Oprah Winfrey Recalls Being Body Shamed by Joan Rivers on The Tonight Show: 'Lose 15 Pounds' (Exclusive)

• Oprah Winfrey says it as a guest on Tonight’s show In 1985, then host Joan Rivers commented on her weight and told her to lose 15 kg.
• Winfrey shared on the podcast The Jamie Kern Lima Show that she agreed to go to a “fat farm” — a term at the time for a health or wellness retreat — and that Rivers’ comments reminded her, “I should be ashamed of myself.”
• Winfrey said the comments came at a time when she feared she had lost her role Purple because of its weight

Oprah Winfrey reflects on her first appearance on Tonight’s show — and how host Joan Rivers’ comments about her weight made her think, “I should be ashamed.”

Winfrey — who believed she had just lost her role in The Color Purple because of her weight — she shared in the podcast The Jamie Kern Lima Show on which she appeared Tonight’s show 1985 to discuss the success of her TV hit AM Chicago.

Instead, the conversation turned to Winfrey’s greatness.

“Joan Rivers turns to me and says ‘Tell me why are you so fat?’ “, said 70-year-old Winfrey Lima, author of the bestseller Worthy and founder of IT Cosmetics.

Oprah Winfrey appears on ‘The Jamie Kern Lima’ podcast.

Courtesy of The Jamie Kern Lima Show

“On national television,” Winfrey emphasized, adding, “and I don’t know what to do with that.”

“I just said, ‘Oh, I really like chips, Joan.’ ”

Winfrey continued, saying Rivers, who died in 2014, told her “shame on you.”

Winfrey then says she “agreed with Joan Rivers,” who recalls the host saying, “I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 pounds. You have to lose 15 pounds.’ ”

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“He tells me on national television,” Winfrey continued. “And I accept that. I accept that I should be ashamed, because how dare I sit up here Tonight’s show.”

Winfrey said she and Rivers “agreed that I would go and lose 15 pounds. And of course, I didn’t lose 15 pounds. I went and ate my way to 10 more pounds.”

Oprah Winfrey on her return to ‘The Tonight Show’ in 1986.

Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Winfrey said she went to “this health resort” — which she explained “at the time, they called them ‘fat farms'” to lose weight.

While there, Winfrey says she tried to accept that her weight cost her the role in Purple. When she finally gave up on the possibility of appearing in the film, she received a phone call that changed everything.

Oprah Winfrey says that participating in ‘diet culture’ is one of my biggest regrets

It was Purple’producer, Steven Spielberg, who told Winfrey, “‘I hear you’re on a fat farm.’ ”

“‘You lose half a kilo,’ he told her, ‘You could lose this part.’ ”

Winfrey says the phone call was a full-circle moment for her — because she finally “let go” of the role when she got the call.

Oprah Winfrey in ‘The Color Purple’.

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

“The moment I let it go was the biggest life lesson I’ve ever had, because I physically felt the release,” Winfrey said.

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“The second time I did it, it changed,” she said — and Winfrey, of course, landed the role of Sofia, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

“That became my foundational learning for the rest of my life and career,” she said. “Do your best, work as hard as you can, and then let it go.”

New episodes The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcasts are available on YouTube on Tuesdays.

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Source: HIS Education