Whoopi Goldberg Demands Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Make GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs More Accessible On ‘The View’: “You’re All About Making The Country Healthier”

Whoopi Goldberg issued a message appealing directly to Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on The View after Oprah Winfrey stopped by the talk show to open up about her transformative experience using weight loss medication.

Winfrey stopped by The View to promote the book she co-wrote with Dr. Ania Jastreboff Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It’s Like To Be Free, that describes obesity as a chronic disease that can be treated with the use of GLP-1 medication. The television icon spoke candidly about how the medication helped her overcome obesity and take back control of her relationship with food, inspiring her to push for these medications to become more accessible to the masses.

“So Robert Kennedy Jr., this is direct to you,” Goldberg said after speaking with Winfrey and Dr. Jastreboff on Wednesday’s (Jan. 14) broadcast. “You can help fight and make sure that people are able to get what they need.”

She continued, “Because as you heard, nobody’s laying around and saying, ‘Oh, I want to have obesity.’ This is a disease. You’re all about making the country healthier, here’s what you can do.”

Winfrey also called on insurance companies to “get on board” and make weight loss drugs more widely accessible.

“The reason I’m out here in The View streets and put myself out here is because I believe these medications should be accessible to people who need them the most,” she explained. “And I think the insurance companies need to get on board, with the program, and stop pretending this is not a chronic disease. It’s a chronic disease and the way you fix a chronic disease is to be able to offer [the medicine] to as many people who need it for their disease.”

Winfrey revealed on The View that she used to feel like she deserved to be made fun of about her weight.

“The reason why I’ve done this book with Dr. Ania is because what I felt all those years, the shame and the blame that I gave to myself, I felt it was because of my fault,” she said.

She went on to admit that she felt “embarrassed” because she thought “they were right.”

“I felt it was my fault I was overweight and so when comedians made fun of me I felt like, ‘Well, it’s okay for me to be the butt of their jokes because I should be losing the weight, I should be able too keep the weight off.’ And I felt embarrassed every time I put the weight on,” she admitted on The View.

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.