Oprah Winfrey recalls being body-shamed by then-host Joan Rivers during her first appearance on The Tonight Show in 1985. During the segment, Joan's comments about Oprah's weight made her believe, "I should be shamed."
Oprah appeared on the The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast in July 2024, sharing that her appearance on the show where she was supposed to talk about the success of her hit TV show A.M. Chicago instead turned into a conversation about her weight.
"Joan Rivers turns to me and she says 'Tell me, why are you so fat?'" she recalled. "On national television," Oprah added, "and I don’t know what do with that. I just did, like, 'Oh, I just love potato chips, Joan.'"
Joan's response to the actress was a mere, "Shame on you." Oprah proceeded to share that she "agreed with Joan Rivers," when the host said, "I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 pounds. You need to lose 15 pounds."
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"She says to me on national television," Oprah added. "And I accept it. I accept that I should be shamed, because how dare me, be sitting up here on The Tonight Show."
Oprah said she and Joan "agreed that I was gonna go away and lose 15 pounds. And of course, I didn't lose the 15 pounds. I went and ate my way to another 10 pounds." She did, however, put effort in by going to a health retreat, which she said at the time were called "fat farms."
During that time, Oprah revealed that she tried to come to terms with the fact that her weight seemingly cost her a role in The Color Purple film. But then she received a phone call that changed her life.
On the other end of the line was the film's producer, Steven Spielberg. "I hear you're at a fat farm," he told Oprah. "You lose a pound, you could lose this part." Oprah called it a full-circle moment.
"The instant I let it go was the greatest life lesson I have ever received, because I physically felt the release," she said. "The second I did that it changed." Oprah played the role of Sofia in the film, which earned her an Academy Award nomination.
"That became my grounding teaching for the rest of my life and career," she shared. "Do everything you can, work as hard as you can, and then let it go."
