There’s a video making the rounds on social media right now, and it’s got people talking.
In it, Oprah Winfrey is sitting on The View, promoting her new book about weight loss, when she says something that made a lot of people hit rewind.
“All these years, I thought I was overeating… because of me and my fault. Now I understand that if you carry the obesity gene… that is what makes you overeat. You don’t overeat and become obese. Obesity causes you to overeat.”
OPRAH: “All these years, I thought I was overeating… because of me and my fault. Now I understand that if you carry the obesity gene… that is what makes you overeat.”
“You don’t overeat and become obese. Obesity causes you to overeat.” pic.twitter.com/tdkzzxDLN5
— Vigilant Fox
(@VigilantFox) January 14, 2026
Now, if that sounds like a reversal, it is.
For decades, Winfrey built her brand partly on the idea that weight loss was a matter of discipline. In 1988, she wheeled out a wagon of 67 pounds of animal fat on live television to celebrate conquering her weight through a liquid diet. It became one of the most iconic moments in talk show history. Now she’s saying that approach was doomed from the start.
And the internet has thoughts.
The clip has racked up over 1.7 million views on X. The comments section is a warzone.
Within hours, the quote was being dissected, mocked, and dragged across every corner of social media. Users responded with Fat Bastard “GET IN MY BELLY” gifs. Others called her a “democrat shyster.” Some just posted the clip with a single word: “No.”
But it wasn’t just random accounts piling on. The criticism came from everywhere.
“This victim mentality needs to stop,” one user wrote. “It’s not helping anyone. People need to understand that choices have consequences, so choose wisely.”
A commentary account bearing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s image posted a direct response that quickly gained traction:
“Dear Oprah, Yes, you were overeating! For years! And it wasn’t some mystical ‘obesity gene’ puppeteering your fork. It was your choices. Stop selling surrender as science. Our kids deserve the truth that real change starts with personal accountability, not excuses. MAHA.”
The “MAHA” (Make America Healthy Again) was a pointed jab, aligning the critique with the current political moment and framing Oprah’s message as part of a larger cultural problem.
And then there were those who skipped the moral debate entirely and went straight for the money.
Oprah stepped down from the Weight Watchers board in February 2024 and donated all her shares to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She said at the time it was to avoid any “perceived conflict of interest” around her use of weight loss medication. But for some critics, the timing only made things look worse.
“It’s so funny how her tune has changed,” one user wrote. “Oprah stepped down from the board of Weight Watchers in February of 2024 because she wanted to promote GLP-1s. Now, she says obesity is caused by ‘obesity genes.’ I wonder how much money she stands to make promoting this narrative…”
It’s a line of criticism that’s hard to shake: the idea that the woman telling you it’s not your fault also happens to be selling the solution.
Winfrey, now 71, has been open about using GLP-1 injections since 2023. She says she’ll be on them for life. She’s also said the medication has eliminated what she calls “food noise,” the constant mental chatter about what to eat, when to eat, whether she should eat. For the first time, she says, her brain is quiet.
In a recent CBS interview, she got emotional explaining her shift in thinking.
“It’s not my fault!” she said, her voice catching. “And I could weep right now for all of the many days and nights I journaled about this being my fault, and why can’t I conquer this thing?”
It was a vulnerable moment from someone who has spent four decades in the public eye, whose body has been tabloid fodder, late-night punchlines, and magazine covers in equal measure. She’s been mocked at her heaviest and scrutinized at her thinnest. If anyone has earned the right to reframe her own story, you could argue it’s her.
But the internet doesn’t grade on a curve. And for a lot of people watching that clip, the message landed differently. Less like liberation and more like a billionaire telling them their struggles aren’t their fault, right before pointing them toward a prescription.
Her book Enough, co-written with Yale obesity expert Dr. Ania Jastreboff, dropped January 13. Whether people are buying what she’s selling is still playing out in real time.
