Oprah Explains Her Decision To Leave ’60 Minutes’, The Negotiation Advice She Gave Gayle King & If She’s Spoken To Michael Jackson’s Family Since ‘Finding Neverland’ 

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Explains Her Decision To Leave ’60 Minutes’, The Advice She Gave Gayle King On Negotiating Her New Contract & If She’s Spoken To Michael Jackson’s Family Since ‘Finding Neverland’

Media icon Oprah Winfrey is opening up about her controversial involvement in the HBO special “After Neverland”; her bestie Gayle King‘s booming business; and why she threw up the deuces to her “60 Minutes’ gig. Unfortunately, she has no plans on running for president in 2020, but she talked about how she’s filtering through the current candidates. She even dished some advice that the Cosby family gave her almost 30 years ago! Check it out below.

How she feels about her HBO special, “After Neverland,” and the backlash that followed it:

“Oh, the hateration? Honey, I haven’t had that much hateration since “The Puppy Episode” with Ellen!…I didn’t even have to be in it. I didn’t have to take on all that. I said to myself the other day, ‘Why did I do that?’…This is what happened. I saw it, and I was shaken by it. I wasn’t even shaken by the fact that it was Michael Jackson, I was shaken by the fact that Dan Reed had done a really good job of showing the pattern, and for years, I had been trying to show people the pattern…I really wanted to talk to not just the guys but other people who were seeing it because I knew that people were going to be triggered by it. I knew that there would be people who would be re-traumatized by it and would see themselves in it, and I thought, ‘I can help thread the needle of what is actually happening here.'”

Has she spoken with the Jackson family since “After Neverland” aired?

“(Shakes head no.) Because for me it wasn’t even about Michael Jackson. It was about the bigger issue.”

On who she’s voting for in the 2020 Presidential Election:

“Right now, I’m studying the field. I’m reading Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg. So I’m reading about him. I have Kamala‘s book. I just got the Vanity Fair piece on Beto O’Rourke. I’d done some research background stuff on him before. I already know Cory Booker. So I’m quietly figuring out where I’m going to use my voice in support.”

Oprah reveals she recently quit her job with “60 Minutes” because they wanted her to change to fit their format:

“I’m no longer doing that. I’ve removed myself from that, so I have only 85 jobs now…it was not the best format for me. How should I say this? Never a good thing when I have to practice saying my name and have to be told that I have too much emotion in my name…I think I did seven takes on just my name because it was ‘too emotional.’ I go, ‘Is the too much emotion in the ‘Oprah’ part or the ‘Winfrey’ part?’ I had a deja vu moment because I’ve actually lived through this once before when I covered a story as a young reporter [where] the family had lost their home and my boss told me that I reported it with too much emotion. I had too much emotion in the story. But the same thing is true even with a read [at 60 Minutes]. They would say, ‘All right, you need to flatten out your voice, there’s too much emotion in your voice.’ So I was working on pulling myself down and flattening out my personality — which, for me, is actually not such a good thing.”

On how she’s used being “the token black girl” to her advantage:

“For so many years, there wasn’t a brown person or another female in a 50-mile radius. I just sort of got used to it…It’s hard to be heard when there’s only one. I remember people in college who were not my friends — would say, ‘Oh, you’re a token,’ and I’d say, ‘Yes, but I’m a paid token and I’m going to use it.’ It actually strengthened my resolve. Any time I’ve been in a situation where I felt marginalized or someone else was marginalized, I’ve used that information as what not to do. For example, when the Oprah show first went national, I went to the management at WLS-TV — I won’t name names — and I said, ‘Everybody needs more money in this national show.’ They said, direct quote, ‘Why do they need more money? They’re a bunch of girls.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s a bunch of girls who are now doing a national show.’…I had a big dinner and my idea of being creative was to have $10,000 rolled up in toilet paper rolls at the dinner as gifts because I couldn’t get management to pay them. Then I went to management and said, ‘If you don’t pay them, I’m not going to work.'”

Oprah and Gayle King

The advice she gave Gayle King on her CBS News negotiations:

“I said, ‘Get what you want. Get exactly what you want because now’s the time. And if you don’t get what you want, then make the next right move.’ Even without me, she was going to do that. But that was my advice, and I actually called up her lawyer, Allen Grubman, and I said, ‘Allen, she should get what she wants.’ And Allen goes, ‘What the F do you think I’m doing here? I said the same thing to her!’ The negotiation was already happening before her R. Kelly interview.”

Oprah tells the story of her last time flying commercial, and how Bill Cosby influenced her to buy her own plane:

“I was going to an award ceremony for Aretha Franklin, and I was in the airport and I was leaned over like this [puts her head between her knees] and a woman came up to me and said, ‘You’re not acting like you do on TV.’ And I go, ‘I’m just here.’ And she says, ‘Oh, I see you. Trying to be incognito.’ And I say, ‘No, ma’am.’ She says, ‘Cause on TV you always giving people hugs. I want a hug.’ So I stood up and I gave her a hug and then I went to the phone and called my lawyer and I said, ‘I’m going to do it, I’m going to get the plane. This is going to be my last time waiting four hours in the Chicago O’Hare Airport.’…And nobody likes to mention this name now, but I had multiple conversations with Bill Cosby about getting a plane. I was trying to justify it, like, ‘OK, if I put 10 people on the plane, that would’ve been how many airfares would I have to pay for?’ And he said, ‘You’ll never be able to justify it because it’s a true luxury. You can make a decision that you’re going to take the leap and do it or not, but you’ll never be able to justify the expense.’ Which is true. [So, I took a] leap of faith and I wrote that first check — because I can’t stand bills — for my first G4 for the full $25 million. I remember I had seen Camille Cosby at Teterboro when I was chartering a plane and trying to justify it. Someone said, ‘Oh, Mrs. Cosby is over there, would you like to say hello?’ So I get on Mrs. Cosby’s plane and Mrs. Cosby is on the plane with a pair of overalls and diamond stud earrings and she’s on her way somewhere to work on her doctorate and I said, ‘Where is everybody?’ And she said, ‘There’s only me.’ I said, ‘You’re going to use this whole plane?’ And she said, ‘I’m worth it.’ Just like that. And I went, ‘Well, if she’s worth it, maybe I’m worth it.'”

Written by Miata Shanay