Rosie O’Donnell said the early weight loss she experienced on Mounjaro frightened her so much that she thought she had cancer
The comedian, 64, described the moment on the Tuesday, August 11, episode of “Good Hang with Amy Poehler,” explaining that she called her doctor in tears after the pounds came off with no effort
She started the medication three years ago to treat her type 2 diabetes
O’Donnell started Mounjaro for diabetes, not weight loss
O’Donnell said the drug was originally prescribed to manage her blood sugar, and that rapid weight loss was never presented to her as a goal or an expected effect
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Her doctors at the time asked whether she could take a shot for her diabetes, she recalled, and told her the medication would help bring her numbers down. She said she’d never given herself a shot before and initially asked whether it was insulin
After taking the medication, she explained that her weight change caught her completely off guard. It was her “numbers” that her doctors were trying to lower, she explained, and no one had told her the medication might cause her to lose weight quickly
A 12-pound weight drop left her convinced something was wrong
The first sign came during an emotional family night. O’Donnell said she was at the restaurant Nobu, unable to eat, shortly after her son Blake proposed to his now-wife, Teresa Garofalow Westervelt. She initially attributed her lack of appetite to being overwhelmed, saying she was flooded with emotion and grief, wishing her late mother could have witnessed the engagement
Two weeks later, the scale alarmed her. O’Donnell said she stepped on it, saw she had lost 12 pounds in about three weeks without trying, and called her doctor crying, convinced she must have cancer
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She added that losing weight had always been difficult for her, even when she worked at it, which made the sudden drop feel dangerous instead of the medication working as intended
She frames the drug as lifesaving and criticizes its cost
O’Donnell has credited the medication with transforming her health, saying she’s never felt better and only regrets that it took until age 64. She said she’s now lost about 60 pounds over three years, at a pace of a pound or two a month
She used the interview to argue the drug should be more affordable. She called it “a sin” that a scientific advance capable of helping people with obesity remains out of financial reach for many, and said she wished she could promote it in exchange for the company lowering its price rather than paying her
When she sees people struggling with obesity, she said, she wants them to know she understands the shame and humiliation that can come with it
O’Donnell ties her relationship with food to childhood grief
O’Donnell has connected her lifelong relationship with food to the loss of her mother, Roseann, who died in 1973. She has described shopping for her family as a child after her mother’s death, buying inexpensive, less nutritious food on a tight budget, and recalled that grief and trauma ran through the household during that period
She’s the mother to five children, Parker, Chelsea, Blake, Vivienne, and Clay, and became a grandmother when Blake and Teresa welcomed a son after marrying in 2024
