Oprah is big…and getting bigger.
But this time, her power over politics, literature or Hollywood is not the issue. The Oprah Winfrey Show host is now tipping the scales at 200 pounds, she admits in the January issue of O magazine.
Like any woman who's packed it on, she's "mad at" herself. "When it comes to maintaining my health, I didn't just fall off the wagon," she writes. "I let the wagon fall on me."
"I'm embarrassed," she continues. "I can't believe after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I'm still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, 'How did I let this happen again?' "
The chat queen's lowest point...
Winfrey, 54, confesses that shopping for a gown to wear to the presidential inauguration next month was difficult, but she began facing the music of her current image when she was about to tape a show with Tina Turner and Cher, two trim women several years her senior.
"I felt like a fat cow," she writes. "I wanted to disappear."
The talk maven first began to publicly address her weight issues in 1988, when she revealed her new look and a mound of fat representing the 67 pounds she'd lost. Two years later, she reached a high of 237, and her figure has buoyed ever since.
Winfrey plans to discuss the matter, along with her plans to get back on track, on her show during "Best Life Week," beginning Jan. 5. The new issue of O will be on newsstands Dec. 16.
"It is all about telling the truth," she writes. "I just believe that you're always better off if you just come clean."