Oprah Winfrey: Harvey Weinstein is a bully

8 March 2018

Oprah Winfrey has dubbed Harvey Weinstein as a "bully".

Oprah Winfrey

The 64-year-old media proprietor has admitted that whilst she would consider herself to have been "friendly" with the now-disgraced producer - who has been accused of sexually harassing a number of women - for a period in the past, she always knew he was a "bully".

Speaking during an appearance on the inaugural episode of Gwyneth Paltrow's 'The Goop' podcast, she said: "What I knew was Harvey was a bully. Was I friendly with Harvey? Yes, I was friendly with Harvey."

Although she claims she knew of Weinstein's brutish persona, the 'A Wrinkle In Time' star maintained her stance in insisting that she was completely unaware of the 65-year-old producer's alleged misconduct.

However, Oprah then told Gwyneth - who has herself accused Weinstein of sexual harassment - that Weinstein allegedly used to try to pressure her to book the stars of his films on her hit talk show, 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' which ran from 1986 to 2011.

'Iron Man' actress Gwyneth alleged last year that Weinstein harassed her during the filming of 1994 movie 'Emma', and the producer recently hit back at her claims in a response to a class action lawsuit, in which he claimed the star wasn't "offended" by anything that happened whilst they worked on the movie, as she returned to star in 'Shakespeare in Love' - which was produced by Weinstein - in 1998, for which she won an Oscar.

The documents read: "The specific facts alleged call into question the veracity of the general allegations that putative class members were under duress. For example, Gwyneth Paltrow was allegedly harassed during the filming of 'Emma' in 1994, which allegedly caused her to fear the prospect of being fired.

"Yet, Paltrow went on to star in another Weinstein production - 'Shakespeare In Love' - for which she won an Academy Award in 1998. Paltrow was not so offended that she refused to work with Weinstein again, nor did her career suffer as a result of her rebuffing his alleged advances."