Even Oprah sometimes gets it wrong.
On Friday's show the daytime diva apologized to actress Robin Givens, ex wife of former professional puncher Mike Tyson and spokeswoman for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Winfrey admitted that she should've handled a recent interview with Tyson much differently—better. During her sit down with the former heavy weight champ Winfrey asked how he felt about Givens' protrayal of their marriage—"He shakes. He pushes. He swings."— in the now infamous 1989 Barbara Walters' interview. Here's where things got a little too hilarious for a serious situation:
OPRAH: Were you surprised that she was saying those things?
MIKE: Yeah. I truly wanted to sock her. You know? At that particular moment, I truly wanted to sock her. But I just didn't do it. I was young at that time. I was just really… (LAUGHTER)
OPRAH: Did you sock her afterwards?
MIKE: No, not afterwards. I didn't sock her. I wanted to sock her. I have socked her before. And she socked me before as well. But it was just that kind of relationship, you know?
After watching the show and hearing the studio audience laugh (nervously, wholeheartedly or whatever) Givens wrote a letter to Oprah to saying how dissappointed she was, Oprah's people clearly brought it to her attention (it's not like she reads her email and stuff) and Oprah admitted on-air that she wasn't too happy with her response to sock-gate either.
"In that moment, I will tell you, I felt that I should have said something. I felt that I should have said, 'Audience, that isn't funny' or, 'Audience, this is really serious,'" she said this Friday. "So I regretted even in that moment." Winfrey went on to say that she should have "gone further" and clarified that socking, a euphemism for violent physical abuse if there every was one, is just plain ole wrong.
"So, I apologize," said Winfrey, "to you and to every woman who has ever been in that situation."
—HELENA "That isn't funny" ANDREWS
Helena Andrews is a contributing editor at The Root and author of Bitch Is the New Black, a memoir in essays. Follow her on Twitter.