Serena Williams slammed by fans for ‘problematic’ weight loss drug confession on national TV: ‘Deeply disappointed’
Serena Williams’ revelation on Thursday that she’d lost 31 pounds came with another confession: the tennis icon had used drug Zepbound, a GLP-1 medication, to shed the weight.
Of course, weight loss drugs have become popular in recent years, and GLP-1 – a natural hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and appetite – is also found in brands such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.
But fans were angered with Williams’ appearance discussing the drug on the ‘TODAY’ show. The tennis icon is a paid spokesperson for telehealth company Ro, through which she accessed the drug, while her husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, is also an investor and serves on the company’s board.
So when Williams spoke glowingly about taking the GLP-1 drug through Ro, fans questioned if the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion was acting ethically.
When reached for comment regarding whether Williams’ appearance on ‘TODAY’ was paid, a Ro spokesperson referred the Daily Mail to a press release announcing Williams’ partnership with the brand.
‘I hope Ro is paying the @TODAYshow for this extended ad with Serena Williams. I hate this kind of advertorial stuff cloaked as news,’ one person wrote on X.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion admitted that she has been using a weight loss drug
Williams is a paid spokesperson for Ro, the telehealth company through which she is taking GLP-1
Williams’ husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, is an investor and board member of Ro
‘So now Serena Williams is publicly promoting GLP-1 from Ro, an Ozempic-like product, and claiming her use of it for weight loss, as a healthy choice,’ another added.
‘I’m deeply disappointed on her, as an ex-athlete that has been into body positivity and healthy lifestyle besides appearance.’
A third replied to Zachariah Reitano, the CEO of Ro: ‘Wouldn’t it also be ethical for u to add that her husband is an investor, so there is also a conflict of interest when it comes to unbiased opinion on the impact of the intervention for Serena?’
An interview for Vogue does mention that Williams’ husband is an investor in the company.
And a fourth said: ‘GLP1 is a drug, and there are still doubts about the safety of this drug. Please don’t promote something so sinister for money. Many people might be influenced by you to use this drug, and they might suffer harm!’
Others expressed their disappointment in the tennis icon for using the drug, claiming that it was letting down the body positivity movement.
‘Serena Williams promoting ozempic/GLP-1 is problematic and disappointing because it’s being marketed as a ‘health’ choice rather than an aesthetic one,’ one fan wrote on social media, while getting the exact brand Williams used incorrect. ‘She didn’t look like this at her peak as an athlete so really she’s losing weight to achieve a certain look nothing else.’
Williams received a lot of criticism for her appearance on ‘TODAY’ promoting Ro and GLP-1
Another added: ‘Seeing THE Serena Williams being used to sell weight loss products feels like an insult to everything Serena Williams represents, stands for, and has achieved, even if she herself or her team doesn’t feel that way.’
‘seeing serena williams, a whole gold metal olympian, be on a glp-1 talking about how she “finally lost weight” just broke something in me,’ chimed in a third.
‘Serena Williams doing ads for Ozempic?! The body positivity movement is officially dead. Men hate us so much, they aren’t satisfied unless we hate ourselves, too,’ posted another, also incorrectly naming Ozempic as the brand Williams has been using.
Williams previously showed off her new physique in a series of post-workout photos, and opened up to TODAY and People that the medication had left her feeling light ‘physically and mentally.’
And while she’s claimed that the drug has left her feeling more active, her joints in less pain and feeling ‘pretty good,’ she acknowledged the stigma surrounding weight loss drugs, insisting that shedding some pounds should ‘never really change your self image.’
‘I’ve never felt that pressure to maintain a certain appearance,’ she admitted.
‘I always felt comfortable at any size, whether I was a lot heavier or not. I do feel like my body didn’t like me at that weight. I had pain in my joints and pain in different areas just because of the extra weight that I’m not used to carrying since I had children.’
The tennis icon, who stepped away from the sport after the 2022 US Open, said that she began to struggle with her weight after becoming a mother for the first time with the birth of her eldest daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017.
Some fans criticized former tennis star Williams for promoting a weight loss drug
Williams said that she lost 31 pounds, and said the drug left her feeling light ‘physically and mentally.’
She dealt with similar postpartum struggles over the changes to her body following the birth of her second daughter Adira River in August 2023.
Williams explained that she would go through quick bursts of weight loss only for her weight to then remain stagnant regardless of the healthy lifestyle she was accustomed to maintaining as a professional athlete.
That’s when she approached health care company Ro, for which she is a paid spokesperson and her husband is an investor in, for guidance on GLP-1 medication.
‘I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained,’ she told People. ‘It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard, ate so healthy and could never get down to where I needed to be at.’
‘I had never taken shortcuts in my career and always worked really hard. I know what it takes to be the best,’ she added. ‘So it was very frustrating to do all the same things and never be able to change that number on the scale or the way my body looked.’
