Rosie O'Donnell Claims Celebrities Are Having 'Ozempic Parties' To Lose Weight
Jessica Wood It seems like every day, another celebrity issues a public denial that they've been taking the drug Ozempic to lose weight.
Everyone from Kim and Khloe Kardashian, "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Kyle Richards, and actresses Jameela Jamil and Mindy Kaling have been accused of using the medication.
They've all denied it. But according to comedian and former host of "The View" Rosie O'Donnell, there's reason to believe the rumors might be true.
O'Donnell has Type 2 diabetes and is currently taking one of Ozempic's sister medications, Mounjaro.
And while discussing it with a fan on TikTok, she revealed what's really going on behind the scenes with diabetes drugs in Hollywood.
Rosie O'Donnell claimed that people in Los Angeles are having 'Ozempic parties.'
Ozempic and drugs similar to it like Mounjaro, Repatha and Wegovy are meant to help diabetics lose weight by regulating blood sugar and suppressing appetite.
In speaking with a fan having trouble accessing Mounjaro, O'Donnell said such drugs are available by-prescription only—a rule celebrities and others in Los Angeles are finding ways around.
"People are doing Ozempic parties here in LA where they all do Ozempic," O'Donnell said.
That certainly makes it easier to believe the rumors that Kim Kardashian used Ozempic to get into Marilyn Monroe's dress at the Met Gala, and that Ozempic is the secret to Richards' new washboard abs.
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Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Kyle Richards deny using Ozempic to lose weight, but doctors say 'everybody is on it'—so much so it's causing a condition called 'Ozempic face.'
Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank, a dermatologist in New York, recently told The New York Times that “Everybody is either on [Ozempic] or asking how to get on it."
Without a prescription based on medical need, the injectable drugs are at a price point only elites can swing—around $1000 per month. But that hasn't stopped them.
"We haven’t seen a prescription drug with this much cocktail and dinner chatter since Viagra came to the market," Frank told the Times.
So many stars and elites are apparently taking the diabetes drug and others like it that there are shortages for people who actually need them.
And it's also given rise to a new dermatological condition—so-called "Ozempic face."
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As legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve is famously said to have warned, "At a certain age, you have to choose between your face and your a-s."
That's because facial fat tends to have a youthful effect—one that women on Ozempic are losing as they quickly drop pounds on the drug.
And now they're clamoring to get plastic surgery and facial fillers to counteract it.
"I see it every day in my office," Dr. Frank told the Times. "A 50-year-old patient will come in, and suddenly, she’s super-skinny and needs filler, which she never needed before."
"I look at her and say, ‘How long have you been on Ozempic?’ And I’m right 100 percent of the time."
Frank added, "It’s the drug of choice these days for the 1 percent."
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Ozempic and weight-loss drugs like it are so ubiquitous in Hollywood that comedian Chelsea Handler was on one and didn't even know it.
Handler recently roasted her fellow Hollywood stars for lying about being Ozempic.
Related Stories From YourTango:While hosting the Critics Choice Awards, she quipped that "Gaslighting is... like when celebrities say they lost weight by drinking water, but really it's because everyone's on Ozempic."
But Handler recently revealed on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast that she herself was on a drug her "anti-aging doctor just hands...out to anybody.”
As Handler was preparing to go back to work after a vacation in Spain, her doctor gave her semaglutide, saying it's good "if you ever want to drop five pounds."
It turns out the drug is one of several sister drugs to Ozempic, as she found out when an Ozempic-taking friend told her so.
Handler says she quickly stopped taking it, opting to quit drinking to drop a few pounds before her gigs instead.
“I’m an irresponsible drug user, but I’m not gonna take a diabetic drug," she joked to the podcast.
Given the depth of Hollywood's Ozempic craze, it seems like Handler is probably alone in that boundary.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.
