Leisure mogul and TV discuss present host Oprah Winfrey stated she determined to exit the board of administrators WeightWatchers — after almost a decade — to keep away from the looks of a battle of curiosity.
Final month, Winfrey introduced that she won’t stand for reelection to the board of WeightWatchers on the annual assembly of shareholders to be held in Could 2024. She has served on the corporate’s board since 2015 when she acquired a ten% stake in WeightWatchers.
On Thursday’s episode of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!”, Winfrey defined that her choice to half methods with WeightWatchers was attributable to her want to “be capable to speak about no matter I wish to speak about” concerning weight-loss points. Her exit from the corporate’s board got here after she revealed in 2023 that she was taking a weight-loss drug.
Winfrey has set an hour-long ABC primetime particular, titled “An Oprah Particular: Disgrace, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” scheduled to air Monday, March 18. She recorded the particular in entrance of a dwell studio viewers and gathers medial consultants to debate weight-loss medicine akin to Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy.
Winfrey instructed Kimmel, “I made a decision [to leave the WeightWatchers board] as a result of this particular was actually vital to me, and I wished to have the ability to speak about no matter I wish to speak about.” WeightWatchers “is now within the enterprise of being a weight-health firm that additionally administers drug medicines for weight. I didn’t wish to have the looks of any battle of curiosity.”
Final yr, WeightWatchers acquired Sequence, a telehealth subscription service offering entry to healthcare suppliers who can prescribe weight-loss medicine like Ozempic, for $106 million.
As beforehand introduced, Winfrey is donating her WeightWatchers shares to the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition. She instructed Kimmel she was gifting her inventory within the firm to the group “so no person can say, ‘Oh, she’s doing that [ABC] particular, she’s earning money, and selling…’ No, you can not say that.”
In December 2023, Winfrey instructed Folks she had determined to start out taking a weight-loss medicine (which she didn’t determine) after coming to the conclusion that weight administration doesn’t hinge solely on an individual’s self-control.
Winfrey owns about 1.1 million shares of WW Worldwide, representing a 1.43% stake within the firm, in response to knowledge supplier FactSet. On the present inventory worth, that’s value much less $2.5 million. Her preliminary funding for six.4 million shares of the corporate totaled $43.2 million.
In a press release final month, the WeightWatchers board of administrators stated it’s “supportive of Ms. Winfrey’s proposal to donate all of her WW inventory to the NMAAHC through the firm’s upcoming buying and selling window in March 2024. Ms. Winfrey is making the donation to assist the NMAAHC’s objective to advertise and spotlight the contributions of African People and to eradicate any perceived battle of curiosity round her taking weight-loss medicines. As well as, Ms. Winfrey intends to donate the proceeds from any future workouts of her WW inventory choices to NMAAHC.”