Biggest Loser winner Danny Cahill DEFENDS Jillian Michaels and reveals who really gave ‘banned' pills to contestants

The Sun

3 hours ago

THE Biggest Loser champion Danny Cahill - who appears in the new Netflix documentary about the controversial former show - has defended trainer Jillian Michaels as she allegedly prepares to sue those involved.
Oklahoma-born Danny, 56, was the Season 8 winner of the NBC reality TV show, having lost a staggering 239 pounds.
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In the new documentary, he appears alongside other contestants and talks about the highs and lows of his experience and how he put a lot of the weight back on years later.
Viewers were left stunned by the extreme methods used on The Biggest Loser, with those taking part working out up to eight hours a day and surviving on just 800 calories.
Jillian took to Instagram on Tuesday to slam the show and former co-star Bob Harper, after she was accused of slipping contestants prohibited caffeine pills to help them lose weight.
During an interview with TMZ, she also claimed she is exploring her legal options as she prepares to file a lawsuit with attorney Bryan Freedman.
The U.S. Sun spoke to contestant Danny about the controversy, who claimed the contestants were handed caffeine pills- but not by Jillian.
"In the documentary, I do mention that later in the season, we did have access to that, but it wasn't her," he alleged.
"I can't remember exactly who it was. When I say it wasn't her, it wasn't her that handed them to us or anything.
'I know that they were made available, and they were supposed to be like a strong cup of coffee or something, like 200 milligrams of caffeine or something."
I took them for two days, and they made me feel jittery."
The Biggest Loser champion Danny Cahill
He insists they were never told they were banned, adding, "As far as I knew, they were there and everybody knew about them.
"Somebody in casting gave them to us. So I don't know who that was. Jillian never gave 'em to me.
"That's all I really know about it, is they offered it to us.
"I've never gotten any pills from anybody directly, like not Bob or Jillian or Dr. Huizenga."
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Netflix, NBC, Bob Harper, and Dr. Robert Huizenga for comment, but did not hear back.
Jillian and Bryan Freedman also failed to respond.
"I took them for two days, and they made me feel jittery, and I quit. I said, 'Uh, uh, no,'" Dany continued.
"It's like a Red Bull or something. One time I drank one of those, a big one, and I didn't feel good on it, so I said, well, I'm done with those. And that's kind of what happened with the caffeine pills."
Showing support for Jillian, he insisted, "She helped people. Jillian is super smart. And I'll tell you what, you pretty much know what you're going to get with her. She tells it straight and she doesn't fool around.
"I love Jillian, and I thought Bob and Jillian had different styles, but they both helped people in different ways.
"I don't think any of the contestants that I talked to, other than some gameplay that happened, had real problems with Bob or Jillian.
NOT FRIENDS
"I don't know a lot of the backstory of what's happening [with the lawsuit] but she has to protect her reputation. She's gotta do what she's gotta do.
"I just know what happened to me on the ranch, one season out of 18.
"Jillian, when people would say, 'Is she really that crazy?' I would be like, 'Well, yeah, in the gym she is'.
"I think that me growing up in sports where sometimes the coach would say, 'What are you doing? You know, get over there and do that correctly.'
"So I was used to that kind of stuff, and I didn't have any issues with either of them. And they seemed to get along pretty well on my season. So I don't know anything about any conflict between them."
The feud between Bob and Jillian has been ongoing for several years and was reignited in the wake of the recent Netflix documentary.
The Biggest Loser aired on NBC between 2004 and 2016 before being rebooted on US Network for one year in 2020.
On the show, they competed against each other as personal trainers working with teams of contestants who tried to lose the most weight each week.
Bob was asked about their friendship in Netflix's three-part docuseries.
In his response, he told producers, "How do I put this? People were always like, 'You and Jillian have been so close.' I was like, 'Well, we were close on TV.'"
Discussing his 2017 health scare, he then said, "After I had my heart attack, she's the one person I never heard from. That to me spoke volumes."
EMAIL 'RECEIPTS'
On Tuesday, Jillian began sharing old emails from her time on the show, discussing distributing fat burners.
She also wrote, "Bob Harper not only knew about the caffeine pills the 'stackers fat burner' were actually his suggestion.
"I wanted to use my brand instead because they were cleaner and had no more than 200mg of caffeine (equivalent to a strong cup of coffee)."
She also disputed claims in the show that caffeine was banned.
"Wild how some folks still lie like it's 1985 before texts and email were a thing," Jillian added on the post.
Dr. Huizenga claimed to TMZ that the show was caffeine-free from day one, alleging coffee, diuretics, and weight-loss pills were off-limits.
He alleged Jillian was secretly giving the contestants her own supplements and that she apologized on air when he confronted her about it.
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