Oprah Opens Up About Being Body-Shamed by Joan Rivers on National Television

Oprah recalled the moment when she was body-shamed by Joan Rivers on national television during a recent episode on The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast.

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The mogul said the late Joan Rivers made the body shaming comments during her first appearance on The Tonight Show in 1985. “Joan Rivers turns to me and says, ‘Tell me, why are you so fat?’ … on national television,” Oprah explained. “I didn’t know what to do with that. I just replied, ‘Well, I just love potato chips, Joan.’ But she insisted, ‘No seriously! Shame on you! Shame on you! Oprah added that Rivers told her she could only return to the show if she lost weight.

“‘I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 pounds. You need to lose 15 pounds,’ she said to me on national television,” she continued. “And I accepted it. I thought I should be shamed for being overweight and agreed to try and lose the weight.” Despite her initial decision to lose weight, Oprah admitted she didn’t follow through, TOO FAB reported.

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During that time, Oprah auditioned for the 1985 film “The Color Purple” but assumed she didn’t get the part because of her weight. She decided to go to a health retreat known as a “fat farm.” While staying at the retreat, she said she accepted that she might not get the role until receiving an unexpected call from the film’s director, Steven Spielberg.

“It was Steven Spielberg saying, ‘I hear you’re at a fat farm. If you lose a pound, you could lose this part.’ The fact that it happened the moment I let go was the greatest life lesson I ever received. I physically felt the release, and I saw that the second I stopped resisting, the second I stopped wondering, the second I stopped putting myself in the fear space and said, ‘It is well. Use me how you choose to use me,’ everything changed,”

She later received an Oscar nomination for her role as Sofia in the film and isn’t a stranger to opening up about her weight loss journey. In February, Oprah stepped down from the Weight Watchers board of directors, disclosing her use of weight-loss medication.

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