Serena Williams is speaking candidly about GLP-1 medications, this time alongside Oprah Winfrey. On a recent episode of The Oprah Podcast, the two discuss why Williams decided to go public with her experience and what shifted when her body stopped responding the way it once had. Winfrey opens the conversation by calling Williams’ decision a major moment, telling her she felt “so proud,” while acknowledging that criticism would follow.
Williams makes it clear she isn’t worried about the backlash. “I don’t listen to the noise,” she tells Oprah. “Get in line. There’s a very long line all the way to the back.” She then describes a reality that lands differently coming from one of the most accomplished athletes of all time: despite training intensely, she still couldn’t lose weight. “My last match of the Open, I literally was working eight hours a day in the gym, training, and I never could lose an ounce,” she says. “In fact, I feel like I may have even gained weight.”
From there, Williams points to biology—and the frustration of doing everything “right” and still feeling stuck. “If Serena Williams, who’s working out eight hours a day, literally cannot lose weight, no, something’s up,” she says. “Something biology.” She adds that pregnancy and aging can change how the body responds, telling Winfrey that after her first child, “I couldn’t lose weight the way I used to… and it was actually virtually impossible.”
While weight loss is an important part of their conversation, Williams also talks about the broader changes she noticed after learning more about how GLP-1s affect the body, including shifts in “food noise” and “all the benefits” these medications can have.
“For me, I just felt totally different,” she says. She also explains why sharing her experience publicly mattered to her in the first place: “I felt it so important to tell my story, because I felt like a lot of people could relate to that.” She closes with a line that captures the moment with striking clarity: “But I couldn’t beat that weight, one opponent I could not defeat.”
