Oprah Winfrey opened up about the moment she found out she had been accused of sex trafficking.
Winfrey wrote about the moment in a column for The Oprah Magazine published Wednesday.
“Imagine sitting cozily in bed, propped up on your favorite pillows, 240 pages into a riveting family saga — when you get a phone call telling you you’re trending on Twitter,” Winfrey wrote. “And you discover it’s a bogus and vile story that you were arrested and your home was raided for sex trafficking and child pornography. I can’t and don’t want to imagine an uglier accusation.”
“I’m in my bed in my PJs and socks, and somehow #OprahArrested is a thing,” she added. “My worst fear realized. Being slandered, accused of a crime I didn’t commit.”
Winfrey immediately took to Twitter to refute the claim that she had been arrested for sex trafficking. (RELATED: Oprah Forced To Address False Rumors That She’s Been Arrested For Sex Trafficking)
Just got a phone call that my name is trending. And being trolled for some awful FAKE thing. It’s NOT TRUE. Haven’t been raided, or arrested. Just sanitizing and self distancing with the rest of the world. Stay safe everybody.????????
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) March 18, 2020
“Just got a phone call that my name is trending,” Winfrey tweeted at the time. “And being trolled for some awful FAKE thing. It’s NOT TRUE. Haven’t been raided, or arrested. Just sanitizing and self distancing with the rest of the world. Stay safe everybody.”
The TV personality claimed she has anxiety about false accusations from her childhood.
“And yet when a false rumor — or a vile, disgusting attack — is contrived and amplified through social media, I’m still hit with the same anxiety I felt as a child prolonging the walk to find a switch for my grandmother to lash me with,” she wrote.