Rosie O'Donnell's Mounjaro TikTok posts marked an early public GLP-1 account
The actor's posts put a GLP-1 experience on social media years before most celebrity disclosures, and the accounts that followed show how widely results and reasons for use vary.
Rosie O'Donnell began posting on TikTok about taking Mounjaro in March 2023, making her one of the first entertainers to narrate a GLP-1 medication experience in real time on social media. She kept posting weight updates for three years.
Mounjaro is tirzepatide, the same molecule sold under the brand name Zepbound [1]. Zepbound is made by Eli Lilly [1]. Both are commonly grouped with Ozempic, Wegovy and other drugs referred to as GLP-1s in the celebrity accounts below [1]. The specific weight figures O'Donnell posted over those three years have not been reported, and no starting weight, dose or side effects from her posts have been disclosed.
Since her first posts, a longer list of public figures has spoken about using these medicines, a shift that coverage of their accounts describes as moving the conversation away from shame and toward more open talk [1].
What other public accounts have described
Oprah Winfrey hosted a prime-time ABC special on GLP-1s in March 2024 that included her own experience [1]. She later said she stopped the medication about six months after starting to test whether she could keep the weight off on her own. Over the next 12 months she regained about 20 pounds [1]. "It's going to be a lifetime thing," she said [1].
The amounts reported by others vary widely:
- Charles Barkley said he lost around 60 pounds on Mounjaro, going from 352 pounds to 290, with a goal of 270 [1].
- Kathy Bates lost 100 pounds over seven years — 80 through lifestyle changes and the final 20 with Ozempic — after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis [1].
- Serena Williams said in summer 2025 that she lost 31 pounds using Zepbound after her second child [1].
- Jim Gaffigan said he lost 50 pounds on Mounjaro after his weight reached 270 pounds [1]. In March 2026 he said he still takes the medication even though he does not expect to lose more weight, because it helps tamp down his appetite [1].
- Whoopi Goldberg said in 2024 that she weighed almost 300 pounds when she made the 2022 film Till, and that Mounjaro helped her drop the weight [1].
- Rebel Wilson used Ozempic for a period to maintain weight she had already lost [1].
Not everyone described using the drugs for weight loss alone. Shaquille O'Neal, 54, said in June 2026 that he takes Zepbound for moderate obstructive sleep apnea, and he is partnering with maker Eli Lilly [1]. Billie Jean King, 82, described herself as a binge eater and said her doctor wanted her to try a GLP-1 [1]. Chrissy Metz, 45, said the drug helped her be more mobile and have less joint pain and inflammation [1].
Why it matters for patients
The accounts traced above are individual stories, not guidance. What they do show is how differently these drugs get used and how differently they play out. One person reports losing 31 pounds, another 60, another 100 over seven years and partly without medication [1]. One person stopped and regained about 20 pounds; another stayed on the drug after reaching a stable weight [1]. Some take the drugs for type 2 diabetes or sleep apnea rather than for weight [1].
Most of the accounts describe pounds lost rather than doses, insurance coverage or side effects, so readers looking for practical comparisons will not find them here [1]. Nothing in these accounts establishes what any individual should expect, and no dose information has been reported for the people listed [1].
Public disclosure by well-known people can affect how patients talk about treatment with their doctors, which is the effect the roundup attributes to these celebrities [1]. It can also set expectations that do not match a given person's results, since the reported outcomes range from modest regain to more than 100 pounds lost [1].
What happens next
O'Donnell's posting ran for three years from March 2023; whether she has continued beyond that stretch has not been reported. The list of public figures describing GLP-1 use keeps growing, and the roundup of their accounts was last updated on August 11, 2026 [1].
Sources
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