Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels: Where Does Their Friendship Stand Today?
A major life event made it clear just how far Bob and Jillian’s relationship actually went.
Published Aug. 15 2025, 1:39 p.m. ET
The NBC hit TV series The Biggest Loser received renewed attention in August 2025, despite having been off the air since 2016, after Netflix announced it was taking a deep dive into the obsessive yet controversial weight-loss reality show in a new documentary.
Naturally, this renewed focus also spotlighted the show’s trainers, Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, who pushed contestants (sometimes too far) to shed as much weight as possible.
Bob served as a trainer for all 17 seasons, while Jillian appeared sporadically through Season 15.
From their time on the show and in the years that followed, both trainers faced criticism for their tough approaches, especially Jillian, who even went as far as giving contestants caffeine pills.
Despite this, they maintained a close working relationship for several years, leading many to believe they were friends, and possibly still are. Here’s the truth about their relationship.
Are Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels friends?
Surprisingly, no, Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, who both served as trainers on The Biggest Loser, were “not besties” and still aren’t close, as he explained during his August 2025 interview with The Guardian.
“We weren’t besties, but we were partners on a television show for a very long time,” he said.
It seems the only thing keeping them together was The Biggest Loser, because after the show, Jillian went back to living her life, and Bob went back to his.
What really highlights the gap between Jillian and Bob is what happened in 2017, when he suffered a “widowmaker” heart attack at the age of 51, prompted by an “undiagnosed genetic issue,” according to The Guardian.
The medical emergency left him “dead on the floor of his gym for nine minutes.”
Thankfully, a doctor happened to be present and performed CPR, giving him just enough time to reach a local hospital. Had the physician not been there, “I wouldn’t be here,” Bob revealed.
Obviously, the heart attack was a major life event and one that likely changed how Bob now sees the world.
He admitted, “It f--ed me up,” reflecting on the shock of going from a middle-aged man who was fit and healthy to someone who “couldn’t walk around a city block.”
Bob Harper isn’t friends with Jillian Michaels, but the show helped him form other unexpected friendships.
Friendship may not have been in the cards for Bob and Jillian, but The Biggest Loser did connect him with several people, some of whom he formed lasting bonds with.
Season 11’s Olivia Ward is one of them. Bob played a major role in helping her shed weight, and he made such a lasting impact that she later named her child Harper after him.
“I was really touched by that,” Bob told The Guardian, adding that they have remained friends.
In fact, she was even slated to fly in for his birthday around the time of the interview. While there are plenty of people from the show who didn’t like Bob, and still don’t, there are also others he has grown quite close to.