Kathy Bates pushed back at critics who credited her recent 100-pound weight loss solely to the diabetes drug Ozempic, saying the change was the result of years of work that only used the medication to lose the final pounds. In an interview with Variety, the 77-year-old Oscar winner said she lost the bulk of the weight over many years after a 2017 type 2 diabetes diagnosis and used Ozempic to lose the last 15 to 20 pounds.
“People say, ‘Well, it was the Ozempic.’ F--- you, it was the Ozempic! It took me years to do this,” Bates told Variety, adding that her family history of diabetes — including a father who had a leg amputation and a sister who is seriously affected — motivated her to change her habits.
Bates first disclosed the roughly 100-pound loss in a September 2024 interview with Variety, saying it occurred over six or seven years. She told People in October 2024 that she had lost about 80 pounds through diet and lifestyle changes and subsequently used the GLP-1 injectable to shed about 20 additional pounds and maintain the loss.
The actress described a significant shift in daily habits after her diabetes diagnosis, including changing what she ate and cutting off eating after 8 p.m. “I used to eat terribly: burgers and Cokes and pizza,” she said. Bates said she was at her heaviest in 2011, around the time she was starring in NBC’s legal drama Harry’s Law, when she recalled having trouble walking and needing to sit whenever she could.
“I’m ashamed I let myself get so out of shape, but now I have a tremendous amount of energy,” Bates said. She also described an emotional adjustment to her changed body, saying she was surprised at how vulnerable she felt without the weight she had carried for years. Trying on a dress that she feared would not fit prompted her to cry, she said, as emotions surfaced without “that armor.”
Bates has been candid about the role of medication in her weight loss. In addition to saying Ozempic helped her lose the final pounds, she has repeatedly emphasized that the larger transformation preceded the drug’s use and required sustained effort. Ozempic, a brand name for semaglutide, is a GLP-1 receptor agonist approved to treat type 2 diabetes that has also been used off-label and, in other formulations, approved for weight loss.
The timing of Bates’s health changes coincides with a professional milestone. She was nominated this year for a lead actress in a drama Emmy for her role as Madeline Matlock in CBS’s reboot of Matlock, making her the oldest person nominated in that category. Bates said the opportunity felt especially meaningful in light of her recent focus on getting healthier.
“There’s the juxtaposition of getting healthy and then getting the opportunity to star in this show,” she told Variety. The nomination followed a string of interviews in which Bates reflected on family medical history, personal choices and the long-term work that preceded using medication to reach her current weight.
Celebrities’ public accounts of using GLP-1 medicines have helped thrust those drugs into wider conversation about weight loss and health management. Medical providers note that GLP-1 receptor agonists, when prescribed, are intended to be part of a plan that includes diet and lifestyle changes and that patients’ experiences vary. Bates framed her own choice as part of a broader, sustained effort to address diabetes risk and regain energy, and she said she wants the public to understand the full timeline and work behind her transformation.