Oprah Winfrey says she's sorry handbag story 'got blown up'

1/14

When Oprah Winfrey launched her OWN network on New Year’s Day 2011, more than 1 million viewers tuned in. But the audience quickly became bored after finding few shows that featured Winfrey. These days, on an average night, OWN draws 329,000 viewers, according to ratings firm Nielsen -- roughly a 10th of the audience of a popular cable show like A&E¿s ¿Duck Dynasty.¿ (Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)

2/14

Winfrey has had a long, public battle with her weight. Perhaps the most famous of her weight-loss stories happened in a 1988 episode of her talk show when she famously wore a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein Jeans -- her smallest size in years -- while wheeling a wagon loaded with animal fat to represent the 67 pounds she had lost on a liquid protein diet.

Winfrey, who is no longer a size 10, has since called this episode her “biggest, fattest” mistake. She also told Barbara Walters in a 2010 TV special that “I think I did myself a great disservice focusing so much on the external body features ... What I’ve learned is that overeating for me is about being out of balance and being disconnected and using that as a comfort for the stress.” (Charles Bennett / Associated Press)

3/14

Before the sex abuse charges, the notoriously private King of Pop opened Neverland ranch to Winfrey for a rare live interview that included talks about his shaky relationship with his father, how Jackson felt that he missed out on his childhood, the plastic surgery claims and even about his increasingly lightening skin.

One of the few things Jackson did seem to be mum about was sex. He refused to give a straight answer when Winfrey asked if he was a virgin. “I’m a gentleman,” he told Winfrey, adding that this matter was something private that he didn’t want to discuss publicly.

Photo: Michael Jackson at the 1993 Grammy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

4/14

Oprah’s discussion of mad cow disease with animal welfare activist Howard Lyman led to Winfrey giving up hamburgers, but it also led to a whopping food libel lawsuit from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. in 1998. The trial was held in Amarillo, Texas, forcing Winfrey to record several shows from the Lone Star state so she could be present. The jury ruled in Winfrey’s favor, but legal maneuverings and litigation lingered until 2002, when a judge decisively found Winfrey and her production company free of any wrongdoing.

Photo: Winfrey exits the courthouse after the verdict in February 1998. (LM Otero / Associated Press)

5/14

When Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet in 1997, she turned to Oprah -- in real life and on her own hit sitcom. After telling the world “Yep, I’m gay” in a Time magazine interview, she followed up with a trip to “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to discuss her personal life for the first time. Shortly after, DeGeneres’ character on “Ellen” (pictured) became the first gay lead character on prime time when she came out to a therapist on the show -- played by none other than Winfrey. (Mike Ansell / Associated Press)

6/14

In 1995, Oprah hired former psychologist Phil McGraw’s consulting firm to help her navigate the Texas beef trial. After her victory, Oprah invited the straight-talking “Dr. Phil” on her show in 1998, effectively launching the mustachioed self-help mogul’s television career. He soon became a weekly guest, appearing Tuesdays as a “relationship and life strategy expert” to offer advice on parenting, weight loss, financial planning and romance. In 2002, Dr. Phil graduated to his own show, produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Studios.

Photo: Oprah helps shave Dr. Phil’s trademark mustache during a live taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on May 7, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press)

7/14

In September 2004, Winfrey proved she really was the hostess with the mostest when she gave 276 audience members a brand! new! car! to celebrate the premiere of her show’s 19th season. Winfrey screamed and jumped up and down on the stage, shouting: “Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!” then led her audience to the parking lot to see the fleet of cars: a $28,400 fully loaded Pontiac G6, donated by the carmaker. Recipients had been pre-selected because friends had told the show they needed some wheels.

She started the giveaways in 1994, when she took her 131-member studio audience to Philadelphia on a day’s notice to climb the famous “Rocky” steps, visit the Liberty Bell and eat as many Philly cheesesteaks as possible. The generous host would later go on to gift trips to Disney World, college scholarships, homes for Katrina victims, 2012 VW Beetles and an eight-day trip to Australia in September 2010 to her most loyal viewers. (Bob Davis / Associated Press)

8/14

Whenever Tracey Gold would sit down with Oprah, it was bound to be memorable. Gold, pictured here in early May 2011, first went on the show as the 16-year-old star of “Growing Pains,” and the actress was in the midst of a coming-of-age battle herself. At the time, Gold was starving herself and battling anorexia. When Gold returned to Oprah in 2002, her life was also in the midst of turmoil, as her son had nearly drowned in a her pool.

Yet it was her 2005 visit that brought forth some real grown-up demons. Gold went on “The Oprah Winfrew Show” to discuss her late 2004 arrest for driving under the influence, after an accident in which she drove her SUV off a freeway and injured her husband and two of her three children. It was an emotional show. “You know, a DUI is not the worst thing,” Gold said during the episode. “Hurting somebody you love is the worst thing.” (Andy Kropa / Getty Images)

9/14

Heaven help the person who makes Oprah Winfrey look the fool.

In 2005, Winfrey deemed author James Frey‘s drug addiction memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” worthy of her book club -- an honor with benefits akin to that of a winning slot machine. Too bad it was revealed in 2006 that “memoir” is not the most accurate word to describe Frey’s book.

After the fallout, Winfrey invited Frey on her show and lashed into him by asking questions like “How much of the book is fabricated?,” “Why did you lie?” and if Frey felt as if he conned his readers as she picked apart sections of his book. Frey admitted to embellishing some of the incidents in his book. (George Burns / Associated Press)

10/14

Australian author Rhonda Byrne’s self-help book “The Secret” was published at the end of 2006, but it wasn’t until Oprah had the woman on two episodes of her show that the book, its philosophy and its DVD predecessor became a media sensation. “The Secret” espouses the power of positive thinking, and Winfrey’s endorsement of it raised the eyebrows of critics who lamented that she was using her vast influence to peddle something many considered to be a lot of hokum. (Stephen Chernin / AP)

11/14

In 2008, Oprah introduced the world to the first pregnant man. In his TV interview, Thomas Beatie, right, revealed he used to be a woman. Despite going through sexual reassignment (he’s legally considered a man), he was able to keep his ovaries and uterus intact. The married father, who now has three little ones, chose to carry the babies because his wife Nancy, left, is unable to have children. (Hermann J. Knippertz / Associated Press)

12/14

Former “One Day at a Time” actress Mackenzie Phillips shocked national audiences in September 2009 when she revealed to Oprah that she had a decade-long sexual relationship with her father John Phillips. The actress, who was promoting her tell-all book “High on Arrival,” returned for a second satellite appearance on the show later that week with half-sister Chynna Phillips. Mackenzie also revealed that it was her father, the beloved Mamas and Papas singer, who first gave her intravenous drugs.

Winfrey read comments on the show made by Michelle Phillips, John Phillips’ former wife and a member of the Mamas and the Papas, that denied her claims about the relationship, but Mackenzie stood her ground with Oprah.

“When Michelle found out I was writing the book, she vowed to do everything she could to discredit me.... She’s either protecting the Mamas and Papas brand or is having a textbook reaction: She’s embarrassed, sweep it under the carpet, protect the abuser,” Phillips told Winfrey. (Chris Pizello / Associated Press; Angela Weiss / Getty Images)

13/14

Oprah invited the Black Eyed Peas to perform at her Season 24 kickoff party on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, but they had more than just a song and dance in store. When BEP started to sing “I’ve Got a Feeling,” the crowd of about 20,000 transformed into a flash mob, and the scene stunned the queen of surprises. She cried out, “That is the coolest thing ever!” as the tune ended. (Kiichiro Sato / Associated Press)

14/14

Sarah Ferguson opened up to Oprah about the reasons she betrayed the royal family when she offered a News of the World reporter access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew in exchange for money. She and the Duke of York had divorced in 1996, and she was estranged from the royal family. In that time she accumulated debt and had “been in the gutter at the moment.” Winfrey also got her to admit to drinking and having an eating disorder, and to watch the video footage that caught Fergie in the act after she admitted that she had never watched it in its entirety.

Fergie made another appearance on Oprah’s show, pictured here, to promote her reality series “Finding Sarah,” which will air on OWN. She also spoke out about her snub from Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s royal wedding and announced that her daughter Princess Beatrice would auction her memorable wedding hat for charity. (George Burns / Associated Press)

By Nardine Saad

Aug. 13, 2013 2:19 PM PT

Oprah Winfrey is apologizing for the media maelstrom that followed the experience with racism she said she went through in Switzerland.

The media maven, 59, addressed the recent incident Monday at the Los Angeles premiere for Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” a film in which she makes her first big-screen appearance in 15 years.

First, some background: The TV queen had been refused the opportunity to look at a $38,000 Tom Ford handbag at Zurich’s tony Trois Pommes store while she was shopping on her own in the Swiss city. Winfrey said the saleswoman, who didn’t recognize her, told her the Jennifer bag was “too expensive” for her. After failing to persuade the saleswoman to bring her the bag, Winfrey said, she left the boutique without making a big deal about how she was treated.

LOOK BACK: 25 great ‘Oprah’ moments

Winfrey brought up the incident when she was asked about racism during an Entertainment Tonight interview, though she refused to mention the name of the shop.

“There’s two different ways to handle it,” Winfrey said in the interview. “I could’ve had the whole blow-up thing and thrown down the black card and all that stuff. But why do that? Clearly, [racism] still exists, of course it does.”

But the media being what it is, all the pertinent details got out. (Because nobody tussles with Oprah and gets away with it.)

The Swiss Tourism Office has since issued an apology for the mishap. But the shop claimed the whole thing was “a misunderstanding” that had nothing to do with racism and resulted in their shop girl being unfairly attacked. The saleswoman also called Winfrey “a liar,” according to German newspaper Sontaggs Blick (via the Daily Mail).

At “The Butler” premiere, she responded.

“I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland,” she told the Associated Press and CNN. “I’m really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store.

“I’m sorry that I said it was Switzerland. I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don’t expect that you would be able to be there.”

Winfrey had previously said that there had been no need for an apology from the shop.

“It’s not an indictment against the country or even that store,” she said. “It was just one person who didn’t want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag. So no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland. If somebody makes a mistake in the United States, do we apologize in front of the whole country? No!”

ALSO:

See ‘Avengers’ star Tom Hiddleston sing ‘Bare Necessities’ at D23

Mayim Bialik explains why she’s blogging Jewish aspects of divorce

Jennifer Aniston hosts Justin Theroux’s birthday bash, not wedding

Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.