Oprah Winfrey opens about Joan Rivers body shaming her on The Tonight Show

Oprah Winfrey reflects on her first appearance on The Tonight Show and how Joan Rivers’ remarks about her weight made her feel embarrassed and ashamed.

Winfrey, who thought she had lost a role in “The Color Purple” because of her weight, shared on The Jamie Kern Lima podcast that she was on The Tonight Show in 1985 to talk about how her show, A.M. Chicago, was outperforming Phil Donahue's in ratings.

However, the discussion shifted to focus on Winfrey’s weight.

“Joan Rivers turns to me and she says ‘Tell me why are you so fat?’ ” Winfrey, 70, told Lima, the author of the bestselling book Worthy and the founder of IT Cosmetics.

“On national television,” Winfrey stressed, adding, “and I don’t know what do with that.”

“I just did, like, ’Oh, I just love potato chips, Joan.’ ”

Winfrey went on to say that Rivers, who passed away in 2014, told her, "shame on you."

At the time, Winfrey says, “I agreed with Joan Rivers,” who she says told her, ‘ “I’ll let you come back if you lose 15 lbs. You need to lose 15 lbs.’ “

“She says to me on national television,” Winfrey continued. “And I accept it. I accept that I should be shamed, because how dare me, be sitting up here on The Tonight Show.”

Winfrey mentioned that she and Rivers had agreed she would lose 15 pounds, but instead, she ended up gaining another 10 pounds due to eating more.

Winfrey revealed that she went to a health retreat, which was referred to as a "fat farm" back then, to try and lose weight.