Captions by Lena Erakovich. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Tonight on Sunday ` what happens when 'I do' becomes 'I don't'? - Going through divorce and separation is like going through hot coals backwards, blindfolded, absolutely with no shoes on. - It's painful. - Disbelief, lost... confused. - It's expensive. - The grim reality is, is that you do need lawyers in this area. - You said grim. - Well, because you have to pay for them. - But does it have to be? - There's got to be a better and a more positive way to do it. - When I look around this room, I can't help but wonder ` is Ozempic right for me? (LAUGHTER) - And the so-called 'skinny jab'... - Every week, I have somebody request a script for Ozempic. - It's big business... - How much money have you made? - Just over $150 million a year of revenue at the moment. - ...but behind the hype is real danger. - No, I never thought you can die from it. - Plus ` the voices of war ` powerful testimony from those most affected. - WOMAN: I don't think that we can solve this problem in a military way. (MAN SPEAKS ARABIC) - What hope for peace in Gaza? - We must stop with sacrificing human being to justify anger or need for revenge. - Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Almost half of all marriages end in it, but it's not something we really want to talk about. Divorce. It can be messy, painful, and eye-wateringly expensive. While most tie the knot thinking it'll last forever, marriages, on average, last only 13.5 years. Last year, 7000 couples divorced ` and that's not including de facto relationships or civil unions. Yes, you need a lawyer, but is there another, less acrimonious path to the promised land? Here's Mark Crysell. (PIANO PLAYS MENDELSSOHN'S 'WEDDING MARCH') - MARK CRYSELL: The hens' night... - We've been together for 16 years. I can't wait to be his wife. Cannot wait. - ...the last fling before the ring. - I'm just` I'm so happy that I've met someone that can cook and do the dishes. - Oh, I love that for you! - Happily-wedded bliss awaits. Do you believe marriage lasts forever? - Yes. - Oh, it does. Yeah. - Getting married! - But when it comes to marriage, forever, according to Stats NZ, is only 13.5 years long. - And I still see people who say, 'I never thought the relationship was ever going to end,' and I kind of think, 'Well, honey... (CHUCKLES) 'you know, you can't have lived on this planet this long and not have heard of the word divorce.' - You'd see quite a different side of somebody that you were married to for 20 years. - It's amazing, Mark, how love can just absolutely turn to hatred. - 16,000 people get married in New Zealand every year. 7000 divorce. One of those is Aucklander Jamie Chilcott. What did being married mean to you? - Security, yeah? Just companionship. VOICE BREAKS: Someone you can count on. - It's still tough, eh? - Yeah, yeah. Yeah. - Jamie's wife of seven years left the relationship last year. - We weren't getting along, and we were, uh... neglecting ourselves. Yeah, there was lots of signs to say it was coming to an end, for sure. - What would three words be to describe how you felt at that time? - Three words? Uh... - Disbelief, lost... confused. - It's still raw. - I guess, failure. Uh, letting... letting people down. Yeah. - Who did you think you'd let down? - My children. Yeah. - The majority of divorce and separations are initiated by women ` like Frankie. - I thought it was forever. - She's asked that we not reveal her identity ` the scars of her divorce are too fresh. - We'd just lost` you know, the love. For a long time, I'd been thinking about separating, but just felt very stuck and didn't know how to go about it. - Eventually, Frankie plucked up the courage and moved out. What was it like for you having to leave the family home? - Very, very scary. - Married, civil union or de facto, if you've been together for more than three years, then you're entitled to half the assets. - The grim reality is, is that you do need lawyers in this area. - You said grim. - Well` well... well, I think it's because you have to pay for them. (CHUCKLES) - But what you get for your money with Lady Deborah Chambers KC is one of New Zealand's top divorce lawyers. - You need to be adversarial and aggressive in some circumstances. You do. You need to be determined and pushy in some circumstances to look after your client interests, and other instances, you need to be prepared to compromise. - Which one are you? - I can do all those gears, Mark. I can. - (CHUCKLES) - And you might need all those gears, because at some stage, almost all divorces turn nasty. - I was threatened that property of mine that would be burnt or thrown away ` things like that. - Most of the time, there's someone who's been hurt, someone who's been betrayed, someone who's angry, someone who's threatened and frightened, and the person who was your best friend is now doing their best to make sure that they get more than you do, and that they have the children more than you do. - Kids are wanting both parents. They're associating family with both parents. - They're the last people in the world you want to hurt in any way. - Yeah. Totally. I knew that I had to keep things as routine as possible for the children. - Fights over which spouse gets the house are common. - I definitely needed the forensic accountant in my case, because you can't get half of what you don't know that you have. - Also surprisingly common is how many partners don't know where the money is. - I still see a lot of people who don't know what they own, and over and over again, they will say, 'Well, I don't know what that is,' or 'What's that? I didn't know we owned that.' And, you know... amazing. - It's a painful process that can sometimes feel like it will never end. - If you came to me and said, 'Deborah, I really want to go slowly on this, 'I don't want it in court for a while, thank you, for a whole variety of reasons,' I can do that. It is very easy to do that, because it's just so slow. - I felt very stupid, because I'd been with this person for most of my life, and not knowing these things` So that was pretty awful, I think, talking to a lawyer and not... Yeah, not knowing your financial background is pretty scary, and just adds to the stress of breaking up. (DETERMINED ELECTRONIC MUSIC) - What becomes of the broken-hearted is not for the faint-hearted. - Where should I start, Mark? - At the beginning. - OK. (LAUGHS) OK. Going through divorce and separation is like going through hot coals backwards, blindfolded, absolutely with no shoes on. - Bridgette Jackson had the big wedding, the lifestyle. - I was a Stepford wife, really. On the surface, you know, it looked good ` we had` we had money, we had four beautiful children, lovely holidays, beautiful handbags ` you know, all of that stuff. Beautiful cars. And I was really unhappy. You know, I was unhappy at my richest, basically. - When Bridgette left her husband, everything changed. - I went through a very high-conflict, acrimonious separation that took five years to settle. It cost me the same amount as a small house. - That added up to $500,000 in legal fees, including a forensic accountant to untie the knot. Was it value for money? - That would be a big no, Mark. That would be a no in` in blazing lights, underlined. We went to mediation, which costs a lot of money. I think it was about $40,000 or $50,000 for one day, and there was no outcome that was reached. - Working a little bit more, but right now, I do do a bit. - Bridgette Jackson didn't get mad. - So, talking of priorities, what is your top priority as a couple? - She didn't even get even. - Well, I thought, 'There's got to be a better and a more positive way to do it.' - But is there a better way? - I love making people feel good, you know? It's not about what they look like, it's about how they feel when they leave. (WISTFUL POP MUSIC) - Legally, you can't get divorced without a lawyer. - I felt, like, under a lot of pressure. - When the lawyers got involved in Jamie Chilcott's divorce, it all felt frighteningly real. - It turned it into a business transaction, for sure, that took away the bond, the relationship or whatever you associate with a marriage or a partnership. - What would you say to people who say the only people making money out of divorce are lawyers? - Well, I'd say, 'Bollocks,' actually. - Divorce lawyer Lady Deborah Chambers KC. - They married them, they shagged them, they had their babies. I didn't. (LAUGHS) You know? They didn't do their due diligence, not me, so it's their problem. All I can do is try and fix it as much as I can. - Bridgette Jackson's own divorce was expensive and messy. - So what did you really like about him? You know, like, in the first sort of 30 seconds. - CHUCKLES: I'm being interviewed. (BOTH LAUGH) - After five years of hard slog and paying lawyers' fees... - Looking down. - How do you deal with conflict? - ...it was time for a complete makeover. - Well, I thought, 'There's got to be a better and a more positive way to do it, because it was actually turning into being like a job for me. - So Bridgette took her reluctant passion... - Oh, yeah. Absolutely. - ...and turned it into her profession, becoming a divorce coach. - He is going to be the initiator of the separation. - OK. - Um... she is blindsided about it, really. - Got no idea it's coming? - No. Thinks that everything's OK in the relationship. - You know, my passion and my why and purpose for life is really to help other people go through this process and avoid absolutely what I've been through. - Divorce coaching is a relatively new phenomenon. Essentially, it's someone who shepherds you through each stage of an uncoupling... - Is he just in that angry space and fearful state at the moment? - He's very, very quick to anger. I think anything she does absolutely triggers him. - ...standing by you from the point you decide to separate till when you're ready to see the lawyers. (RING CLINKS) - Preparing them to have the conversation with the children, working through their financials so they're prepared to go to the lawyer, how to tell family and friends, communication coaching between each other to improve their communication. Trauma coaching with our` with our trauma coach. Neutral statements ` so, 'we' rather than 'I'` - Yeah. - ...because the last thing you want` cos that's going to escalate the conflict, if it's 'you did this to me, and you did that to me' with his anger issues still there, obviously` - (CHUCKLES) If that's going to happen, then she's definitely gonna want to pull out his eyelashes. You know what I mean. - That's right` Pull out his eyelashes? (OTHERS LAUGH) - I know that one. (LAUGHTER) - No eyelash-pulling allowed. Let's avoid that. - You've walked in these shoes. - They're not mediators or psychologists, and they're not lawyers. - If they were giving legal advice, I'd be a bit nervous of that, cos they're not trained. They can't certify relationship property agreements and they can't appear in court. - Does what you do cross over into a lawyer's territory? - No. Absolutely not. Our role is pretty much holding people's hand, helping them make the best decisions that they can make, avoiding the mistakes and the pitfalls that so many people make through this process. - Bridgette got her qualification by paying $10,000 for five months of online study on an American website ` certifieddivorcecoach.com. Can you trust accreditation that comes off the internet? - Well, it says it's certified, and it's, um... so it's got certification. - How rigorous is it? I didn't find it too bad, but it is` it is rather rigorous, yeah. - When I found the course, I thought, 'Wow, what an amazing thing,' and I had no idea that there was such a thing as a divorce coach. - New Zealand's first certified divorce coach was Kimberlee Sweeney. Just how great is demand for your services at the moment? - It definitely grew with the lockdowns. You know, once people were at home, their families all together for 24-7, it started to kind of highlight people's problems. - Kimberlee's story is similar to Bridgette's ` her own divorce led to her wanting to help others through theirs. - After even just one session with the coaching, they're leaving feeling like they've got a plan, and they've got hope that they can survive it and do well coming out the other side of it. - And Kimberlee's also a trained beauty therapist. - Your skin's going to feel quite tingly. - Both businesses are run out of her suburban Auckland salon. - You don't need to use your spot gel. You know the ice stick? - Yes. - Don't use anything too strong. - It gives Kimberlee a unique insight into the human psyche. You know, in their mannerisms or behaviours, whether it's the stress that is appearing on their skin... You know? Sometimes people, when they're going through big changes emotionally in life, their skin changes, and so I can pick it just from that. - We had a look at your website, and a one-off divorce coaching session with you was $240. Now, that's about the same price as a customised facial peel with you. - CHUCKLES: Yeah. - Which one should I choose? - Have the peel. (LAUGHS) - (LAUGHS) I don't know how to take that. (BOTH LAUGH) - You'll look good and you'll feel better. I'm sure your marriage is fine anyway. - This sort of emotional connection is where the coaches believe they differ from the divorce lawyers. - I don't really want to be dealing with the emotional issues of 'Oh my God, I'm finding it really hard, I'm lonely, I'm miserable at night, da-da da-da-da,' because that's not my area of expertise. And you're better to pay me for my area of expertise. - Your lawyer is not there to listen to you cry for $500 an hour. Do that work with somebody like myself, and then maximise your time and money with your lawyer. (CHILLED ELECTRONIC MUSIC) - Divorce coaching snuggles warmly into the holistic hug of the wellness industry. Bridgette Jackson's office sits next to a masseuse, a private gym and a Buddha in a garden. It's no coincidence your office is in a wellness centre, is there? - Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Your health and wellness gets battered. Black-and-blue, actually. So a big piece for us is about that self-care, because you lose yourself when you're in a relationship that's not serving you well. You lose your identity. You lose your purpose. You have to really find yourself again. - Part of finding yourself involves writing a script with a divorce coach. - You have an opportunity to present an opening statement. - They've got to write it. It's not our story, it's not our life ` it's theirs. And we have a look at it and we talk it through, and we even sometimes role-play. - In Frankie's case, it was working out with Lisa, a coach from Bridgette's team, what she wanted to say to her ex-husband during mediation. - I want to express how I want him to be fair with me` - Yeah. - ...and not be threatening at all. - She needed to take the heat out of a bruising two-year separation battle she'd already spent $100,000 on. - Our kids that we both love equally, and how important they are to me, to both of us, and how anything that's been created over the years of us being together is half-half. (CHILLED ELECTRONIC MUSIC) - So when Frankie faced her ex, she spoke about the good parts of the life they'd shared. - I just felt like it sort of opened his heart a bit. - By the end of the mediation, the marriage was officially over. - Lisa had said, 'What's your lowest that you'll take, your medium and your highest?' And on the day, I got my highest, and I wasn't expecting that. So it worked out well. - 'For better, for worse...' Does being a divorce coach make you cynical about marriage? - Absolutely not. (MENDELSSOHN'S 'WEDDING MARCH') - ...for richer, for poorer... - I do still believe in marriage. Maybe a little bit cynical, but I'm trying to change. (LAUGHS) - You still believe in love? - I do. I do, I do. - ...in sickness... and in health. - How do you recover from a divorce? - Time. Yeah. Time. - We're built for resilience. We're built not to kind of lie in the cave crying for two years cos we'd starve to death. We're built to get up and go, and that is what we do. We're very good at it, you know ` through death and divorce and tragedies, we get up and go. - Well, the new government will have plenty of work to do in this area ` the Law Commission has more than 140 recommendations for changing the act relating to divorce. They include speeding up the process and whether the family home should automatically be split 50-50 after three years together. E whai ake nei ` how did a diabetes treatment become a weight-loss wonder drug? - I think I feel really afraid for what is happening to medicine. - Your first thought about it? - Dangerous. But at the same time, how do you get your hands on it? (LAUGHS) - And were those caught up in the hype aware of the risks? - If I knew that could happen, she wouldn't have been taking it. - Hoki mai ano. Want to lose a few kilos? Well, the weight-loss market is only too happy to help. It's worth a staggering half a trillion dollars. The hottest ticket right now is Ozempic. Originally a diabetes treatment, its popularity exploded when users noticed a dramatic side-effect ` weight loss. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood got in on the action and the drug's buzz exploded. But experts are warning that in the wrong hands, Ozempic could be dangerous ` even, as Dimity Clancey reports, deadly. (MELANCHOLY GUITAR MUSIC) - DIMITY CLANCEY: The silence Roy Webster wakes up to each day is a deafening reminder of everything he's lost. Trish, the love of his life. - I don't sleep in the bed. You know, like... (SNIFFLES) I sleep in the lounge, you know, for the last 10 months. - Now he says he owes it to his wife to find out the truth of what caused her sudden and horrific death. - (SNIFFLES) I couldn't` I couldn't save her, you know? That's the hard part, trying` you know, when you're trying to save` save your loved one. You know, it's hard. - Trish was 56 when she died in January. But she might still be here if she hadn't decided to lose weight for her daughter's wedding. She thought the so-called wonder drug Ozempic was the answer, but instead it made her so sick Roy says it killed her. - If I knew that could happen, she wouldn't have been taking it. I would have made sure she wasn't going to take it. But I never knew that could happen to a person. - Who is it that you're most angry at? - The doctors. The doctors who prescribed it. (TENSE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) - For the last two years, Ozempic has created a fat-burning revolution... - WOMAN: If you ever want to drop 5 pounds, this is good. - WOMAN 2: People are doing Ozempic parties here in LA. - ...thanks largely to Hollywood celebrities. - When I look around this room, I can't help but wonder, is Ozempic right for me? (LAUGHTER) - And not surprisingly, online, business is booming. - So you're seeing, like, near 20% weight loss at 12 months, which is` you put that into numbers, and you see a 140kg person losing 28kg ` that's really changing their life. - Tonight ` the other side of Ozempic ` the risks, the illnesses, and the push to stop the drug landing in the wrong hands. - I think I feel really afraid for what is happening to medicine. I feel really afraid at the loss of regulation over medications that can be risky. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) - Did you ever get sick of working with each other? - No. No. - (CHUCKLES) Living, working together? - No, she was just like a boss, she was. You know, like` - (LAUGHS) - She was my best friend. Loved her. Loved her a lot. (MELANCHOLY MUSIC) - Trish, like a lot of people, worried about her weight. She tried all the regular things ` the gym, diet... and then came across Ozempic, a diabetes drug with an attractive side effect of significant weight loss. How did Trish get Ozempic? - She saw it on, um... on TV. - (INHALES DEEPLY) She got the, um... she got a prescription from a doctor. The doctor said, oh yeah, he thought it was a good idea for weight loss. - Did Trish have diabetes? - No, she didn't have diabetes. No. - Despite the Therapeutic Goods Administration advising against it, doctors are prescribing Ozempic for weight loss. In five months, Trish lost 16 kilos, taking Ozempic and weight-loss drug Saxenda. But Roy says the side effects made her constantly ill. - She went back a couple times to the doctor saying she was sick, and she had diarrhoea and nausea. - Why didn't she just stop taking it if it was making her so sick? - My daughter was getting married, and she just kept mentioning that dress that she wanted to wear. You know? And so she went to the drastic measures of doing what she was doing. Just one big nightmare, you know, from there. - Roy says Trish believed the nausea and vomiting would pass like it had before, but on January 16th this year, something went seriously wrong. - She had a little bit of brown stuff coming out of her mouth, and I realised she wasn't breathing. And I started doing CPR. It was just pouring out. And I` I, um... I turned her to the side, trying to get it out, you know, cos she couldn't breathe. (MELANCHOLY PIANO MUSIC) - Trish died that night. Her death certificate states the cause was an acute gastrointestinal illness. While it doesn't draw any direct link to the weight-loss medication, Roy believes the drugs contributed to his wife's death. - You know, I never thought you can die from it. It was just, um... It was just awful. And so` I didn't even know that could happen to a person. - The manufacturers of Ozempic and Mounjaro, the diabetes drug popular for aiding in weight loss, are facing a lawsuit regarding alleged side effects. (ECHOES) - Two recent deaths in the US have prompted the Food and Drug Administration to change the product information for Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs. It now includes warnings for ileus, a severe gastrointestinal illness. The manufacturer of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, wouldn't speak to us, and wouldn't discuss the recent reports of severe gastrointestinal side effects. But in this statement, the company concedes the recurring stomach complication ileus was only reported in what it calls its post-marketing setting. Curiously, that seems to mean it only became aware of the problem after the drug was released and it turned into a pharmaceutical blockbuster. (CAUTIOUS ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) - It's a tragic outcome, and I think this is one of the risks when we're rolling out these medications, that, yeah, if there are clinicians that don't know a lot about these medications, but they're being asked to prescribe them by people that have heard about them on social media ` that's where the risks come in, because you're not actually adequately counselling someone. - Endocrinologist Dr Kathryn Williams says there is growing evidence that the active ingredient in drugs like Ozempic can cause digestive complications. - The relative risk is significantly elevated with these medications. However, the absolute risk of something like that happening is very, very low. But you can't take any drug without knowing that there could be serious risks. - I know we can't directly relate the death, but when your death certificate says that you died of acute gastrointestinal illness, does that worry you? - Course it does. Yeah. When we prescribe them, we warn people. So if I say to someone, 'Yes, it might be that you do vomit once or twice, 'but if you're having recurrent vomiting, 'you need to let me know and you need to stop the medications.' - So how does Ozempic work? When we eat, our body produces hormones to aid digestion. One of them is called GLP-1, which tells us when we're full. Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, is designed to mimic the GLP-1 hormone. In the stomach, it slows your digestion so you stay fuller for longer, while in the brain, it suppresses hunger cravings, which helps manage blood sugar levels for diabetics. But it also means you eat less and lose weight. What do you think of the Hollywood celebrity image that's emerged with something like Ozempic? - Yeah, I think it's really disappointing, because it's distracted from the real conversation. So it means that patients like mine won't get access to these therapies ` one, because they're now in limited supply, and two, because these drugs are now being seen as a cosmetic intervention, when in actual fact, they can have real impact in disease and in people's lives that really need them. - Dr Kathryn Williams works on the front line of the obesity epidemic. - Obesity is a disease that makes people really sick. It gives them disability and it can kill them, so I think we need to label it what it is and treat it properly. - So telling someone to eat well and exercise is not the answer to you. - For the people I see, it would have very little impact. So lifestyle might get 5% weight off ` with these medications, we're looking at another 5% to 10% to 15%, and that can make real differences in people's disease. - In the right hands, prescribed by the right doctor, Kathryn believes weight-loss injections could be lifesaving, and people like Andrew couldn't agree more. - All right, Andrew, shall we do your blood pressure? You don't need to move your sleeve. - He's one of Dr Williams' patients, who lost 20 kilos taking part in a trial for a drug similar to Ozempic. - Well, thanks. Yeah, going well. I was over 200 kilos at my highest weight. - When you would look at yourself, what would you see? - It's hard to even look at yourself at that size. And, you know, disappointment, sadness that you can't change. I think for people living with severe obesity, it's important to have access to pharmacotherapy. That option is very important for people who are really big, who have all these comorbidities, having their heart issues, their breathing issues, diabetes... you know, mobility issues. (URGENT STRING MUSIC) - But for every person who really needs Ozempic, there are many more freely accessing the drug for cosmetic weight loss. - And of course, where there's demand, there's a lot of money to be made. E haere ake nei ` where does that leave patient safety? - Is it money over morals for you? - I think that's, like, extremely unfair. - I think it's really risky, and I don't think there are enough safeguards to protect people. - It's just not` not worth it. No, it's not worth it at all. (MELLOW MUSIC) - Venture capitalist Tim Doyle is changing the future of healthcare, and business for the 33-year-old is good ` very good. So, Tim, this is how the young guns do it, hey? - CHUCKLES: I guess so. - Four years after launching his online telehealth company, Juniper, he's got 400 staff and is the single biggest provider of Ozempic in the world. How much money have you made? - I think we would be doing approximately just over $150 million a year of revenue at the moment, so it's been quick. - Almost as quick as Juniper can deliver weight-loss drugs like Ozempic to your door. What's the concept? - Patients sign up, they do a significant kind of screening quiz, then they talk to a doctor on the phone. The doctor talks to them about treatment options. If they're appropriate, they'll be prescribed a medication. We then facilitate, through partner pharmacies, the delivery of that medication, and then they start a programme. - Juniper's weight-loss programme starts with 50 questions ` from your basic details to your known medical history ` no reports or evidence required. It then moves on to your weight-loss goals, before you're asked to pay $285 on the promise you'll be refunded if the GP rejects your application. While you wait for a call from the doctor, Juniper asks you to upload photos. - The best GP appointments will be very similar to what we'll be able to provide online, in the sense that we'll provide detailed diagnostics, we'll talk to the patient about their history, we'll try and get to the bottom of their problem. - But that GP has never laid eyes on the patient. - No, they haven't laid eyes on the patient, but I think they have very deeply interacted with their medical information and they've seen photos` I guess they have laid eyes on them in the sense that they have seen photos of the patient. - I could upload any photo. - Yeah, there's an ID verification piece to it as well, so we match people's ID to their Medicare card number, and so we have the combination of that and the screening quiz and the photos, so I think it's reasonably robust in terms of figuring out who people are. - How can you identify what somebody looks like from a Medicare card, though? - Oh no, you're not looking at that` That's of course not the` It's the address that they've put in, the name that they've put in which matches to the Medicare card, and then it's the photos. - But how do you know that the photos I've put up are actually me? - Uh... because we've matched your name and details. I guess it's hard to know exactly. And so if patients are` If the doctor is unsure, then they'll talk to them on the phone and figure that out. - And how do you also verify that what I'm telling you in my application in those 50 questions is the truth? - Yeah, that's on the doctors, right? That's` Like, that's how telehealth works. It's on the doctors to have a discussion with patients and figure out their history, their details. (URGENT STRING MUSIC) - Sam, when did you first notice Ozempic? - Probably pop culture. I think that there was all of these celebrities that had been supposedly using it. - Your first thought about it? - Dangerous. But at the same time, how do you get your hands on it? (LAUGHS) (MOODY MUSIC) - For someone like Sam, weight-loss injections could be a deadly temptation. He's been living with anorexia nervosa for three years. Because so much of an eating disorder is impulsive, you're reacting to a trigger or a feeling, and you sort of reach for what's there, what you know will work. - It's like it fast-tracks an eating disorder. - It does. Yeah. It's... it's a bullet train to the grave. - Sam's deeply concerned by how accessible Ozempic is and how dangerous it could be for people like him. - If it's just over the phone and it's a couple of minutes of a conversation, then it's limitless as to how you could portray your current needs, why you want to use it, and the effect that it will or won't have for you. The doctor says no, you'll go to the next doctor. I'm able to actually articulate how I feel. - Luckily, he has his psychiatrist, Professor Elizabeth Scott, to provide a safety barrier. - This is almost our 10-year anniversary, we've worked out. - Yeah. - Every week, I have somebody request a script for Ozempic, but in some cases, they are for people with` I know who have disordered eating, who are not overweight, who really want to use the drug to lose weight or keep their weight down, and that is not appropriate. - Professor Scott worries online providers like Juniper make it too easy for patients to lie and access Ozempic when they shouldn't. - I think it's really risky, and I don't think there are enough safeguards to protect people. It's easy to get a drug by falsifying your information, and it's easy for people on the other side to not be accountable for the medications they're prescribing. - Regulators say easy access to Ozempic is seeing it land in the hands of people who don't need it, contributing to the global shortage of the drug. But Tim Doyle sees no problem in what his multi-million dollar company is doing. - Doctors are free to prescribe how they choose. Off-label prescribing is not not allowed. Patients and doctors can kind of proceed with that if that's what's required. - Is it money over morals for you? - I think that's, like, extremely unfair. - Is it ethical, though? - I think it is ethical, yeah. - Yeah. I think, like, ultimately, helping patients with their weight-loss journeys and helping them avoid chronic diseases is an important job. - I think I feel really afraid for what is happening to medicine. I feel really afraid at the loss of regulation over medications that can be risky, and I think we need to really rein that back so that we have appropriate safeguards in place to protect people. (MELANCHOLY GUITAR MUSIC) - You will always hold the highest place in my heart (VOICE BREAKS) until we meet again in heaven. I love you, Mum. - Trish Webster's daughter, Melissa, is now preparing to get married without her mum. - We have a tough road ahead without you, but we hope you are guiding us every step of the way. - Roy wants a coronial inquest to investigate his wife's death, and hopes his warning about the dangers of weight-loss injections will save others before it's too late. - She shouldn't be gone, you know? I don't think she should be gone. She didn't deserve that. It's a dangerous drug. It's just not` not worth it. No, it's not worth it at all. - Well, here in New Zealand, Ozempic was approved earlier this year by Medsafe as a prescription treatment for type 2 diabetes, but it's not yet available for use, and that'll be its only approved use here. Ozempic won't be available to anyone looking to lose weight for cosmetic reasons. E whai ake nei ` how do you keep going when your whole world is gone? (MAN SPEAKS ARABIC) - Remarkable courage in the face of overwhelming anguish. - MAN: OK, we're going to get her back. We're going to get her back. We're going to get` (INHALES SHARPLY) We're going to get them all back. - Nau mai ano. It's now more than a month since a Hamas attack on Israel sparked a brutal and bloody war in Gaza. The sheer magnitude of the destruction ` lives lost, houses destroyed and people displaced ` is hard to comprehend. But tonight, the voices of those in Israel and in Gaza who have lost loved ones, who pray for the return of hostages, and others still who refuse to leave their homes in the face of the horrors of war, and then, the call for peace in a region torn apart. (TENSE MUSIC) (SIRENS HOWL) (EXPLOSION) - WOMAN: I don't think that we can solve this problem in a military way. It's all the time ` escalate. They bomb us, we bomb them, and every time it's worse. I don't want revenge. Hurting the civilians in Gaza won't help to bring my mum back, and I don't think that it can help us in any way. (PEOPLE SHOUT IN ARABIC) (MAN SPEAKS ARABIC) - (SPEAKS ARABIC) - (SPEAKS HEBREW) (EXPLOSION) - This is a picture of my daughter, Emily. I was told that she was found dead, but in actual fact, it was a mistake. She wasn't found dead. So... now I know she's in Gaza and she's alive. She's going to be 9 in the tunnels, which will be a lovely birthday party for her. Because we know she's alive, you have to completely switch your head around, 180 degrees, and think, 'OK, we're going to get her back. We're going to get her back.' We're going to get` (INHALES SHARPLY) We're going to get them all back. (PEOPLE SPEAK ARABIC) - For seven days, I cried for my parents, but since then, I'm crying for all the innocent human beings that are sacrificing their life now. We must stop with sacrificing human beings to justify anger or need for revenge. (MACHINE-GUN FIRE ECHOES) - The Hamas digged a grave for the state of Israel, and if we'll continue the war, I'm afraid we are just getting deeper and deeper into this grave, so we must stop the war, and humanitarian ceasefire for both sides. (POIGNANT MUSIC) - Well, an independent poll this week here in Aotearoa saw 60% of respondents supporting an immediate ceasefire. Our caretaker government has called for a pause in the conflict to protect lives, but stopped short of advocating for a complete ceasefire. Well, that's our show for tonight ` share your thoughts on social media, and if you have a story you think we should investigate, contact us at sunday@tvnz.co.nz and you can find our stories, entire shows and a bunch of extra content on the Sunday page at TVNZ+. Thanks for joining us. Nga mihi nui. Hei kona.