Kathy Bates has been wowing the world with her incredible acting skills for years, but she’s also been turning heads with her impressive 100-pound weight loss, which she got to show off at last night’s Emmy awards.
The acclaimed actress posed on the red carpet and was a presenter at this year’s ceremony, and she got to show off her weight loss on camera. Kathy admitted to losing 100 pounds, having done most of it through discipline, diet, and exercise while using weight loss medication to help her type-2 diabetes and shed some excess pounds. Like many celebrities who have used GLP-1s, she received some criticism, which she recently snapped back against, mentioning just how hard she worked. Read more about her appearance at the Emmys and what she had to say to her critics below.
Kathy Bates Shows Off Her Weight Loss At The 2025 Emmy Awards
While many people recognize her for all the work she’s done in film, bringing roles to life in iconic movies like Misery, Fried Green Tomatoes, and more, the 77-year-old has been getting more involved in television, currently starring in her latest project, the law series Matlock, where she plays a high-power attorney.
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Given the series’s success, she was invited to the 2025 Emmy awards that took place last night, and presented the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series alongside Annie co-star Alan Cumming. On stage, she wore a deep blue, long, and elegant gown with long sleeves. But on the red carpet, she wore a waist-cinching brown gown, which allowed her to show off her slimmed-down figure.
Kathy has been outspoken about her weight loss, opening up about how her heavy weight had begun not only affecting her personal life, but her career as well, looking back on a time where she would have to sit down and rest between every take as she filmed, and how her type-2 diabetes diagnosis inspired her to kick things into gear.
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Since 2017, she revealed she’s been working extremely hard, following healthier eating habits and getting some exercise in, like walking on a treadmill, and over time was able to lose around 80 pounds naturally, before being prescribed Ozempic to lose an extra 20.
Kathy Slams Those Who Criticize Her Use Of Weight Loss Medications
GLP-1 drugs and weight loss medications like Ozempic have been a controversial topic in pop culture, as while it’s often prescribed for those with diabetes or health conditions that make it extremely difficult for heavy people to lose weight, more celebrities have been getting access to it, slimming down remarkably.
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Although several celebrities waited to tell the public about their use of the drug, as well as some who may be using it but keeping the information to themselves, the Matlock star openly admitted to People that she started using the GLP-1 medication to treat her diabetes, and clapped back at anyone who has been criticizing her for doing so.
“It took me years to do this,” she told Variety in a new interview. “I got this diagnosis about diabetes — my father died of it; his mother died of it; one of my sisters is in peril.”
“When they said ‘diabetes,’ I figured out what to do to slowly, over the years, lose the weight. And then when Ozempic came along, I was able to lose the last 15 to 20 pounds and keep it off,” she added.
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The actress also stressed just how much happier she’s been since getting healthier and losing the weight that was holding her back, referring to recently trying on a dress she was convinced wouldn’t fit her.
“I looked at it on the hanger, and I thought, ‘That’s not gonna fit.’ I put it on, and it fit, and I just melted down,” she recalled. “I just started crying and crying.”