Oprah Winfrey Reveals Russell Simmons ‘Attempted to Pressure Her’ to Back Out From #MeToo Documentary

Oprah Winfrey stepped down from the #MeToo documentary centered around Russell Simmons’ accusers. She was urged by 50 Cent and Simmons himself publicly to step away for the sake of the culture. But she reassures that her exit was on her own will although Simmons did “reach out multiple times and attempted to pressure me,” in a recent with the New York Times.

“I told him directly in a phone call that I will not be pressured either into, or out of, backing this film,” Winfrey said to the filmmakers on the On The Record series. “I am only going to do what I believe to be the right thing.” Ava DuVernay added, “She’s got Simmons on one side pressuring her, and then she’s got a film on the other side that she doesn’t agree with. So if she walks away from the film, she seems like she’s caving to Simmons, and if she stays with the film, then she’s putting her name on something that she feels doesn’t quite hit the mark.”

Oprah’s bestie, Gayle King, recently came forward and claimed Oprah wasn’t “muzzled” into dubbing the documentary. During On The Record Oprah Winfrey expressed that she didn’t feel the doc was ready to premiere at the Sundance film festival which is scheduled at the end of the month.

She claims she wanted to highlight the #MeToo survivors but the producers had other plans. Guess we’ll have to wait and see when it comes out.

The famed talk show host was accused of targeting Black sexual predators versus white sexual predators amid her interview with the Leaving Neverland participants.