Who backs it

Spanx

Shapewear and apparel brand she founded in 2000 in Atlanta.

3 profiled backers

The backers

Who invested in Spanx

Reese Witherspoon

Witherspoon's biggest bet is Hello Sunshine, the female-focused media company she co-founded in 2016 and sold a majority stake in during 2021 at roughly a $900 million valuation — one of the most successful celebrity-founder exits.

When: November 2021, joined as an investor when Blackstone bought a majority stake
Why: A female-founded consumer brand at scale, fitting her pattern of backing women-built businesses.
Status: Private; the deal valued Spanx at about $1.2B.

Forbes, 2021 ↗Blackstone press release, 2021 ↗Full Reese Witherspoon profile →

Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey invests like an operator, taking sizeable equity positions in consumer brands she personally uses and promotes, often joining the board rather than going through a fund.

When: November 2021, joined as an investor alongside Blackstone's majority purchase
Why: Backing a female-founded consumer brand at scale.
Status: Private; the deal valued Spanx at about $1.2B.

Fortune, 2021 ↗Blackstone press release, 2021 ↗Full Oprah Winfrey profile →

Sara Blakely

Built Spanx into a billion-dollar shapewear brand with no outside investors, then began angel investing selectively, mostly in women-led consumer and media startups.

When: Founder-owned. Started with $5,000 of her own savings and took no outside capital for 21 years. Sold a majority stake to Blackstone in a deal announced October 2021 that valued Spanx at $1.2 billion; she retained a minority stake and became executive chair. Neither the size of Blackstone's stake nor the price paid was disclosed.
Why: Her own product problem, solved by cutting the feet off a pair of pantyhose. She wrote her own patent application and never raised.
Status: Private, Blackstone-controlled. Spanx named Cricket Whitton CEO and Jeanne Jackson executive chair in February 2024; Blakely stays as founder rather than an operating executive. She gave every employee two first-class tickets anywhere in the world and $10,000 after the deal.

Retail Dive, 2021 ↗SGB Media, 2024 ↗Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2021 ↗Full Sara Blakely profile →

What the record doesn't say

Read this with the gaps in mind.

This page lists the celebrity backers of Spanx that we have been able to source, not its full cap table. Institutional investors, founders and private angels are outside what this site covers, and terms are rarely disclosed on either side.

Frequently asked questions

Which celebrities have invested in Spanx?

Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and Sara Blakely are the profiled backers of Spanx on this site. Each entry links to the reporting it comes from. Other investors — funds, founders and angels who are not public figures — are not covered here.

How much did they invest in Spanx?

Cheque sizes are almost never disclosed. Where a round size, stake or valuation has been reported we cite it above; where it has not, we say so rather than estimate.