The controversy around weight loss drugs just added more fuel to the fire after an actress received backlash for her take on Serena Williams.
Last week, the 23-time Grand Slam champion announced on The Today Show that she was taking GLP-1s via a new company called Ro.co, which allows its customers to get prescriptions for the drugs through them. The drugs are used to address obesity and diabetes under the brands Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. Another class of drugs, tirzepatides, does the same thing in a slightly different way. Despite the people who’ve found success with the prescription drugs, they’re often accused of taking a ‘shortcut’ to weight loss.
One critic is The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil, who said she was “uncomfortable” with Williams’ admission.
“The thing I feel most uncomfortable about here is that celebrities have access to doctors most others don’t have access to,” Jamil posted to her Instagram. “These ‘miracle’ weight loss drugs come at a price. The side effects can include paralysis of the gastric system, pancreatitis, cancer, hair loss, osteoporosis, severe malnutrition, muscle mass loss, depression (there have been reports of suicide) thyroid issues, blindness and they can really wreak havoc on your metabolism.”
Jamil added that those who take weight loss drugs should do so under medical supervision and that she also objected to celebrities pushing drugs to the public. She says they may not have the same resources a celebrity does to fix things should they go wrong. But many people took the comments as a criticism of Williams personally, or of people who choose GLP-1 drugs to improve their health.
Williams, 43, explained that after working out and eating right, she was still struggling with her weight after having her two daughters, Alexis Olympia in 2017, and Adira River in 2023.
“This all started after I had my (first) kid,” she said on Today. “No matter what I did — running, walking, I would walk for hours because they say that’s good, I literally was playing a professional sport — and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health. Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, OK, I have to try something different.”
After limiting comments, Jamil further clarified that she wanted to make people aware that Williams’s husband, Alexis Ohanian, is an investor in Ro. She said that the risks of weight loss drugs are high and that she knows it from personal experience.
“I spent 20 years warning people about the predatory diet industry,” she wrote. But when I started during the first round of Heroin chic, I was too fat to say it and now I’m too slim to say something apparently now that it’s back.”
Williams has not responded to Jamil’s comments. As with any drug, GLP-1s should be prescribed and monitored by a doctor, something that Jamil is not.
“See you on the other side of this madness,” Jamil added. “I trust you to make the right decision. Just be informed.”
