The Ozempic era in Hollywood isn’t over, it’s just evolving. Kris Jennerwho appeared on the SHE MD Podcast on May 5, became the latest high-profile figure to confirm what has been quietly circulating for months: that the GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic that became the entertainment industry’s worst-kept secret don’t work for everyone, and that the more image-conscious corners of Hollywood are already making their way to alternatives.
“I tried,” Jenner said about Ozempic. “We tried it once when no one knew what it was, and it really made me sick.” Nauseated, unable to work, unable to function. Her doctor, OBGYN Dr. Thai Aliabadieventually turned her toward peptide injections, short chains of amino acids that can be used to induce weight loss and improve energy, followed by a targeted supplement regimen. “That was a game changer,” said Jenner. “That even gave me a few extra hours at night.”
The 70-year-old momager is not alone in this. The pattern she describes: try Ozempic, experience significant side effects, quietly switch to something else, reflects a broader shift taking place in an industry that embraced GLP-1 drugs with extraordinary speed and relatively little public scrutiny.
What made Ozempic’s Hollywood moment so important wasn’t just that celebrities were taking diabetes drugs to lose weight. As it happens, many of them did it while the broader cultural conversation was still vociferously devoted to body acceptance and anti-diet messages. That tension has been building up for several years. It’s not resolved. If anything, the quiet turn toward peptides and alternative interventions suggests that the industry is trying to have it both ways: the results of pharmaceutical weight management without the baggage of the specific drug that everyone now associates with it.
Hollywood Ozempic Alternatives: The cultural contradiction that no one does anything about
The medical establishment has been consistent and consistently ignored on this point. Dr. Caroline Apovianco-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told People directly: “The Hollywood trend is worrying. We are not talking about stars who need to lose 5 kg. We are talking about people who die of obesity, who will die of obesity.”
The drugs are designed for the latter. For the former, they have been deployed on a large scale. That gap between intended use and actual application is where most of the honest conversation about Ozempic in Hollywood needs to happen, and largely hasn’t. Jenner’s move to peptide injections does not resolve this contradiction. Injectable peptides have their own medical warnings; the American Medical Association notes that the effects of some of them have not been extensively studied and that possible side effects range from stomach upset to pancreatitis.
Switching from one injectable weight management device to another does not address the underlying question of whether the intervention is medically appropriate. What it does do is remove the specific cultural stigma attached to the Ozempic name. That is a meaningful distinction in a sector where optics serve as a means of payment.
What the celebrities actually said
The range of public positions on GLP-1 drugs among Hollywood figures tells the full story of the contradiction. Oprah Winfrey was perhaps the most important voice to emerge, stating in March 2024 that she “I never dreamed we would be talking about medicine that offers hope to people like me, who have been struggling for years.” Later that year, she publicly acknowledged that she was taking weight-loss medications, knowing the setback would be significant. “I knew it was going to be a big deal to admit I was on medication. I knew I would get a lot of pushback. And I did.”
Kate Winslet came to a very different conclusion. In a December 2025 Sunday Times interview, she described the current landscape as “f—— chaos” and expressed concern about the speed at which the industry had embraced pharmaceutical weight intervention. “Do they know what they are putting into their bodies? Ignoring someone’s health is terrifying.”
The space between Oprah’s relief and Winslet’s alarm is where most of the honest reckoning with this moment needs to take place. One woman found a form of medical justice in these medications after decades of struggle. Another looked at the same landscape and saw an industry that was dismantling the progress the body had made. Both readings are available from the same set of facts.
What comes after Ozempic
Kris Jenner Finally Confirms She Tried Ozempic After Speculation: ‘It Really Made Me Sick’ https://t.co/tqEVsDZLhD pic.twitter.com/9eMrpLDzwx
— New York Post (@nypost) May 7, 2026
Peptide injections are where Kris Jenner ended up, but they’re not the only Ozempic alternative circulating in Hollywood’s wellness infrastructure. The broader category of weight management tools available to people with significant disposable income and access to concierge medicine has expanded significantly. Meanwhile, the industry’s appetite for results without public accountability has not diminished. What has changed is the specific drug associated with the conversation.
The more consequential shift may be cultural rather than pharmaceutical. The body acceptance movement that Ashley Graham referenced in her interview with Marie Claire, “a pendulum that swung, that was so body acceptance, positivity, everyone is who they want to be,” has not disappeared. It has simply been avoided, at least in the spaces where Hollywood sets its aesthetic standards.
Whether peptides become the next Ozempic in terms of cultural visibility, or whether the industry continues to have this conversation more quietly than it did at the GLP-1 moment, will largely depend on how many more Kris Jenners decide to pull back the curtain. She was asked how she maintains her appearance. She answered honestly. That honesty is rarer than it should be in this particular conversation.
Featured image: @krisjenner/Instagram
