Rosie O’Donnell Shares All the Details About Her GLP-1 Weight Loss and Her Facelift: ‘I Don’t Like Secrets On the Whole’ (Exclusive)

The comedian talks openly about how losing roughly 60 lbs. and her deep plane facelift have changed her life

NEED TO KNOW

• Rosie O’Donnell reveals her use of Mounjaro has “quieted the food noise”
• Candid as ever about both her use of GLP-1’s and her recent facelift, she says “I don’t like secrets as a whole”
• She also reveals that her friend Ricki Lake, who’s been public about her facelift, was her “coach” going through the process

When Rosie O’Donnell was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three years ago, and began taking Mounjaro, she admits, “I couldn’t even pronounce it at first.” 

Three years later, she’s lost some 60 lbs using the GLP-1. “It’s a miracle drug,” says the star, 64. “I was stunned how it quieted the food noise. I’ve had trouble with my weight my whole life.” 

“I know some people are ashamed to talk about it but I wanted to share how it helped me and I don’t like secrets as a whole,” says O’Donnell, now back in New York City for her new one-woman show, Common Knowledge, which opened on July 22 at the Daryl Roth Theater.

“When my mom died, all of us children gained weight,” says O’Donnell, who’s mother, Roseann O’Donnell, died in 1973 when Rosie was 10. “My father would give us a one hundred dollar bill and we would go to Foodtown to do the food shopping. Now if you’re 11-years-old and you’re shopping for a family of five, there’s nothing nutritious about it. It was Entenmann’s and Cap’n Crunch and we would always say, ‘Subtotal please,’ and when it got near one hundred, we’d put back the chicken and the hamburger meat. Everyone got heavy. Everyone was in such grief and trauma.”

“And so Mounjaro saved my life,” she continues. “I’ve lost a pound or two a month for three years. I really wish I could do commercials for Mounjaro and they would drop the price instead of paying me. Because when I see people struggling with obesity, I want to say I know the shame that we carry and the humiliation that is dealt to people who are overweight.”

Looking back, she says, “When I would do late night, my biggest concern wasn’t my set, it was, did I look fat? The first time I did a talk show, it was Pat Sajak and people were saying ‘You were so good,’ and I’d go, ‘How did I look in that blazer?’ I wasn’t even heavy then.”

Today, she says, “I feel much healthier and more powerful in my physicality.” 

Her candid approach to all things includes her recent deep plane facelift, which she had to tighten the excess skin in her lower face after losing weight. “I had two very large what they call ‘marionette lines,’” she explains. “It made me look sad and people in Ireland were saying, ‘Rosie are you all right? and I’m like, it’s my face. I actually feel happy here.” 

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“Many of my friends in L.A. had deep plane facelifts and they told me how much better they felt,” says O’Donnell who interviewed potential doctors, including one who wanted to put a wire through her head to “pick up” her cheeks. That was a no, says O’Donnell. “I didn’t want my face to be frozen or to be unrecognizable.” 

Still, she had to “wrestle” with her conscience. “As a feminist I always felt this is the patriarchy, the the male gaze and not anything that I believe in,” she explains. “The biggest person I had to deal with was Clay (her youngest child) who said, ‘Mommy, girls look up to you and what does your legacy stand for if you do this?’” O’Donnell held off for six months and then, she says, “I decided the real power of feminism is women get to decide what they want to do to their body and when.”

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She told friends, including one who’d also shared the story of her facelift. “Ricki Lake has been very public about hers and she was my coach,” says O’Donnell. “But I didn’t make it public until people started saying, ‘God you look so much better, What are you doing?’ I didn’t want to be one of those people who says, ‘Oh nothing….’ Just like with the Mounjaro. I didn’t want people who are struggling with their weight to feel like something was wrong with them.” 

Frank and direct, as always, she adds, “So why do I look like this? 90,000 dollars. I was worried about the cost. I don’t like to waste money. And I would never spend that on a car.”

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