SHAUGHNA Phillips has hit back at claims she used Ozempic to lose weight.
The 30-year-old recently showed off a body overhaul after shedding two stone – but some followers were quick to suggest she’d had a bit of help from the controversial medication.
Now the former Love Island star has spoken out about the accusations and shared her concerns over the potentially damaging reaction.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Shaughna said: “You can say I’m on whatever you want, it really doesn’t bother me.
“But my biggest concern is people will see I’ve lost weight, think that it’s Ozempic because that’s what people are commenting and try to get it because that’s what they think I’ve done when it genuinely isn’t.
“And I have absolutely no idea about the side effects or the cost but I don’t want people suffer horrible side effects or get into debt if it’s really expensive because they think it’s what I did.”
Popular with some Hollywood stars, Ozempic is actually a treatment for type 2 diabetes.
It increases the levels of incretins – a hormone – which helps your body to produce more insulin when needed and supresses the amount of glucose produced by the liver.
The jab also suppresses users’ appetite – mimicking a naturally occurring hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, which is usually released after eating.
As a result patients have less of an appetite, and reduce the number of calories they eat.
Shaughna – who is mum to one-year-old daughter Lucia – also confessed that the speculation about how she lose weight initially overshadowed the sense of pride she’d felt.
She said: “I put that picture up and I felt happy with myself and confident because I’d made the changes.
“But then you see the comments. Some said it was the way I was standing, some say they photo was edited. Others said ‘you’re still fat’. I can’t be both, so pick one.
“Some even said I’d had a gastric bypass – I’d love to know when I had the time to do that with a baby.”
She continued: “I thought, ‘why am I letting all these random peoples’ opinions get me so worked up?’ But it really does.”
Ozempic is used to treat type 2 diabetes. It helps your body produce more insulin and suppresses the amount of glucose produced by the liver.
It also suppresses the users’ appetite which results in them consuming less calories.
Ozempic is administered via injection and, usually in the thigh or the upper arm, where there is fatty tissue – it should not be injected intravenously or intramuscularly.
According to official data, 20 deaths in Britain have been linked to weight-loss jabs since 2019.
Sharon Osbourne has famously admitted to using Ozempic to lose weight and claims to have lost 42 pounds as a result.
Shaughna was speaking to The Sun ahead of Celebration Day on May 29.
It’s a celebration of past lives and, for Shaughna, it will be a day dedicated to her late dad Eddie.
He passed away seven years ago and, although she of course thinks about him every day, Shaughna revealed why she thinks it’s important to dedicate a day to remembering loved ones.
She said: “You might think about them but you might not necessarily talk about them out loud. And I think when you have children, it’s important you make that effort to to have a day where you talk about them and make it special.
“I’ve got a plaque for my dad at the Arsenal ground, it’s only been there for a year, but I’m going to go there with my daughter and just have a nice day.
“I want her to know that’s something we can do every Celebration Day.”
Celebration Day is an annual celebration of past lives, that takes place each year on the last Bank Holiday of May. For more information: celebrationday.com
