Al Roker Is Stepping up in Kelly Clarkson’s Defense Over Weight Loss Drug Criticisms

‘People ought to just back off,’ Roker said.

Al Roker is coming to Kelly Clarkson’s defense after the singer faced backlash for revealing she has turned to medication to assist with weight loss. Roker, no stranger to public scrutiny over his own weight struggles, has spoken out against Clarkson’s critics with a supportive message.

“There’s too much judgment going on,” Roker, 69, said during a segment on the Today show Tuesday when discussing Clarkson’s disclosure, per HuffPost. “People, as long as they’re working with their doctors and being healthy about it, people ought to just back off and let them live their lives,” the weatherman added.

After gastric bypass surgery in 2002, Roker, who has been outspoken about his own battle with obesity, recalled the challenges of losing weight after a gastric bypass surgery, saying it was “not easy” to do. “Listen, I took a raft of stuff when I had bypass surgery. It’s not easy, whatever you do, so get off people’s backs,” he said.

During Monday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Clarkson revealed to guest Whoopi Goldberg that she had been losing weight due to an undisclosed medication following a period of time when her “bloodwork got so bad.”

“My doctor chased me for two years, and I was like, ‘No, I’m afraid of it,'” Clarkson recounted. “I already have thyroid problems. Everybody thinks it’s Ozempic, but it’s not. It’s something else.”

There has been a recent explosion in the popularity of Ozempic, an injectable medication used to treat Type 2 diabetes that helps lower blood sugar levels. A number of celebrities, including Amy Schumer and Sharon Osbourne, have said they take the medication off-label for weight loss purposes.

While the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the diabetes medication Ozempic for the purpose of weight loss, similar drugs in the same class have received approval for assisting patients struggling with weight management and other weight-related chronic health conditions.

The 41-year-old talk show host has talked openly about her weight loss on her talk show, explaining in January to guest Kevin James that learning she was pre-diabetic encouraged her to take action to reduce her weight.

“Well, I was told I was pre-diabetic,” Clarkson said, laughing. “That’s literally what happened… and well, I wasn’t shocked. I was a tiny bit overweight.” She continued, “But I wasn’t shocked by it. They were like, ‘You’re pre-diabetic. You’re right on the borderline.’ And I was like, ‘But I’m not there yet.’ And then I waited two years and then I was like OK, I’ll do something about it.”

Clarkson previously spoke about her weight loss with PEOPLE in February, saying that being a single mother living in New York and caring for her daughter River Rose, 9, and son Remington Alexander, 7, has also helped her shed a few pounds because of the necessity of living on the go.

Clarkson shed light on her family’s active lifestyle, sharing with the outlet, “We go walk the dogs a few times at the park. We’ll go for ice cream because my daughter will wear me down. We’ll go make slime and we go to the museum.” She described even simple activities like “walking in the city” as “quite the workout.” Clarkson touched on her latest health interests and added, “And I’m really into infrared saunas right now. And I just got a cold plunge because everybody wore me down.”