Apparently, the relationship between Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey is really over — the fat lady is singing. In a new book titled The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House, by former New York Times Magazine Editor Edward Klein, Winfrey is frequently quoted making disparaging remarks about Ms. Obama.
According to the book, the relationship between the two was chummy until Barack Obama was elected. Once the election was over, Winfrey was reduced to asking Jeff Stephens for approval of the questions she would ask Obama. Winfrey’s endorsement was an important one in 2008, but once Obama entered the White House, Mrs. Obama sent Winfrey packing while her husband remained close to her. Obama would routinely call Winfrey for advice about how to retain his popularity while his wife fumed that those questions should have gone to her. In addition, Mrs. Obama stated that Winfrey was using the White House connection to bolster her ratings.
Much of the vitriol between the two revolved around Winfrey’s less-than- svelte figure. Winfrey claimed that Mrs. Obama rejected an invitation to discuss childhood obesity on her TV show because “Michelle hates fat people and doesn’t want me waddling around the White House!”
Klein writes that Ms. Obama remarked to her staff, “Oprah, with her yo-yo dieting and huge girth, is a terrible role model. Kids will look at Oprah, who’s rich and famous and huge, and figure it’s OK to be fat.”
In the most damning allegation, Klein writes that Mrs. Obama thinks Oprah encouraged Hillary Clinton to run against President Obama for the nomination in 2012.
Sources near Oprah say that Mrs. Obama is a very jealous woman and doesn’t trust her husband. Sources near Mrs. Obama claim that Winfrey had plans to redecorate the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House.
Apparently, the reason Ms. Obama appeared on Winfrey’s show in May, 2011 is that Obama asked his wife to make peace.
Too little, too late. The fat lady has sung.