‘Dancing With the Stars’ Contestant Celebrates Weight Loss After Decades of Body-Shaming

Andy Richter is celebrating his “physical transformation” on Dancing With the Stars after decades of having his weight be picked apart by the public.

Richter revealed during a conversation with DWTS co-host Julianne Hough on The Morning After (Show) that the weight loss he experienced while competing on the ABC dance competition was a combination of exercise and the use of GLP-1 medication Zepbound.

“In a previous time, I might have said, ‘Well, this show has been also a physical transformation for me because of the exercise and I’ve lost weight.’ And also … thank you, Zepbound. Zepbound helped a lot,” Richter explained, adding, “I’m never going to … be cagey about that because I think it’s silly to.”

Dancing With the Stars also inspired Richter on his fitness journey moving forward. “I may have at another time gone through something like this and kind of been like, ‘Oh, that was good for me. I’m going to really stick to sort of a regimen of exercise and staying active,’” the comedian said, adding that he would know in the back of his mind that he didn’t mean it. “I say it now and I f—ing mean it.”

“Now it’s like, when this show is done, knees willing, I’m back in the gym,” said Richter, who was eliminated alongside pro partner Emma Slater during last week’s episode of the dance competition.

Richter went on to say he “knew [he] had to” say yes to Dancing With the Stars, as he was “still in a rut” with his physical activity before the show, which was “limited to gardening and walking dogs and being jumped on by a 3-year-old,” referencing wife Jennifer Herrera’s daughter Cornelia, whom he has adopted.

On Nov. 4, Richter spoke candidly about having his weight be such a big part of his public persona during SiriusXM’s The Three Questions with Andy Richter podcast

“One of my standard lines is, ‘I didn’t know there were so many ways to call someone fat,’” he said at the time. “‘Cherubic.’ ‘Rotund.’ It was galling to me at the time.”

While Richter also used his appearance as a “comedy trope,” he joked that people didn’t focus on any of his other physical attributes. “They say nothing about my right-handedness, about my Caucasian [ethnicity], about my blue eyes,” he said. “They don’t say anything about my good, strong teeth, but they have to mention that.”

The comedian may have been a bit nervous about the physical demands of Dancing With the Stars, but Richter said he “luckily” was paired with “a sweet angel of a ballroom dancer” in Slater.

“She’s fantastic,” he gushed. “And there were so many people around there—from promo people to security guards to different people like stage hands—[who] are like, ‘You got the best one.’ Because she is just so much fun.”