The Cow Chews her Cud...

Though she spent years refusing to confirm that she had indeed undergone gastric bypass surgery, Star Jones is finally owning up to the story behind her remarkable weight loss in an interview with Glamour.

Some excerpts:

How had I allowed myself to get to 307 pounds? I could clearly remember the days when I’d considered myself fly and curvaceous. Funny—or sad—how we “thick” girls can justify being excessively overweight. It was something I’d been doing all my life.

I’ve tried to track where the real out-of-control behavior began; it seemed to be around my fortieth birthday, March 24, 2002. I gained 75 pounds over the course of the next 17 months. (In college I had started to take notice of my weight and pretended to set 25-pound limits.) Eventually I just gave up. By then, I had been on The View a few years and had all the material trappings of success, but I still felt a void inside. Many of my girlfriends were getting married and starting their own families. I refuse to say I got fatter because I didn’t have a man; that does a disservice to single and satisfied women everywhere.

I began to surround myself with yes-people and spent my private time eating and shopping. My weight gain began to take a physical toll: I couldn’t breathe without sounding winded; walk without getting tired; sleep without snoring; or take a flight without using a seat belt extender. I pretended not to see how big I was getting—but not only did I see it, I was disgusted by it.

After I left The View, many women told me they felt empowered by my honesty over having been fired—but wished I was willing to be as honest about my weight loss. They were right: Gastric bypass surgery saved my life, and though I still believe wholeheartedly that health decisions are private and should remain between a doctor and his patient, keeping this decision private started to feel hypocritical and cumbersome.