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Larry talks with his panel about Oprah Winfrey's struggle with her weight and how she is dealing with it.It's no secret that Oprah has struggled with her weight for decades. Over the years, she's spoken candidly about bouncing from one diet to the next, emotional eating and her drug of choice—potato chips. In 1988, The Oprah Show received its highest ratings of all time when Oprah celebrated a 67-pound weight loss by wheeling a wagon full of fat onto the stage. Soon after, her size 10 jeans didn't zip and the pounds began to add up again.In 1992, Oprah met personal trainer Bob Greene. At the time, she weighed 237 pounds, the heaviest she says she's ever been. She made a commitment to her health, began to lose weight and even ran a marathonbut the weight loss roller coaster continued.When Oprah turned 50 in 2004, she seemed to have her health and weight under control. For years, she maintained her figure with diet and exercise. She says she thought she had it all figured out, but in 2007, as Oprah dealt with emotional and medical issues, the number on the scale began to creep closer to 200.To begin living her best life, Oprah's speaking candidly about what she calls "the brown elephant in the room"—her weight gain. Oprah says her size really hit home in May 2008 while taping a show with two music legends, Tina Turner and Cher. "Like every woman who has a special occasion coming up, you want to look special," she says. "I feel the same way everybody else feels when you get up in the morning and you go to put on something and it doesn't fit."As the Las Vegas audience cheered, Oprah kept a smile on her face and hid her true feelings. "There I am during the Tina and Cher show feeling like, 'How in the world did I let this happen to myself again?'" she says. "I was embarrassed, and I wanted to be anyplace other than there. Tina Turner and Cher are American icons. They still look great. So the anxiety of, 'Okay, now I've got to put myself on a big stage and stand between Tina and Cher and try to make myself not be as big as I am.'"When Oprah found out Tina wanted her to come onstage and sing along to "Proud Mary," she says she told a producer she didn't want to do it. "I was standing on the side, perfectly happy and thinking, 'This is going well,'" Oprah says. Then, Tina spontaneously called her onto the stage. "I thought, 'God, help me now. How can I put myself between them? Can I put half of my body behind Cher's? Well, Cher's body is half of my body, so that's hard. How can I hide myself here on this stage and not have to be up here?'" she says. "I felt awful. I wanted to just disappear."Oprah says money, fame and success don't mean anything if you can't control your own being. "It doesn't mean anything if you can't fit into your clothes," she says. "It means the fat won. It means you didn't win. I am mad at myself. I am embarrassed."After all these years, Oprah says she can't believe she's still discussing this topic. "With all the other things that I know how to do and all the other things that I'm so great at and all the other accomplishments, I can't believe I'm still talking about weight," she says.In January 2005, Oprah showed off her toned, 160-pound body in a tummy-baring top on the cover of O, The Oprah Magazine. At the time, she says she thought she'd conquered the battle of the bulge once and for all. "[I was] so happy with myself," she says. "I would even say I was probably cocky about it. When I was in this moment, I never thought that I would be 40 pounds heavier."Four years later, Oprah, who now weighs 200 pounds, says the role of "cover girl" was much less appealing. "This past year's been really difficult because I didn't feel like being a cover girl," she says. "I wasn't proud of my body and, therefore, didn't want to show my body and didn't really want to be seen."Oprah says she dreaded the moment each month when she'd have to try on clothes in front of a team of 20 people. When a pair of pants didn't fit or a shirt was too tight, Oprah says she felt embarrassed. The solution? Throughout 2008, Oprah says she's worked with magazine editors to camouflage her figure. "All this year, I've been hiding my body because I didn't want you to see it," she says. "Here I am, one of the most visible people in the world, trying not to be seen on the cover of my own magazine."Oprah says turning 50 felt fantastic, as did 51 and 52. After celebrating her 53rd birthday, she began having health problems.
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