Model and actress Cindy Crawford claims Oprah Winfrey made her feel like “chattel” in 1986, when she was 20 years old, in a newly released documentary.
In the first episode of the new AppleTV+ docuseries The Super Models, Crawford discussed her very first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986, claiming she was treated like “chattel” or like a piece of property, according to a report by Entertainment Tonight.
In the 1986 footage, Winfrey asked Crawford to “stand up [for] just a moment” onstage, then asked Elite Model Management founder John Casablancas, “Did she always have this body?”
“Now this is what I call a body,” Winfrey then said to her studio audience.
Crawford reacted to that moment in 1986, saying in the documentary, “I was like the chattel or a child, be seen and not heard.”
While the Fair Game star says she “didn’t recognize this” in the moment, she had a different reaction “watching it back” years later.
“When you look at it through today’s eyes, Oprah’s like, ‘Stand up and show me your body. Show us why you’re worthy of being here.’ In the moment I didn’t recognize it, and watching it back I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. That was so not okay, really.’ Especially from Oprah,” she said.
CBS News journalist Gayle King, a close friend of Winfrey’s, reacted to Crawford’s claim, telling Entertainment Tonight that while she has yet to see the 1986 footage, she had “heard about it” and is “a little disappointed.”
“I haven’t seen it, and I want to see it, but I’m surprised and a little disappointed,” King said. “I know Cindy’s been on her show many, many, many times and it has always been a pleasant experience, [so] I would hate to think that something that happened years ago [could have bothered her].”
“It’s not Oprah’s thing to humiliate or make anybody feel badly,” the CBS This Morning co-host continued. “I have to see it, but, as far as I know, everything is good between Oprah and Cindy.”
Winfrey has yet to address Crawford’s claim that she had been objectified by her.
In addition to Crawford, the docuseries also features candid interviews with Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington. All four of the models reunited on the Vogue World runway last month and were on the cover of the magazine’s September issue.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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