Oprah Winfrey has reflected on an encounter with Joan Rivers on 'The Tonight Show', where the host commented on her weight, leaving Winfrey feeling deeply ashamed.
Winfrey, who believed her weight was a factor in losing a role in 'The Color Purple', recounted on The Jamie Kern Lima Podcast how she appeared on 'The Tonight Show' in 1985 to discuss her show 'A.M. Chicago'. Instead of focusing on her program, the conversation shifted to Winfrey’s size, as reported by People.com.
“Joan Rivers turns to me and says, ‘Tell me, why are you so fat?’” Winfrey recalled.
“On national television, I didn’t know what to do with that. I just said, ‘Oh, I just love potato chips, Joan',” she added.
Winfrey shared that Rivers, who passed away in 2014, responded with, “Shame on you.”
Winfrey said: “I agreed with Joan Rivers, who told me, ‘I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 lbs. You need to lose 15 lbs (6 kg).’”
“She said to me on national television,” Winfrey continued.
“And I accepted it. I accepted that I should be shamed, because how dare I be sitting up here on The Tonight Show.”
Winfrey explained that she and Rivers “agreed that I was going to go away and lose 15 lbs. And of course, I didn’t lose the 15 lbs. I went and ate my way to another 10 lbs (4 kg).”
She then revealed that she attended a “health retreat,” which was termed a “fat farm” at the time, in an effort to shed weight.
Winfrey then shared that she was grappling with the realization that her weight may have cost her a role in the 1985 film 'The Color Purple'. However, her perspective shifted after receiving a transformative phone call.
The call came from producer Steven Spielberg, who remarked, “I hear you’re at a fat farm.”
“‘You lose a pound,’ he told her, ‘you could lose this part.’”
Winfrey described the phone call as a pivotal moment because she had to finally relinquish her attachment to the role.
“The instant I let it go was the greatest life lesson I have ever received because I physically felt the release,” said Winfrey.
“The second I did that, it changed,” she said. Winfrey later secured the role of Sofia in the same film, which earned her an Academy Award nomination.
“That became my grounding teaching for the rest of my life and career. Do everything you can, work as hard as you can, and then let it go.”
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