The Real Housewives of Dubai star Caroline Stanbury briefly used Ozempic to help lose the weight she gained during past rounds of in vitro fertilization.
“After 45, it becomes very, very hard to lose weight — and I’m not lazy,” Stanbury, 48, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, June 17. “I’m not lying at home doing nothing. I go to the gym, I have a trainer, I walk all the time [and] I’m busy.”
Stanbury noticed that her weight “wasn’t shifting” after completing two rounds of IVF.
“I did get really fat. I put on 18 pounds on my body and that’s no joke,” she said. “I looked like I ate [my husband,] Sergio [Carrallo,] by the end of last summer. I was reading a magazine [that had] a picture of my bottom on the back of a boat with him last summer. I was like, ‘That’s it. I’ve got to do something. I can’t get it off.’”
She continued, “Ozempic, I have to say … is an incredible tool. Why do you need to be miserable if you can get yourself back to where you were? I didn’t want to be different. I didn’t do my face to look like a supermodel. I wanted to be me, but younger.”
Stanbury got a facelift in November 2023, telling Us that “taking [her] eyelids off” has already made a big difference in her facial appearance. Just as the facelift has helped, Stanbury found success with Ozempic.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), semaglutides like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are commonly prescribed for adults who struggle with obesity or other weight-related conditions, such as high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. While it is not encouraged for casual weight loss users to try the medications, many stars like Stanbury have used it to help supplement their weight loss journeys.
“Ozempic got me into my old jeans,” Stanbury quipped, noting she no longer uses the injections. “I don’t take it. But … if I put [the weight] back on, I would absolutely take [more injections]. Why not maintain it? But right now, I’ve been really lucky [and] I don’t need it right now.”
Since using Ozempic, Stanbury “got back to exactly where I’ve always been” — and the same pair of pants she wore when she met Carrallo, 29, five years earlier.
“It just felt very thin for other people because my legs are tiny. I’ve always, if you go back to Ladies of London [and] if you go back to all the things, I’ve always been ‘peg legs,’ that’s where I lose the weight always first,” the Bravo star said. “It’s the rest of me, unfortunately, that just doesn’t follow.”
Stanbury, however, would “never say never” to using Ozempic again down the road, telling Us, that Carrallo “wants to do another round of IVF [and] a hundred percent Ozempic will be my next stop.”
Stanbury and Carrallo wed in December 2021, eventually deciding to undergo IVF to welcome their first baby together. Stanbury already shares daughter Yasmine, 18, and twins Zack and Aaron, 14, with her ex-husband, Cem Habib.
Stanbury further told Us that her and Carrallo’s next round of IVF would likely take place in January 2025.
“There’s a lot on your body. I really am happy with the way I look right now, but he’s worried we only have one egg, but I guess I could do another one,” she said. “I’m grumpy as it is. And so that on top of that, I dunno — he’d better wear a helmet.”
Stanbury’s relationship with Carrallo is also chronicled on The Real Housewives of Dubai season 2, which is currently airing on Bravo.
“He’s just grown up such a lot. You can see such a transition in who he is [on the show],” Stanbury said on Monday. “He doesn’t take himself so seriously anymore. I think he’s enjoying being in his own home and you’re going to see who Sergio really is — finally. I think he had a tough time in season 1 [with] the girls.”
The Real Housewives of Dubai season 2 airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
