Illinois Governor Reveals Major Diagnosis

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes two years ago and has lost 80 pounds on a GLP-1 drug.

The 61-year-old Democrat disclosed the illness for the first time in a CBS News interview. Doctors had warned he might need insulin for life.

“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 recalled.

His wife, MK Pritzker, said she pushed him to start. “I want him to be around for a really long time,” she told CBS.

His office said the governor combined the medication with diet and exercise changes. It said he “is no longer on insulin and down to levels that indicate no diabetes/prediabetic levels.”

Pritzker said weight had been a struggle since childhood. His father, Donald Pritzker, died of a heart attack at 39.

He said he had watched cholesterol and triglycerides for years, and that the job of governor added more weight.

The disclosure also put him in the public conversation over GLP-1 drugs used for both diabetes and weight loss.