Oprah buys stake in Weight Watchers after Gayle King started sharing her success story

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Oprah Winfrey is taking a 10 per cent stake in Weight Watchers for about $43.2million and joining the company's board
Winfrey has given the company the right to use her name, image, likeness and endorsement for the company
Shares in the company climbed over 75 per cent by 10am on Monday morning
The move comes just a few weeks after her best friend Gayle King began sharing the success she was having with the weight-loss program
King has lost almost ten pounds since she began doing Weight Watchers on September 12
Winfrey, 61, has openly discussed her struggles with her fluctuating weight over the years

By Associated Press and Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com

Published: 07:05 EST, 19 October 2015 | Updated: 16:00 EST, 19 October 2015

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Oprah Winfrey is taking a 10 per cent stake in Weight Watchers for about $43.2million and is joining the weight management company's board.

Weight Watchers International Inc. said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that as part of the agreement, Winfrey has given the company the right to use her name, image, likeness and endorsement for the company, its programs, products and services, subject to her approval.

Winfrey also has the right to use Weight Watchers marks to collaborate with and promote the company.

Shares in the company climbed over 75 per cent by 10am on Monday morning.

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Oprah Winfrey (above in June 2012 with Gayle King) announced she is taking a 10 per cent stake in Weight Watchers for about $43.2million and joining the company's board

The move comes just a few weeks after King began sharing the success she was having with the weight-loss program (above)

The move comes just a few weeks after Oprah's best friend, CBS This Morning anchor Gayle King, began posting photos of the success she was having with the weight-loss program. She has now lost almost 10 pounds.

'Watching the scale go down... Started@weightwatchers sept 12th &wish it was more loss! But as fellow fatty mc fat fats know once you break a barrier it is a victory ! No more weight in the 180's (we hope),' King wrote on Instagram.

The 60-year-old then updated her followers one week later and showed that she had lost two more pounds, writing; 'You know it's a brand new day when the weight that use to send you to the fetal position now has you doing the happy dance.'

Winfrey has openly discussed her struggles with her fluctuating weight frequently over the years (left in 1992 at her heaviest, right in 1998 at her thinnest)

Winfrey, 61, is buying about 6.4million shares of Weight Watchers. The company's board expands from nine to ten members with Winfrey's inclusion.

The Artal Group remains the company's biggest shareholder, owning more than 50 per cent of the company.

The five-year agreement has additional successive one-year renewal terms.

Winfrey has always been very frank and open about her own struggles with her weight.

In 1988 she famously rolled out a wagon full of fat on her much-loved talk show to celebrate her 67-pound weight loss, but soon after began putting on the pounds again.

She was at her biggest just a few years later in 1992, at which point she began working with personal trainer Bob Greene.

Six years after that she landed the cover of Vogue - and was asked to lose some more weight.

The magazine's editor Anna Wintour revealed in a 2009 interview with 60 Minutes; 'It was a very gentle suggestion. I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight. I said simply that you might feel more comfortable.'

In a 2009 issue of O Magazine, Winfrey wrote; 'My goal isn't to be thin. My goal is for my body to be...strong and healthy and fit, to be itself. My goal is to learn to embrace this body and to be grateful every day for what it has given me.'