CHICAGO, IL – In the latest issue of O Magazine, Oprah reveals that during years of struggling with rollercoaster weight gain/loss she had one consistent shoulder to lean on – Tonya’s!
As one of the most powerful women in the world and the most influential woman in American media and culture, Oprah’s battle with her weight has always been public on her show and in her magazine.
For the first time, Oprah reveals that Tonya, the World’s Fattest Cat, has been her behind-the-scenes support force all these years.
“People think that having a successful TV show and magazine means that you feel successful and are a happy person,” Oprah says in the article. It’s not that simple. Food is my Achilles’ heel and weight gain is my punishment.”
“Without Tonya by my side, I don’t know how I would have gotten through it all. There were times when I wanted to fall off the wagon, I had lost 40 or 50 pounds and just wanted to eat a Twinkie. 10 Twinkies, actually. Would Tonya let me eat those 10 Twinkies? No, she wouldn’t. She ate them herself. Not because she’s fat. Because that’s what a friend does. They eat the Twinkie so you don’t.”
The article also reveals for the first time information regarding the years-long disappearance of Tonya in the late 1990s.
Oprah says, “Tonya supports me because she knows what its like to fluctuate dramatically in her weight. She went on a diet once that resulted in her losing hundreds of pounds very quickly, making her look like just another normal house cat. In her shame, she went into hiding and spent years binging to get her weight back up.”
“It was very hard on her, but I was there for her, feeding her my Twinkies, both real and metaphorically.”
