Winfrey reveals she hadn't received this much backlash since appearing on Ellen's coming out episode.
Oprah Winfrey says she has "never wavered" in her support of HBO's controversial "Leaving Neverland" documentary.
Appearing on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" on Wednesday night, Winfrey was asked about hosting an interview special with Michael Jackson molestation accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck following the doc.
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View Story"I haven't had that much hateration since I did 'The Puppy Episode' with Ellen," said Winfrey, referring to the episode of Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom where she came out as gay. Recalling the reaction to that 1997 watershed episode, Oprah added, "We had to take people off the switchboards there was so much hateration."
"But when I saw that documentary, I realized that a lot of people are going to be triggered by watching it, and a lot of people will not understand what the pattern is," Winfrey continued, before referring to her own talk show. "I had done 217 shows trying to get people to understand that it's not about one person, that it is about the pattern. It is about the seduction."
"People call it molestation, but there is a big seducing that goes on and the pattern of that seducing and that was important enough for me to take the hateration for," Winfrey then explained to Noah.
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View StoryTrevor Noah then asked if she ever wavered in her support, especially after the timeline of events in the documentary was questioned.
"I never wavered. You know why I have not wavered? I've had girls at my school that were sexually abused and I have never won a case and the reason I have never won a case is because when you put a girl on the witness stand and she can't remember if it was Thursday or Wednesday, it's automatically discredited," Oprah said. "When you're in the midst of trauma, terrible things happening to you, you may not remember the exact time."
Later in the interview, Oprah was once again asked about whether she'd ever run for president, something she was adamant we don't want to see happen. She added even BFF Gayle King pushed for her to run for office.
"I said, you don't want that to happen because I have such a beautiful life," she told Noah. "I know my path and my path isn't that. Whenever I decide who I want to support, I will get behind that person."
She also added that her one regret about leaving her talk show behind was that she didn't have her audience around during the 2016 election.
"I thought for sure, speaking to the audience everyday ... I would not have been surprised by the election or anything because I would have been talking to people from all states," she said. "It would have been my direct connection, so that's what I missed."