Jones Reynolds Admits Gastric-Bypass

NEW YORK (July 31) - Star Jones Reynolds says in a new interview that her dramatic weight-loss was due to gastric-bypass surgery, and that she dodged questions about it for years because she was "scared of what people might think of me."

Reynolds, 45, says she was "intentionally evasive" when people asked how she'd dropped 160 pounds in three years. The former "View" co-host opens up about her weight loss and self-esteem issues in a story featured in the September issue of Glamour magazine, on newsstands Aug. 7.

"Everything about me was already so public (mostly my own doing - talk about dumb!), so of course everyone wanted to know what I had done," she writes. "I was also terrified someone would have a tragic result after emulating me without making an informed decision with her doctor."

"But the complete truth is, I was scared of what people might think of me," she continues. "I was afraid to be vulnerable, and ashamed at not being able to get myself under control without this procedure."

Keeping her decision private made her a hypocrite, she says, because she had been so outspoken about her firing from ABC's "The View" last year.

Reynolds, who weighed 307 pounds at her heaviest, says her "out-of-control behavior" began around her 40th birthday in 2002. Feeling lonely, she turned to food for comfort and gained 75 pounds over the course of 17 months. She had the procedure in August 2003.

"I used to look in the mirror and take pride in my figure, but that was when I was legitimately a full-figured woman," she says. "I'd gradually gone from full-figured to morbidly obese."

Reynolds opted for surgery after a friend expressed concern about her weight. It was a success, she says, though she found she was "still consumed with the same anger, shame and insecurity as before."

Her husband, banker Al Reynolds, encouraged her to begin psychological therapy in the summer of 2005. She learned, among other things, that she "couldn't control what others thought," she says. She began to heal by talking openly about her weight loss to strangers.

Re: Jones Reynolds Admits Gastric-Bypass

There was an earlier post about this however, I do have one thing to say. Having had the surgery myself, I get the feeling she wasn't doing something right. If it took her 3 years to lose 160 pounds from the surgery, then either a) she was doing some highlly caloric snacking or b) her extra skin weighed a lot. It shouldn't have taken her that long to lose it. 18 months tops. I know MANY people who had that surgery and they all lost it before 2 years.

Re: Jones Reynolds Admits Gastric-Bypass

The little I know makes me think something was wrong. Why would anyone do such invasive surgery if it takes three years?

Re: Jones Reynolds Admits Gastric-Bypass

It shouldn't take three years. From what I understand, she had the same doctor that operated on me as well as my sister and it was minimally invasive (though serious) surgery. It is done laparoscopically through 6 small incisions no bigger than a centimeter long. It is possible she had complications and had revisions but who knows.

Not everyone who has this surgery will reach an ideal weight range and any decent surgeon will tell you that.