Jamie-Lynn Sigler says she feels ‘triggered’ by the ongoing wave of Ozempic and Mounjaro weight loss stories.
The Sopranos actress shared her feelings about the fad drug and her struggles with exercise bulimia on the Tuesday, May 14 episode of “MeSsy,” her podcast with Christina Applegate.
“I’m a little triggered about all the Ozempic stuff. It’s upsetting me,” she said. “I wish I didn’t care.”
Sigler, 42, explained that, while she understands that the drugs can provide help for people who struggle with weight loss, she struggles to square that emotionally with the Hollywood craze surrounding the shots.
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“I actually know a handful of people that it has made an incredible difference in their lives. I have seen them struggle with their weight for a very, very, very long time and seen it give them a lot,” she said. “I am so happy for them. I also have seen friends of mine who were beautiful and healthy and perfect abusing it and it’s upsetting me.”
Sigler went into her own struggles with disordered eating and weight loss, sharing that her high school notebooks were full of calorie counting in the margins and that she “was 80 pounds” at her lowest point. The obsession with being thin almost lost Sigler her most-famous role as Meadow Soprano on the classic HBO crime drama.
“Sopranos was so f—king amazing. They almost fired me because of how thin I was,” she said. “I had to show that I was well.”
She added to Applegate that the Ozempic trend — the drug was originally intended as treatment for diabetes — is undoing the work of the body positivity movement.
“It felt like we were on this road to really solidifying the body positivity [for] every shape and size and color and everyone’s looking the same now,” she said.
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Applegate, a teen star just like Sigler, who played Kelly Bundy on Married…With Children, said she denied herself food for many years. She shared that she scrawled over her mirrors to keep from looking into them. Drugs like Ozempic make her fear a relapse.
“Without us getting sued by talking about it too much, it just scares me,” she said. “I would love to drop this weight off [because] I have a closet full of clothes that I can’t wear.”
Applegate also worries about the people who are taking the weight loss drugs, saying they’re “fading away” before throwing in a caveat about thinning faces.
“The thinner your face is the older you look,” she said in a barbed whisper.
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website or call their hotline at +1 (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free, 24/7 support.
