No evidence Oprah helped Harvey Weinstein abuse women

No evidence Oprah helped Harvey Weinstein abuse women

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The claim: Oprah Winfrey // pimped young girls for Harvey Weinstein

Following Oprah Winfrey’s subsequent interview with Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry, social media was flooded with mentions of all three public figures.

One March 9 viral post on Facebook – repeating an allegation similar to others who went viral earlier – features an image of Oprah sitting with singer Rita Ora, and Harvey Weinstein visible in the upper left corner.

The photo was taken during a Weinstein venture in 2014, according to a reverse image search. Ora tweeted some photos from the 2014 event after Winfrey’s speech on the Time’s Up movement at the 2018 Golden Globes.

The caption to the Facebook post reads: “I think now is a great time to remind everyone that Oprah Winfrey has been pimping young Hollywood girls to Harvey Weinstein for years to be raped.”

USA TODAY released the poster for comment.

Fact check: Meghan and Harry were not paid for their Oprah interview

No evidence that Winfrey Weinstein helped abuse women

Winfrey has been caught up in various conspiracy theories over the past few years, and social media users have falsely claimed that she and Ellen DeGeneres were under house arrest for sex trafficking or that she was listed in Jeffrey Epstein’s flight books.

Reports of decades of abuse and harassment by Weinstein appeared in October 2017. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Following the reports, Winfrey and other celebrities spoke out condemning Weinstein’s individual actions, as well as the systems that enabled him to continue patterns of abuse.

“I processed the reports of Harvey Weinstein’s horrific behavior and could not find the words to articulate the extent of the situation,” Oprah apparently wrote on Facebook.

‘The filmmaker James Schamus captured so much of what I felt when he said,’ This is the story of one predator and his many victims; but it is also a story about an overwhelming systemic activation, and until the story is fully told, we will fall far short of stopping future depressions on a similar scale, ‘she wrote according to People Magazine.

Furthermore, Oprah was not involved in any of the 87 reports of sexual abuse or harassment by Weinstein.

Our rating: false

The claim is FALSE, based on our research. There is no evidence to support the allegation that Oprah Winfrey was involved in any of the abuse or harassment by Harvey Weinstein.

Our sources for fact checking:

  • USA TODAY, March 7, ‘I did not want to live anymore’: Duchess Meghan opens in an Oprah interview, more important moments
  • The Guardian, February 17, 2014, Baftas 2014: after parties – in photos
  • Rita Ora, January 8, 2018, tweet
  • The Washington Post on YouTube, January 8, 2018, Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globes Speech, Annotated
  • USA TODAY, June 18, 2020, Fact Check: Ellen, Oprah, many others are not under house arrest for sex trafficking in children
  • USA TODAY, July 30, 2020, Fact Check: Several celebrities are falsely linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s flight books
  • The New York Times, October 5, 2017, Harvey Weinstein Charged Sexual Harassment for Decades
  • USA TODAY, Access to March 18, HARVEY WEINSTEIN Timeline of Hollywood Success and Hidden Abuse
  • USA TODAY, February 23, Harvey Weinstein has been behind bars for a year: What has changed?
  • People, October 13, 2017, Oprah Winfrey Can’t ‘Find the Words to Express the Scope’ of Harvey Weinstein’s Hideous Behavior
  • USA TODAY, October 27, 2017, Harvey Weinstein scandal: a complete list of the 87 accused

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