and influencers alike.

When one of O'Donnell's TikTok followers commented on Tuesday that her weight loss was visible in her face, the star responded: "You know what's funny? I can't see it at all. Until I saw myself on The L Word, the bowling episode, I was like, 'I had no idea my stomach was that big.' Unless I see it in a picture… It's so weird."

Another fan said that they were struggling to give up soda, prompting O'Donnell to respond: "Yeah, soda is the enemy, period. You got to get rid of it. It's really bad, it causes obesity, literally. Diet or regular. In fact, my doctor said, 'If you're gonna have one, have a regular. It's better than the other one.'"

Concluding her string of videos, O'Donnell answered a post from a follower who shared that they had been taking Mounjaro in recent months. The follower now doesn't "even think about food."

"Yeah, it's funny because I used to think about it a lot," O'Donnell replied. "And now I don't think about it at all. It's like it alters something in your thought process... I don't know, it's weird."

A League of Their Own star O'Donnell underwent vertical sleeve gastric surgery in 2013 on the advice of doctors following a heart attack in 2012. According to People, her weight following the surgery dropped to 176 pounds from a high of 240 pounds.

"Believe it or not, that surgery changed my life," she told People back in 2015. "It doesn't reroute your intestines. You have no issue with going to the bathroom in public. But your relationship with food ends.

"For me, it's been two years. It used to be on Halloween, the week before, I would start sweating until Christmas, because I had huge problems not going and stealing [my children's] candy," she continued. "I couldn't be in bed and go downstairs, there would be four bags of candy. I couldn't help myself."

"I don't feel that same pull for [candy]," O'Donnell said at the time. "They told me the part of the stomach they remove [has] hunger hormones in it, called ghrelins. And that changes the way you think and feel about food. I feel so much freer now in terms of needing to move and play with my kids."

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