HEALTHBilly Gardell Would Have Kept Taking Ozempic If He'd Known It Was a Weight Loss Drug: 'I Just Wanted Everything to Change'
Billy Gardell said that years of yo-yo weight loss and gain led him to bariatric surgery.
Oct. 2 2026, Updated 2:24 p.m. ET
Billy Gardell spoke out about his years of weight loss and gain and loss again, and said he didn’t know Ozempic was a potential weight loss drug during the year he was taking it and serving as Ozempic’s pitchman.
“I was just taking it for type two diabetes, and it wasn’t making you lose weight at that point,” he said. “I stopped doing that and just got the surgery because I just wanted everything to change,” he said. “But if I had known it was a weight loss drug, I probably would have ridden that out.”
'I Have to Do Something Drastic'
Billy Gardell said that when he was starring on 'Mike & Molly' with Melissa McCarthy, he weighed 375 pounds.
The former star of Mike & Molly and Bob Hearts Abishola made his comments during an intervidw with Tom Papa on the "Breaking Bread" podcast.
He said that his years of weight loss and gain started to take their toll before he sought treatment. “I did this thing where I was I would gain 30 and lose 30 every year forever. And then at Mike and Molly, my highest was 375, right? Then I lost a little bit on my own when I did Bob Hearts Abishola and I got down to a svelte 275. As my doctor says, after 50, the warranties start running out and so I had type 2 diabetes. I had some cholesterol stuff, some heart stuff. And you can't outrun those. And then I got to the point where I hurt my knee and I couldn't even walk for exercise and I was like, I have to do something drastic.”
'It Probably Saved My Life'
Billy Gardell said that before he got bariatric surgery, he would swing between 30 pounds of weight loss and gain at a time.
That’s when he decided to get bariatric surgery in 2021, and which led to a 170-pound weight loss – this time, for the long term. “It's been a couple years now and it probably saved my life. I'm not on any medication. Diabetes is gone. They said it happens with a lot of the patients who get the full bariatric. I get to annoy my wife a little longer," he quipped.
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'I Know These are Simple, Stupid Things, But They Mean the World to Me'
Billy Gardell said that love for his family helped motivate him to lose weight for good.
He said he truly appreciates the freedom it now brings him.
“It’s the gift of being able to go on vacation with the family,” he said. “If my wife wants to go for a hike, I can go hiking with her. But the stupid joys for me are like being able to fly in a middle seat if I have to. And it's just those little freedoms that you go, ‘Wow, man. I'm so grateful I can do this now. I know those are simple, stupid things, but they mean the world to me.’”
'Don't Let Nobody Tell You Different. Do Whatever It Takes'
Billy Gardell said he intends to keep the weight off permanently.
He added a note of support for anyone in his former position: "And for anybody out there struggling, if I can do it, you can do it. And don't let nobody tell you different. Do whatever it takes.”
