Oprah Winfrey is recollecting some hurtful memories engraved on her heart!
During an appearance on Jamie Kern Lima’s podcast, the Butler star recalled how the late comedian Joan Rivers fat-shamed her on the national television.
Winfrey opened up on how she was invited to Rivers’ The Tonight Show in 1985 for her A.M. Chicago’s huge popularity but soon shifted the focus on Winfrey’s size.
“Joan Rivers turns to me and she says ‘Tell me why are you so fat?’” recalled the mogul.
“On national television,” she stressed and continued adding, “and I don’t know what to do with that.”
The Me You Can’t See host replied, “I just did, like, ’Oh, I just love potato chips, Joan.’ “
And to her surprise, Rivers told her “Shame on you.”
The actress said that she agreed with Joan Rivers at the time who then told her “I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 lbs. You need to lose 15 lbs.”
Emphasizing that the late actress did that to her on national TV, Winfrey told that she accepted that she should be shamed because “how dare me, be sitting up here on The Tonight Show.”
The Tony-winner revealed going to a ‘fat farm’ in order to lose weight and while there, she got a call from The Color Purple’s director Steven Spielberg who warned her from losing weight.
Winfrey regarded it as a turning point for her as she realized to “let it go.”
“The second I did that it changed,” the actress noted.
