Oprah Winfrey has admitted to using a weight loss drug amid her new look (Picture: Variety via Getty Images)

Oprah Winfrey has caused some controversy as she revealed she has been using a controversial weight-loss drug to ‘maintain’ her weight.

The legendary chat show host, 69, has been open about her struggles with her weight over the years, previously saying she was treated differently when she was overweight, and that her ‘highest weight was 237lbs’.

Since 2017 the star has worked with weight loss support group WW, formerly Weight Watchers, and in a panel on obesity alongside the WW CEO, said taking weight loss drugs like Ozempic would be ‘the easy way out’.

However Oprah, who has sported a notably slimmer figure in recent months, has now revealed that she is indeed using weight loss medication – and decided she wanted to after taking part in that panel, filmed in July for her Life You Want series.

She told People that for decades her fluctuating weight made her believe ‘willpower was my failing …. I now no longer feel that way.’

‘I realised I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control.’

She ‘released my own shame’ about weight loss medications, and went to her doctor who prescribed the unnamed medication, and now sees it ‘as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.’

She insisted she was still following ‘the Weight Watchers principles of counting points’, as well as eating healthy and exercising, making the drug part of a balanced lifestyle.

Oprah now believes the medication is ‘a gift’ and she is ‘done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.’

However not everyone got the memo, and the chat show host has faced criticism from some social media users.

On Instagram, user Judy Hennigan said ‘you are now telling me her Weight Watchers program doesn’t work,’ while Dmaad2014 said ‘there goes her partnership with Weight Watchers.’

‘So much for weight watchers,’ Grammy3702 said, with April Silverman writing WW would be ‘going bankrupt.’

Others defended her, saying she looked ‘amazing’ whatever she used to get there, with user Jovine praising her for admitting using the drug as ‘I hate when people try to hide it, just say it so what!’

During her The State Of Weight panel, Oprah had said the world ‘has shamed people for being overweight forever.’

She noted her weight issues have been a ‘recurring thing’ and she believes her struggle has been ‘exploited’ more than anyone else in the public eye.

But she said she hadn’t been tempted to turn to controversial drug Ozempic, which has been used for weight loss, during her efforts to lose weight.

She added: ‘Even when I first started hearing about the weight loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery, and I felt, “I’ve got to do this on my own.” Because if I take the drug, that’s the easy way out.’