Oprah Winfrey has always kept it real when it comes to her health, particularly in terms of her weight - and now she's getting candid about a time where a fellow star made comments about her body on television that may surprise fans.
Reflecting on her first ever appearance on The Tonight Show, Oprah opened up about comments from the late Joan Rivers, who was guest hosting, about her weight.
© NBC"Joan Rivers turns to be and she says: 'Tell me, why are you so fat?" Oprah said on The Jamie Kern Lima podcast, adding: "On national television, and I don't know what to do with that."
"I just said, like, 'Oh, I just love potato chips, Joan'", Oprah explained, while Joan told her: "shame on you." The comedian, who passed away in 2014, then said: "I'll let you come back if you lose 15 lbs. You need to lose 15 lbs.
© NBCWhile many people may have been shocked by the personal comments from Joan, Oprah had a different perspective: "I agreed with Joan Rivers."
"She says to me on national television, and I accept it. I accept that I should be shamed, because how dare me, be sitting up here on The Tonight Show", Oprah continued.
© Archive PhotosWhile she agreed with Joan that she would "go away and lose 15 lbs", Oprah explained that wasn't what happened: "I didn't lose the 15 lbs. I went and age my way to another 10 lbs."
It wasn't long before her 1986 Tonight Show appearance that Oprah had gone to a "health retreat", which "at the time, they called them fat farms", in order to lose weight, as she believed it had cost her a role in The Color Purple - which she accepted.
But she received a phone call that changed everything from producer Steven Spielberg. He said: "I hear you're at a fat farm,", adding: "You lose a pound, you could lose this part."
Oprah went on to win an Academy Award for her role as Sofia in the 1985 film.
© Kevin WinterAs a former board member for WeightWatchers, the 70-year-old has long spoken about her struggles with weight loss. But this year, she exited the board after trying a weight loss drug.
"I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing", she said in an interview with People, adding: "The fact that there's a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier in my lifetime feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for."
"I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."
