While promoting her film ‘The Butler,’ Oprah mentioned she was recently the victim of racism in Switzerland when a store clerk refused to allow her to handle a $38,000 handbag. Now she is backpedaling.
The alleged shopping experience occurred while she was in Europe to attend the wedding of Tina Turner, and in hindsight, she regrets the uproar now that the shop owner and the employee have come forward to protest the allegations.
During the L.A. premiere of ‘The Butler,’ Oprah said, “I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I’m really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I’m sorry that I said it was Switzerland.”
After leaking the story in an interview with Nancy O’Dell last week, O hit Twitter, “@NancyODell Turns out that store clerk did me a favor. Just found out that bag was $38K!!! She was right I was NOT going to buy it.”
Trudie Goetz, the owner of the Zurick luxury boutique Trois Pomme, attended the high profile Turner wedding and finds it interesting that Winfrey didn’t mention the situation to her while they were interacting socially.
The unnamed sales clerk has decided to defend herself publicly, too. She told SonntagsBlick, “This is not true. This is absurd. I would never say something like that to a customer. Really, never. Good manners and politeness are the Alpha and the Omega in this business.”
“It is absolutely not true that I declined to show her the bag on racist grounds. I even asked her if she wanted to look at the bag. I don’t know why someone as great as her must cannibalize me on TV.”
She acknowleded, “I spoke to Oprah Winfrey in English. My English is OK but not excellent, unfortunately. I didn’t know who she was when she came into the store. It wouldn’t have made any difference if I had.”
Some media outlets are suggesting that O embellished the story in order to help bring attention to the movie that hits theaters this week.
Check out what O had to say about the debacle:
Photo: WENN