Jillian Michaels is an American fitness expert, television personality, author, and businesswoman best known for her appearances on the NBC competitive reality series “The Biggest Loser.” While still a university student, Jillian struggled with and overcame her own obesity, which affected her since infancy. She then became a personal trainer. This fitness expert is also certified by Kettlebell Concepts and holds a black belt, and two personal trainer certificates from “The Aerobics and Fitness Association of America” (AFAA) and “National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association” (NESTA). With the help of well-liked fitness DVDs, the award-winning weekly podcast “The Jillian Michaels Show,” eight best-selling books by the New York Times, the industry-leading exercise streaming service fitfusion.com, and popular television programs like “The Biggest Loser,” among others, she has thrived in securing her position in the health and wellness industry. Additionally, she has increased her fame by using her app, website, and several social media networks. Her exposure helped her build a network with a sizable following in the millions. She founded the wellness business Empowered Media, LLC with her business partner Giancarlo Chersich, and the business has grown over time.
Early Childhood & Life
She was born to attorneys Douglas McKarus and JoAnn on February 18, 1974, in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Santa Monica.
Jillian has a rather difficult childhood, dealing with a number of problems such as her parent’s divorce, night terrors, and of course her weight, which made her a target of verbal bullying from peers.
Later, she succeeded in overcoming her obesity by reducing that extra kg, and eventually, she started her own business as a personal trainer. She worked as a personal trainer and a bartender to pay for her own tuition while attending California State University, Northridge.
Career of Jillian Michaels
With a Black belt and an enviably toned body, this stunning diva has held two personal trainer certifications since 1993, one from AFAA and the other from NESTA. She is also certified by Kettlebell Concepts and holds a certificate from the American Fitness Professionals and Associates (AFPA) as a nutrition and wellness consultant.
At the beginning of her career, she served as an agent for the literary and talent firm International Creative Management.
Jillian has created an ongoing series for trainers in addition to AFAA. She uses a variety of strength training techniques when working with her clients, including weight lifting, kickboxing, plyometrics, Pilates, and yoga.
In Beverly Hills, she established Sky Sport & Spa in 2002 as a sports medicine center.
Beginning with the October 2004 premiere of The Biggest Loser on NBC, Jillian served as one of the show’s trainers. Jillian appeared in the first two seasons of the program, which includes overweight contestants competing to drop the most weight possible in order to earn a financial reward. She acted as the Red Team’s trainer. In 2006, she left the program, and Kim Lyons took her place.
She continued to broadcast a Sunday discussion radio show on KFI in Los Angeles from 2006 to 2009. (640 AM). She later made a comeback to “The Biggest Loser” in 2007, this time as the Black Team’s trainer. From 2006 to 2008, Jillian appeared on the show’s Australian version alongside Blue Team trainer Bob Harper.
In 2008, she and Giancarlo Chersich, a business partner, established Empowered Media, LLC. In addition to investing in businesses like Giggles N’ Hugs, AQUAHydrat, and Thrive Market, the wellness company that offers total-life solutions for exercise, lifestyle, nutrition, and self-help has grown successfully over time.
On October 21, 2008, she released a game for the Wii home video game device called “Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009.” After that, in 2009, she released the video game “Fitness Ultimatum,” and then in 2011 she released “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” and “Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum.”
Authoring eight New York Times best-selling books, including “Master Your Metabolism” (2009) with Mariska Van Aalst and “Unlimited: A Three-Step Plan for Achieving Your Dreams,” has also increased Jillian’s popularity (2011).
She visited family members for a week while staying at their homes and working places in the NBC spin-off “Losing It With Jillian,” which debuted on June 1 and ran for eight episodes through July of that year.
On December 7, 2010, she announced through Twitter that she would leave “The Biggest Loser” after its eleventh season. She later made her final appearance on the program in May 2011. In the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons of the show, she did, however, return to the role of trainer. She was given a lot of exposure thanks to this well-liked show, which helped her become well-known.
She began hosting “The Jillian Michaels Show,” a weekly podcast, on iTunes in February 2011. In December of the same year, the program took home the Best New Audio Podcast award from Apple’s App Store Rewind 2011. She continued to gain prominence by releasing a number of DVDs that were wildly successful and cemented her reputation as a fitness expert.
CBS Television Distribution (CTD), an American television distribution business, announced on May 6, 2011, that she had signed a multi-year contract with them. With this agreement, she was made a co-host of the panel discussion program “The Doctors,” where she launched the recurrent “Ask Jillian” segment, which primarily covered food and nutrition-related topics. But in January 2012, she departed the program after only half a season. She appeared as a special correspondent on the American tabloid talk show “Dr. Phil” hosted by CTD.
She released “Body Revolution,” a 90-day weight loss program, in January 2012. In addition, she created the 30-minute exercise session known as “BODYSHRED” in the GoodLife gyms in the US and Canada as well as at other facilities like UFC Gyms and Lifetime Fitness.
In 2015, she developed a brand-new infomercial called BODYSHRED that featured a 60-day home fitness regimen.
Individual Life of Jillian Michaels
Jillian once said in an interview with Chris Azzopardi for Pride Source that she didn’t realize she was lesbian until she was in her 20s, but she had known she was bisexual since she was about 18 years old. She currently has a love relationship with Heidi Rhoades. They did so in May 2012, the same month Rhoades gave birth to a boy, and they adopted a two-year-old girl from Haiti.
She was in the news a few times, notably when some of her products were accused of being harmful or ineffectual, which resulted in four lawsuits that were subsequently dismissed. After criticizing police in her podcast’s episode titled “Jillian Finds Gratefulness in a Personal Loss” from July 28, 2012, she also came under fire from law enforcement personnel and their families. Later, the episode was taken off of the show’s iTunes feed.
Jillian is involved with numerous philanthropic organizations, including Play 60 of the NFL, the Clinton Foundation’s Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Stand Up to Cancer, and Hope for Haiti. In January 2012, she took part in the Clinton Foundation’s first conference, “Health Matters: Activating Wellness in Every Generation.”
She participates in the advisory board of the group called “National Day of Dance for Heart Health,” which encourages everyone to get active. She also supports causes related to animal welfare and recently helped PETA rescue a racehorse from a slaughterhouse.