Jameela Jamil is the newest superstar to weigh in on Serena Williams’ private well being selections, although she insists her concern isn’t about Serena’s physique, however about what occurs when high-profile figures endorse weight-loss medicine.
Final week, Williams revealed that she has been taking the GLP-1 drug, Zepbound by way of Ro, a telehealth platform, which has helped her lose 31 kilos. In her announcement, the tennis star shut down the stigma round GLP-1s being a shortcut and revealed how the choice got here after a tough postpartum journey.
“This all began after I had my (first) child,” Williams informed NBC’s TODAY.com. “It doesn’t matter what I did—working, strolling, I’d stroll for hours as a result of they are saying that’s good, I actually was enjoying an expert sport—and I might by no means return to the place I wanted to be for my well being. Then, after my second child, it simply even bought more durable. So then I used to be like, OK, I’ve to attempt one thing totally different.”
“I really assume it’s an issue lots of different ladies can relate to, that you’re within the fitness center and maintaining a healthy diet, however simply can’t get to the extent you need or must. I really feel lighter mentally, I really feel sexier, I really feel extra assured,” she defined, as beforehand reported by theGrio.
However Jamil, identified for her outspoken critiques of weight-reduction plan tradition and Hollywood’s obsession with physique picture, stated she felt uneasy about Williams’ new endorsement.
“The factor I really feel most uncomfortable about right here is that celebrities have entry to medical doctors most others don’t have entry to. These ‘miracle’ weight reduction medicine come at a value,” Jamil posted on Instagram Sunday. “If issues go incorrect, you don’t have a billion {dollars} to repair it, that’s why I don’t like celebrities pushing medicine with such drastic documented uncomfortable side effects.”
Her put up additionally included an inventory of potential uncomfortable side effects starting from “paralysis of the gastric system” and pancreatitis to hair loss, osteoporosis, muscle mass loss, thyroid points, reportedly pulled immediately from the drug producers’ web sites.
After her feedback gained traction, Jamil clarified her stance, writing: “Another excuse we must always take each superstar endorsement with a pinch of salt.” She emphasised, “It’s about transparency, not judging Serena’s physique. Neither is it judging you or your determination to take a GLP-1.”
In a follow-up put up, she doubled down: “I additionally wrote a prolonged Substack defending Serena’s proper to do WHATEVER she desires along with her physique. Her physique has been policed sufficient over the a long time. It’s not about her or her alternative. It’s about how celebrities promote medicine and weight-reduction plan merchandise. All gloss, not one of the inconvenient truths.”
The reality is, there’s a historical past of people that have taken GLP-1s and have reportedly skilled important uncomfortable side effects, together with gastrointestinal points, kidney issues, gallbladder irritation, and, in some excessive circumstances, imaginative and prescient loss. A lot in order that lots of the corporations behind these diabetes and weight reduction drugs have confronted lawsuits by way of the years, with some at present going through multidistrict litigation.
For Serena, the dialog stays centered on her well being, her journey as a mom, and her autonomy. However as Jamil’s posts recommend, the broader cultural dialog round superstar affect, weight-loss medicine, and the way ladies’s our bodies, particularly Black ladies’s our bodies, are mentioned in public is much from settled.
