Barbra Streisand explains Melissa McCarthy Ozempic comment: 'Forgot the world is reading'

Barbra Streisand is speaking out about a since-deleted Instagram comment she reportedly shared on one of Melissa McCarthy's posts, which drew backlash earlier this week.

"OMG - I went on Instagram to see the photos we'd posted of the beautiful flowers I'd received for my birthday! Below them was a photo of my friend Melissa McCarthy who I sang with on my Encore album. She looked fantastic!" Steisand wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. "I just wanted to pay her a compliment. I forgot the world is reading!"

The EGOT winner's explanation comes after the @commentsbycelebs Instagram account captured a screenshot of a response she purportedly wrote under McCarthy's latest post, which read, "Give him my regards did you take Ozempic?"

In McCarthy's post, she shared photos of herself and director Adam Shankman attending a Los Angeles gala. The "Bridesmaids" actress wore a mint green ruffled dress with a matching blazer and high-heeled boots.

TMZ reported on Tuesday that a photographer approached the "Gilmore Girls" actress about Streisand's remark. The outlet said McCarthy responded, "I think Barbra is a treasure and I love her."

USA TODAY has reached out to McCarthy's representatives for comment.

The two previously sang together on Streisand's 2016 album, "Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway," performing a duet on "Anything You Can Do" from "Annie Get Your Gun."

"She’s smart, beautiful, clever, and so talented. Just like we sing at the end of the song — I’m her fan!!" Streisand said of McCarthy shortly after the record released. In a making-of video, she called McCarthy "the greatest woman comedy star."

Over the past year, weight loss drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, have become a part of our cultural lexicon, as more and more A-listers have slowly started to share their experiences − both positive and negative − with these medications.

They got pregnant with 'Ozempic babies'and quit the drug cold turkey. Then came the side effects

Ozempic is the brand name of semaglutide, just one of many in a drug class known as incretins.

"Semaglutide (Ozempic or Wegovy) sends signals to the appetite center in your brain to reduce hunger and increase fullness," Dr. Deborah Horn, an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, previously told USA TODAY.

Horn explained, "This helps you feel full with smaller meals and decreases the need for snacks … Wegovy decreases what we call 'food noise' so that we aren't thinking about food as much or using food to try and solve other problems."

In June 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved the semaglutide – under the brand name Wegovy –  as a treatment for chronic obesity. Since then, interest in the drug, which requires weekly injections, has skyrocketed. 

Contributing: Charles Trepany, Delaney Nothaft