Weight-loss jabs might seem like a quick fix, but for some celebs, the side effects have been too horrendous to bear.
In the past few years, weight-loss jabs have exploded into the public consciousness. With 1.5 million people in the UK taking weight-loss drugs, it should come as no surprise that celebrities are among them.
From former Page 3 icons to soap and reality TV stars, these famous faces are sharing their weight-loss jab horror stories.
Nicola McLean
Former glamour model Nicola McLean has always struggled with her body image. She started showing symptoms of anorexia and bulimia at just 11 years old. Being in the public eye, Nicola is under constant scrutiny. With the internet being a particularly unforgiving place, this has only got worse.
Things reached a tipping point in 2021. After being offered a weight-loss jab for free via Instagram, Nicola bit the bullet. But she soon found herself bed bound with agonising migraines.
“Every morning I’d inject myself with it, but after about a week of using it, I started to feel really ill. I was violently sick, and Tom [her husband] was like: ‘That is so odd for you,’ because I have got the strongest stomach you’ll ever know from being bulimic for years,” she told The Sun.
“Then I started getting headaches, but I brushed those off. Tom kept saying: ‘It’s this skinny jab,’ but I would brush him off, too. I was obviously in denial. My weight was more important to me.”
Eventually, Tom threw the injectables away. But this hasn’t stopped the “horrific” trolling Nicola experiences. “I feel like we’ve always faced trolling. I’m a size eight, when I’m on telly and I read the comments it’s like: ‘She’s let herself go, she’s fat.’ Take away the massive boobs that might make me look bigger than I am, I am quite a small person. I’m 44, do you want me to look like I did when I was 19? It’s impossible.”
Sir Stephen Fry
As always, Celebrity Traitors star Stephen Fry was ahead of the curve. He revealed in an interview with the podcast River Café Table 4 that he “happened to be in America” when heard about this popular weight-loss jab “years ago”.
“I asked my doctor in America, my physician, as they like to call them, and he said: ‘I think I can get you some,'” Stephen said.
“He tried me on it and [for] the first week or so I was thinking, this is astonishing. Not only do I not want to eat, I don’t want any alcohol of any kind. This is going to be brilliant.”
However, things quickly took a turn when he “started feeling sick”. “And I started feeling sicker and sicker and sicker. I was literally throwing up four, five times a day and I thought, I can’t do this. So that’s it.”
Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace
For Big Brother star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, there was another layer to her ordeal. She told The Sun that after the deaths of two loved ones, she turned to comfort eating. This led to her searching for a quick fix.
“I was eating my feelings, so I gained loads and loads of weight and I wasn’t really thinking straight. I just followed my friend, she was in a WhatsApp group and she bought the stuff. I just thought, okay, I’ll just go for it. Because other people were using it that I knew, I just thought I’d be fine. I wasn’t thinking straight at the time.”
Things seemed to be going well following the first jab, but after the second one, she became extremely unwell.
“[My reaction] was so bad. I was in my bed for three days. I was in and out of consciousness. There were bags of vomit. I was in such a bad place, my vision was blurry. It was really, really scary,”
She went on to explain that she didn’t seek medical attention because she was “mortified”.
“I was really embarrassed that I did something so stupid. It was a really foolish thing to do, and I want people to know to never do that, and don’t copy me. I thought I was going to die.”
Cheryl Fergison
After a diagnosis of type-2 diabetes, EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison revealed that she was prescribed Mounjaro. She opened up about her experience on the Secure the Insecure podcast.
She explained that, on the one hand, the jab helped to curb her appetite and help her lose 3 stone. But on the other, she claims that it “doesn’t really agree” with her, and admits that she will probably stop the drug soon on account of the side effects.
She said: “The side effects are, I think, worse. There are fluids coming out from both ends a lot of the time. I’m sick, I’ve got diarrhoea with it. My hair… I can pull it out in clumps.
“Luckily, I’ve got a lot of hair. But there’s a lot of stuff I’m not sure about with it. I’m not sure it agrees with me.”
Gemma Collins
TOWIE star Gemma Collins has lost three stone since she started using weight-loss jab Mounjaro in November 2024. However, it seems like it came with a pretty high cost, as a rare purported side effect left her in “agonising” pain.
“I had a little gallbladder attack. I’m not sure if it’s linked, they say it can be linked, it’s not always the case, so I’ve had to slow down on it all for a bit,” she told The Daily Mail.
“We were going away for Rami’s 50th and I was in excruciating pain. I’d taken him to a Ferrari day because it was his 50th birthday and we were flying the next day.”
She continued: “I fell to the floor, whilst he was going round the track. And I was like: ‘Whoa, I’m in pain.’ And then I was thinking I’m gonna have to go and sit in A&E.”
Eventually, her doctor paid her a house visit, diagnosed the gallstones, and gave he pain relief. But despite this experience, she is carrying on with Mounjaro.
According to Second Nature, gallstone issues occur in 0.6% of those taking Mounjaro.
Read More: Alison Hammond admits she’s prepared to make weight-loss jab U-turn: ‘Would you rather I die?’
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