Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker revealed to “CBS Mornings” that for the last two years he has been using a GLP-1 medication to lose weight.
In an interview broadcast Monday, Pritzker said he’s lost 80 pounds so far and he feels “a whole lot different and a whole lot better.”
“I’ve been overweight most of my life, really, since I was probably 7 or 8 years old,” Pritzker said.
That was around the time his father Donald died of a heart attack at 39.
“He was actually quite an active person, even though he was overweight, and so he was on a tennis court and had a heart attack, and my mother was there, and he died in her arms,” Pritzker said.
Given the family history, Pritzker said he’s always kept an eye on his own blood work, but he acknowledges that the high-pressure job of being the governor of the country’s sixth-largest state led him to put on even more weight, which forced him to put up with unwanted attention.
“Pritzker, I don’t know, he’s too busy eating,” President Trump said in 2024 on the campaign trail. “He wants to eat all the time.”
Nowadays, you can find Pritzker exercising along Lake Michigan in Chicago on a 4-mile walk that he makes nearly every morning.
Bad news about his blood work is what forced him to make a change. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with diabetes.
“My doctor said, ‘Oh, no, you’ll never come off of it. You’re going to have to do this the rest of your life, and I recommend that you take a GLP-1,'” Pritzker said.
His wife, first lady MK Pritzker, said she encouraged her husband to take the drug.
“Obviously, I knew the history of his family,” she said. “You know, it’s such a sad story, and of course, I want him to be around for a really long time.”
Every week, Pritzker injects himself with the GLP-1 medication. He said in his first week on the GLP-1, he lost weight.
“All of a sudden, on the third day, I was like, you know, actually, I don’t need to eat that thing,” Pritzker said. “But it was the strangest feeling. Now, I’m not suggesting everything changed in a week. it didn’t happen that way.”
He said he lost 2 pounds in the first week, and Pritzker knows what a lot of people may be thinking.
Asked if he did this to improve his image before a presidential run, Pritzker said, “I’ve been driven my whole life to lose weight.
“The fact that I am now able to do it because this GLP-1 became available is truly, like, I mean, it’s something that has meant a lot to me,” Pritzker said. “I have not made any decisions about what I might do in the future. I can tell you I want to be the governor of the state of Illinois for a while longer, and I’m running for reelection.”
Asked specifically if he’s not running for president in 2028, Pritzker said, “I honestly am focused on what’s best for the people of Illinois.”
That’s including all state employees. Pritzker said Illinois is covering GLP-1s on the state insurance plan for 55,000 state employees.
“Why? We’re going to save money,” Pritzker said.
He said that because of the change, fewer people will have diabetes.
“People will be less overweight, which causes so many other diseases,” Pritzker said.
The governor said one woman told him the initiative saved her life.
“I have an opportunity just with the platform that I have as governor to tell people that this is something that can work for them,” Pritzker said. “I think they should do it with the doctor’s advice, but I can tell you at least for me it has been really life-changing.”
