Oprah Winfrey recalls being body shamed by Joan Rivers on The Tonight Show: ‘I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 pounds’

Oprah Winfrey recalls the moment she was criticized by the late Joan Rivers during her first appearance on The Tonight Show in 1985.

The 70-year-old talk show host recalled being interviewed by Rivers and shared her reaction when she was challenged about her weight during her appearance on the program. The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcasting.

“I was disgraced by Joan Rivers on The Tonight Show. I had my first appearance on The Tonight Show,” she shared.

“Joan Rivers turns to me and says, ‘Tell me, why are you so fat?’ … on national television,” continued Oprah — who has admitted to using diet pills.

“And I don’t know what to do with that. I just think, ‘Well, I just like chips, Joan.'” She [goes]”No, really! Shame! Shame!”

The media mogul then said that Rivers told her she could return to the late night show if she lost weight.

“‘I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 pounds. You have to lose 15 pounds,’ she says to me on national television.”

“And I accepted. I accept that I should be embarrassed, because how dare I, sitting here on The Tonight Show.”

Oprah said she “agreed to lose 15 pounds,” but instead gained weight.

“Of course I didn’t lose 15 pounds. I ate my way down to 10 pounds,” she said.

Oprah said she had previously auditioned for 1985’s The Color Purple but hadn’t heard back. She assumed she didn’t get the part because she was “overweight.”

She then decided to go to a “health retreat” to lose weight, which she explained “back then they called ‘fat farms.'”

Winfrey says she tried to accept that her weight had cost her the role and that she gave up her dream of starring in the film.

But then she got a call from The Color Purple producer, Steven Spielberg.

‘I cried and prayed some more, and just as I felt the release… a woman runs out and says, “There’s a phone call for you.” The phone call from Steven Spielberg saying, “I hear you’re at a fat farm. If you lose a pound, you can lose this part.”‘

“The fact that it happened at the moment I knew I was going to let it go was the best life lesson I ever learned.”

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

Winfrey eventually landed the role of Sofia in The Color Purple and was later nominated for an Oscar for her role.

In May, Oprah apologized for her role in promoting toxic diet culture, months after finally admitting that she had used diet pills to lose more than 40 pounds.

The presenter spoke about her regrets discussing diets and body image in a three-hour Weight Watchers special.

She said, “I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture. Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years and online.

“I’ve made a huge contribution to it. I can’t tell you how many weight-loss and makeover shows I’ve done, and they’re a regular part of my work on television.”

In March, Oprah revealed that she starved herself on a liquid diet for “almost five months” in 1988, before quickly gaining the weight back after proclaiming her victory on television.

During an Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution, the star fought back tears as she explained that the medication allowed her to no longer “constantly think about what the next meal was going to be.”

She said that “making fun of my weight was a national sport for 25 years” and that she had “lost some weight” and “gained some weight” over the years, but that since she started taking medication she was no longer “obsessed” with food.

In addition to the online messages of support, some viewers also leveled fierce criticism at Oprah, accusing her of “promoting Big Pharma and pushing Ozempic” and criticizing her for taking the medication after promoting Weight Watchers for nine years.