‘I Got a Problem With Oprah Winfrey’

Mo’Nique has declared that she has “a problem” with Oprah Winfrey during an interview with Don Lemon.

Mo’Nique—real name Monique Angela Hicks—previously alleged that the entertainment titan blackballed her after she refused to hit the awards circuit for her Oscar-winning turn in the 2009 movie Precious for free.

Winfrey was an executive producer on the independent drama, which was directed by Lee Daniels and also starred Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton and Mariah Carey. Despite her refusal to campaign during awards season, Mo’Nique won a host of accolades for her performance—including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

During an appearance on Tuesday’s installment of The Don Lemon Show, Mo’Nique questioned Winfrey’s position in the Black community, saying: “When people ask me, ‘Mo’Nique, do you hate Oprah?’ No. I love Oprah Winfrey. I just want her a** to come back Black. Come back Black. You know what I mean by that.”

Mo’Nique’s husband and manager, Sidney Hicks, then proceeded to speak, before Lemon interjected: “I want to know what you mean by that.”

“Well, I’m only getting ready to say what [Hicks] was getting ready to say,” Mo’Nique responded. “There was a time Oprah Winfrey did an interview—not my words, hers—and she said, ‘I wanted to be white.’ Those were her words. ‘As a little girl, I wanted to be white.’ Well, when did you decide to be Black? When did that change?”

Addressing Lemon, Hicks said: “Tell me about the impassioned speeches that you’ve heard [Winfrey] give in reference to how Black women are treated in this industry. Can you name three of them?”

“Look I don’t know, and to be honest, I couldn’t give you an account,” Lemon responded, before Hicks continued: “What we’re saying is when [Mo’Nique] says return back to Black, it’s not for the purposes of being provocative. It’s for the purpose of that we look at things factually.

“We heard her go on Gayle King, CBS in the morning and speak on behalf of Harvey Weinstein. And I’ve not heard her speak on behalf of Mo’Nique when she told us privately, ‘It is your right not to promote something for people that you don’t owe anything to. And you not campaigning for an award, that’s noble.'”

Winfrey was one of a number of celebrities to publicly speak out against disgraced Hollywood producer Weinstein after his history of sexual misconduct came to light.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Winfrey via email for comment.

Returning to tackle Mo’Nique’s “Black” comment, Lemon said: “You’re not saying Oprah isn’t Black, because Oprah has done a lot for the Black community, I think. She did [the film] Selma, she did Beloved, she did The Color Purple recently.”

“Don, you can run the list down, I’m not gonna waver on my words,” Mo’Nique replied during the remote interview. “Black women will have these conversations privately about Oprah. They’ll sit around and talk about her. I’ve been there. I’ve heard the stories.”

“Everything I’m saying to you, I’ve said to Oprah Winfrey,” Mo’Nique continued. “Me and Oprah Winfrey had conversations face to face, and she had no words. She had no words for me, because what Oprah Winfrey is not used to is anybody saying anything to her, especially a Black woman.

“See, there are white women that have also had conversations with me about Oprah Winfrey. So I’m not saying these things to bash my sister, because she’s still my sister. But what I am saying is, Oprah come on back home. We got the light on for you. Come on back home.”

“I’m not saying she hasn’t, [but] I’ve never heard Oprah Winfrey talk about the inequality of Black women in Hollywood,” Mo’Nique added. “So when you get to running down these movies, baby that’s a payday. What does that mean?

“What are you really doing for Black women? And she could say, ‘I don’t have to do nothing. I don’t owe nobody nothing.’ You right, but damn if you don’t owe me an apology, because privately you told me I was right. Publicly you said nothing and you watched a Black woman—you watched me—get thrown under that bus.”

Mo’Nique then brought up how Winfrey hosted the comedian’s family on her now-defunct talk show back in 2010, shortly after her Oscar win. Mo’Nique’s eldest brother, Gerald Imes, confessed to molesting the star over the course of several years from when she was aged 7 and he was 13.

While Mo’Nique had publicly discussed the abuse, she told Winfrey that she did not want to be a part of the show when approached by the billionaire. She did, however, give her blessing for the interview. That sentiment changed when the episode aired, and Mo’Nique saw that her parents and another brother were included on the show.

Her sibling, Stephen Imes, told Winfrey on the show that the molestation Mo’Nique’s account “really isn’t what it looks like. It’s blown out of proportion.” Gerald Imes served 15 years in jail for a separate sex offense.

“She never told me my mother was gonna be there. She never told me my father was gonna be there,” Mo’Nique told Lemon of Winfrey. “I watched my mother sit there and be greedy. Oprah Winfrey never told me my mother was coming on that show, Don. Because had she said that, I would’ve said, ‘Stop it.’

“I told Oprah Winfrey, me and my mother were going through it. See, we had a conversation. This is the part that y’all don’t know. Me and Oprah Winfrey had a private conversation and we had an intimate conversation. And the things she told me about her family, her mom and dad, I’ll hold it to my heart. She might tell everybody, but that was our conversation.

“I told her what me and my mother were going through and we were in a bad place. And then you’re gonna have my mother on your show? Yeah, I got a problem with Oprah Winfrey. And you don’t wanna take no accountability? I got a problem with that.”