Oprah Winfrey is speaking out against the story published by tabloid The National Enquirer about her alleged "secret son." The media mogul set the record straight and explained that the whole story was a setup, "Entertainment Tonight" reported.
Earlier this week, The National Enquirer ran a report that claimed Winfrey, 61, had an "awkward" run-in with a man claiming to be her long-lost son as she was leaving a taping of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," according to the New York Daily News. Winfrey said she quickly realized the chance meeting was staged by the Enquirer and she went on record to explain the truth.
"He never was my son, he was a child I befriended," Winfrey told "Entertainment Tonight" via telephone. "I moved his entire family out of the projects, got his mother a job. I tried, put him in two different schools, he refused, and I said 'I'm now done.'"
The man who claimed to be Winfrey's son is 35-year-old Calvin Mitchell and met Winfrey when he was 16 years old, according to People. Mitchell lived in the Chicago housing project building where Winfrey filmed her 1993 film "There Are No Children Here."
Winfrey clarified what happened during the Oct. 15 encounter with Mitchell outside of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City.
"Actually as I left, because he was looking so forlorn, I said to somebody on my team 'will somebody get Calvin's number?' so that I could contact him later," Winfrey said. "I didn't realize the whole thing was a setup. And then when I found out that whole thing was a setup, I was no longer interested in speaking to him."
Watch Winfrey's full interview below.
