Whoopi Goldberg wants fans to know that the ad circulating on Instagram appearing to show her endorsing a weight loss drug is not real.
The View cohost clarified on the Wednesday, February 5, episode that her likeness was created using artificial intelligence to sell an unspecified drug that she has not actually endorsed. While the show was about to throw to a scheduled commercial break, Goldberg, 69, interrupted the program to make her announcement, saying, “No, no, we are not going yet. I’m going to do this.”
“I’m giving everybody a heads-up,” she said. “There is a phony weight loss ad floating around online, on Instagram, that has me [with an] AI mouth saying all kinds of stuff.”
She added an easy way for fans to tell whether her endorsement is real.
“Unless I say, ‘Hey, it’s me, Whoopi.’ That’s how you know it’s me,” she said.
Goldberg then encouraged Instagram users to ignore the fake ad.
“Do not indulge in this, do not look at this,” she added. “Just get rid of it, because I don’t know what it is. I had nothing to do with it, and I don’t want y’all thinking that this is coming from me.”
“That’s the problem with AI,” she continued. “You don’t know who made it, but I’m telling you, it’s a lot of BS. Do not fall for it.”
The Sister Act actress revealed in a March 2024 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show that she used Mounjaro to lose weight. Mounjaro, like Ozempic, is the brand name for one of several GLP-1 drugs that can be used to treat diabetes and obesity.
“It’s all the weight I’ve lost, because I’ve lost the weight of almost two people,” Goldberg said. “I’m doing that wonderful little shot that works for folks who need some help, and it’s been really good for me.”
“You’re living your life and you’re doing what you need to do — and that’s the last thing you’re thinking about because you’ve got other stuff on your mind,” she added. “When you realize it, you go, ‘Well, damn.’ And everyone says, ‘Well, I thought you knew.’”
Goldberg also addressed her appearance on a 2022 episode of The View when she called out a writer who claimed to be “distracted” by her fat suit in the movie Till.
“I don’t really care how you felt about the movie, but you should know that was not a fat suit, that was me,” she said at the time. “I assume you don’t watch the show, or you would know that was not a fat suit.”
The View airs on ABC weekdays at 11 a.m. ET.
