Is Gayle King On Ozempic Or A GLP-1 Like Oprah? Revisiting 10 Years Of Weight Loss In Photos

Gayle King isn't just Oprah Winfrey's BFF; she has built her own star power. For more than a decade, she's been a mainstay at CBS News, most notably on "CBS Mornings." She was even named one of the 100 most influential people in 2019 by Time. Sadly, like so many others in the spotlight, she's received a slew of press due to her weight fluctuations (rather than her achievements), especially in the past 10 years.

To be fair, King has followed a weight loss-gain rollercoaster, much like her bestie Winfrey. But unlike Winfrey, King has never confirmed or even hinted that she's used medications such as GLP-1s to help her get thinner. (Meanwhile, Oprah has talked about how she lost weight while on Ozempic.)

Instead of relying on prescriptions, King's health and fitness regimen seems to have focused squarely on eating less and exercising more. In fact, the Oprah Magazine published an article about King's preferred workout in 2004. At the time, King was exercising at least an hour each day with just one or two days off a week. However, exercise alone hasn't always worked: She's tried at least two diets to help her slim down as well, as images and reports since around 2015 show.

Let's begin the story of Gayle King's weight retrospective by considering her physique when she started on "CBS Mornings." Though King has never said she weighed as much as Winfrey, King acknowledged that she'd put on weight as she aged. In a CBS News interview from 2016, she noted that "once you go through menopause it is hard to lose weight."

King's hardly alone, as weight gain is one of the hallmark side effects of menopause. Therefore, King's experience seems to be completely natural, albeit frustrating.

In her 2016 CBS News appearance, Gayle King talked about about her success with Weight Watchers. "I do Weight Watchers occasionally when I need to drop some pounds," she said. That same year, she shared an Instagram update on how far she'd come in less than a year: "In 9 months have a baby??? orrrr lose 27.7 lbs on@weightwatchers."

King seems to like Weight Watchers due to its flexibility. Case in point: She mentioned in the same CBS News interview that the points-driven Weight Watchers method works for her since "you can decide how you want to spend your points." Plus, she doesn't have to deprive herself.

After gaining weight during the pandemic, Gayle King took to Instagram in late 2020 to share her woes. She illustrated how much heavier she was by posting a photo of her feet on a scale.

However, King had a goal of getting into a yellow dress for her election interviews, so she took drastic measures. For five days, King ate only soup, according to another Instagram post. She lost 7 pounds during the soup fast and fit into the bright garment. That said, an all-liquid diet may not be appropriate for all people.

By 2024, King was back to a routine of working out and watching what she ate. She summed up her philosophy of staying fit to TMZ: "[Everybody] has to figure out what does what works for them."

Could her devotion to maintaining a trim figure into her 60s be partially why she was asked to be a "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit edition model that year? Maybe, but maybe not: Per The New York Times, she was chosen due to her representation of women "at the very top of their careers."

Ironically, while reminiscing about the shoot with People, King admitted that she ate a cheeseburger before she went on set in Mexico. The magazine's team encouraged her to eat normally so she didn't change herself at all for the shoot.

In 2025 and 2026, King seemed to be at her skinniest in years. Like Oprah, her face began to show gaunt spots that often indicate too-fast weight loss. Since the phenomenon can be linked to GLP-1 use, many people began to ask if King had "Ozempic face." (Plenty of celebs have dealt with Ozempic face from GLP-1 use.)

In an interview with Nicki Swift, plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Omidi was asked if he thought pictures of King were emblematic of GLP-1 use. He said it was "hard to know for sure" but "may be the case" with King, noting her "hollow eyes and sunken cheeks" in a March 2026 photo. Again, King has not confirmed using any GLP-1 medications for weight loss.