Already have an account?
Get back to the

Awkward!Oprah Winfrey Reveals Joan Rivers Once Criticized Her for Gaining Weight on ‘The Tonight Show’

Poor Oprah Winfrey!

In an excerpt from her new cookbook, Food, Health and Happiness, the 62-year-old star revealed the late Joan Rivers once called her out for her recent weight gain during a 1985 appearance on The Tonight Show.

oprah winfrey joan rivers getty images

Oprah with Joan on The Tonight Show in 1986. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

“It was all going smoothly; I was starting to settle in. And then it happened: Joan interrupted with perhaps the only question I hadn’t prepared for: ‘So how’d you gain the weight?'” Oprah wrote in the excerpt, published on her website on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

MUST SEE: A Look Back at Oprah’s Most Memorable Guest Stars — See Where They Are Now!

“Wait a minute — did she just use my national television debut to ask me why I was so fat? The studio started spinning. The word fat… fat… faaaaatttttt reverberated in my brain,” she continued.

“Joan sat behind [Johnny Carson]’s big wooden desk, telling me that she didn’t want to hear my excuses and that I shouldn’t have let this happen. The audience laughed nervously as she wagged her flawlessly manicured finger at me, pointed out that I was still ‘a single girl,’ and challenged me to come back 15 pounds lighter next time she hosted. And the whole time I just sat there smiling breezily, wanting nothing more than to crawl under my chair,” Oprah recalled.

Click through the gallery below to see more celebrities who’ve gone through weight loss transformations!