THE RISE & FALL OF JENNY CRAIG
This suburban business became a weight-loss empire despite controversies and scandal
If it wasn’t for a New Orleans couple looking for a midlife adventure in 1983, the world may never have known the name Jenny Craig or the weight-loss empire she founded Downunder.
The billion-dollar idea came about after Louisiana-born former dental hygienist Jenny Craig, a divorced mum of two daughters, met fitness entrepreneur Sidney Craig in 1970, when she was working at one of his weight-loss centres.
They fell in love and decided to join forces. Together, they built his Body Contour company into a booming business, with 140 centres in the States, before selling it on the condition they didn’t open a rival business in the US for two years.
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT
With the now-married couple cashed-up and both aged 50, they decided to move to Melbourne, where they opened the very first Jenny Craig centre. The mix of pre-packaged, low-calorie meals and one-on-one counselling proved to be a smash hit.
“I’m sure there were a lot of people who would not be willing to take that risk, but we knew we would be successful,” Jenny said in a 2019 interview.
Their huge gamble paid off, with the couple going on to set up 95 clinics in Australia, before taking the idea back to the States, where celebrity ambassadors like Kirstie Alley, Queen Latifah, Monica Lewinsky, Mariah Carey and Seinfeld star Jason Alexander propelled it to even greater success.
Who can forget the late Kirstie appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006 in a bikini after losing 32kg over two years and calling Jenny a “godsend”?
Her endorsement brought millions of women to Jenny Craig – before she put all the weight back on.
And that was only one of a string of controversies that have plagued the US operation in recent years, including in 1994, when the company settled a class action involving 360,000 clients over allegations its products could cause gall bladder disease.
The company settled for $15 million but did not admit any wrongdoing. Nine years later, US comedian Mara Shapshay claimed its products led to a miscarriage and left her with gallstones in 2013. She threatened to sue but later dropped the case.
The New Zealand arm of Jenny Craig adopted its own local ambassadors, such as former Shortland Street star Stephanie Tauevihi, who lost 35kg but then put the weight back on. Similarly, Aussie recruited celebs such as Spice Girl Mel B and singer Casey Donovan, as well as comedian Magda Szubanski, who worked with Jenny Craig twice but parted ways with the company when she regained the 36kg she lost.
While Jenny Craig announced plans to file for bankruptcy and close the business in the US last month, Jenny Craig’s Australian and New Zealand operations have collapsed into voluntary administration in a last-ditch attempt to save the company.
Fortunately for the woman who started it all in Melbourne all those years ago, this has not dented her huge fortune. Jenny and her late husband Sidney sold the company for more than $800 million in 2006.
HEALTH BATTLES
Jenny splashed out $2.5 million for a horse that won the Epsom Derby in England as a gift for Sidney and the couple bought a palatial horse-breeding estate in California, where they spent time with their five kids and 13 grandchildren before Sidney’s death in 2008 after a five-year battle with cancer.
Now aged 90, Jenny, has also had to face her own health battles after suffering a TMJ (temporomandibular joint) chronic dislocation to her jaw while sleeping in 1996, which she said “felt like two rubber bands had snapped on the side of my face”.
The condition left her struggling to speak for five years before surgery, but daily speech therapy eventually restored much of her ability. She famously once said that Sidney told her she was the “most unrelenting person he’s ever met”.
‘A lot would not take the risk... We knew we would be successful’