Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has finally opened up about his weight loss journey, more than two years after he started taking GLP-1s.
Pritzker, 61, told CBS Mornings on Monday that he has lost 80 pounds since he started taking the medication.
He said he feels “a whole lot different, and a whole lot better,” since losing the weight.
Despite being a billionaire, Pritzker says his life has not always been easy. He has long struggled with his weight, saying he has been overweight since he was “7 or 8 years old” and tried “every diet you could imagine”. His father died at 39 from a heart attack.
At age 58, he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and began taking insulin and eventually a GLP-1 medication.
“There are people who have it very easy their whole lives, and they’ve never struggled at all. And I’m just not that person,” Pritzker told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mary Kathryn “MK” Pritzker, JB’s wife, said she encouraged her husband to take the GLP-1 when she first heard a doctor recommended the medication.
“Of course I want him to be around for a very long time,” she told journalist David Begnaud.
President Donald Trump has often attacked the potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate over his weight, calling him a “fat slob” and sharing AI images of him eating junk food.
“Oh by the way, he’s overweight,” Pritzker said about Trump. “But I don’t really talk about that publicly… and it’s because I think it’s more like the content of your character that matters more, and I’ve always believed that. And that’s why I haven’t listened to people who say nasty things about me being overweight.”
Pritzker credits the medication for changing his life and eliminating the food noise.
He said he used to “want the whole cake or a box of cookies. That was just how I would feel about it, and I don’t feel that way anymore,” Pritzker told the Chicago-Sun Times.
He’s motivated to share his story partly because he knows millions of Americans suffer from obesity-related health conditions. He wanted to make sure the weight loss stuck before doing so.
“I have been driven my whole life to lose weight. The fact that I am now able to do it because of this GLP-1 became available, I mean it’s something that has meant a lot to me,” Pritzker said.
Regarding a potential 2028 run, Pritzker said he hasn’t decided yet, but wants to do what’s best for the people of Illinois.
