Oprah Winfrey‘s slim waist has been attracting a lot of attention lately. The media mogul, who has faced challenges with her weight over the years, recently had fans in awe when her past slimmed-down figure was front and center for Vogue Magazine.
On February 17, the Instagram page Urban Throwback shared vintage photos from Oprah Winfrey’s 1998 Vogue Magazine spread. The cover featured a younger Winfrey, who was around 45 at the time, looking glamorous as she reclined in a chair. The photograph was taken from above, showcasing the “Beloved” actress in a simple, form-fitting black gown. Her hair was styled in voluminous soft curls, and her body displayed a petite yet curvaceous figure.
Vogue titled the spread: “Oprah! A Major Movie, An Amazing Makeover” and featured several images of young Oprah in form-fitting outfits appearing thinner than she’s ever looked.
Photographed by Steven Meisel, the media mogul donned luxury garments like Dolce & Gabbana, Tiffany & Co., Valentino, and Giorgio Armani.
In the accompanying interview, Winfrey discussed nabbing her role in “The Color Purple,” and how fellow TV host Joan Rivers suggested she lose weight for the part.
“Now, around this time, 1985, I’d gone on ‘The Tonight Show’ because they were just beginning to talk about the discovery of this girl in Chicago, and Joan Rivers, who was hosting, says to me on-camera, ‘You gotta lose the weight!’ Just like that,” Oprah shared.
She continued, “[Rivers] said, ‘I’ll lose five pounds if you lose fifteen. Let’s do a bet, and then I’ll have you back on.’”
Oprah confessed that she took Rivers up on her bet and later joined a fat farm. However, the “Color Purple” casting directors had other plans.
“The casting director said, ‘I hear you’re at a fat farm trying to lose weight. If you lose one pound, you could lose this part.’” Oprah recalled. “So I stopped at Dairy Queen. Just in case I had lost a pound.”
The nearly 30 year old photos caused quite a stir online. One shocked fan who seemingly didn’t recognize the former talk show host recited a line from her movie “Color Purple” to express their reaction. “Harpo, who dat woman?!” they said.
Another person wrote, “She really looked this glam, and thin. And no AI wasn’t even a part of these shoots. It was Oprah’s hard work on building a magazine brand.”
A third said, “Never seen these. She devoured this shoot.”
“This was liquid diet Oprah,” said a fourth.
Other fans wrote comments comparing her to other celebrities. People said her body resembled rapper Megan Thee Stallion, but that she looked like actress-singer Ryan Destiny, and “Girlfriends” actress Jill Marie Jones in the face.
According to Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, it was her idea that Winfrey drop a significant amount of weight before gracing the cover of the prestigious fashion magazine.
“It was a very gentle suggestion,” she said during an unaired segment in her recent “60 Minutes” interview. “I went to Chicago to visit Oprah and I suggested it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight.”
Winfrey lost 20 pounds before posing for the 1998 cover. However, she’s been battling with her weight throughout her entire career.
Oprah went on a liquid diet in 1988, losing 67 pounds in nearly five months. But last year, during her ABC special “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” she revealed that she began gaining the weight back “the very next day” when she started eating real food again. By 1992, she was at her heaviest weight, sitting at 237 pounds.
In 2009, she appeared on the cover of her “O, The Oprah Magazine,” bearing her stomach to reveal she had gotten her weight down to 160 pounds in 2005. However, on the right side of the magazine, a heavier version of her appeared. She once again weighed over 200 pounds after health issues deterred her from working out.
Fast-forward to 2015, when Oprah became a spokesperson for the Weight Watchers program. She also joined its board and owned shares. The catalyst for her involvement in the program was her diagnosis with pre-diabetes. In 2017, she revealed that she lost 42 pounds with the program.
By 2023, fans began to notice Winfrey looking extra snatched than she usually does. She confirmed in December that same year in a People magazine interview that she begun implementing a weight loss drug into her regimen to stay healthy.
“I now use it as I feel I need it,” she said, then later gave an example of how she utilized it around Thankgiving. She said she used it, “because I knew I was going to have two solid weeks of eating.” She added, “instead of gaining eight pounds like I did last year, I gained half a pound . . . It quiets the food noise.”
Last month, on an episode of “The Oprah Podcast” she finally revealed that the weight loss drug she had been taking was a GLP-1 agonist but she didn’t specify the brand.
