Actress and film director Gugu Gumede has opened up about losing after she had a gastric sleeve in January 2024.
Gugu lost 30kg in four months. “I was unhappy with the weight, and with how I felt physically,” she said. “I didn’t feel good, my feet would hurt. I literally would go to bed at night and my heart would be pounding so much, and I was so scared because I had high blood pressure. I knew I was at high risk of becoming a chronic patient.”
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Gugu lost his mother Zanele Magwaza-Msibi in 2021 after suffering a stroke in 2014.”Those who know me, know that in September 2021, I lost my mother, unexpectedly, and I took a huge break from social media and became disengaged. The content I was posting was work-related,” she said adding that when her mom passed away she was four months pregnant.
“After that, I never managed to come back and show a lot of myself. I just had my child and kind of shielded her. I didn’t want people to come into our own little bubble and I just stayed in it.” she said.
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She admitted that it became difficult to come out of the shell, especially once you have closed the world off. “That’s what happened to me. I was going through a lot of things and I realised that I wanted to open up a bit more in 2024. I am not the type of person that will open up fully but I want to open up more.” Gugu said she started gaining weight. “That also came from me stopping to breastfeed. No one told me that if I stopped, I would be at risk of gaining weight,” she said. She added that she gained about 15kg and that she was unhappy with her weight. “Physically I didn’t feel good, and my feet would hurt. I would go to bed and night and my heart would be pounding. I was so scared because I had high blood pressure, which unfortunately runs in my family,” she added. “I knew that I was now at high risk of becoming a chronic patient.”
Bongi Sikelo 