00:00And if we make this just about Harvey Weinstein, then we will have lost this moment.
00:06Oprah Winfrey opened up for the first time publicly about the past two weeks' worth of
00:10sexual harassment and assault claims against Harvey Weinstein during her Wednesday appearance
00:14on CBS This Morning. Winfrey starred in the Weinstein Company film lead Daniels, the butler.
00:19When asked about the movie mogul, Winfrey said,
00:30Winfrey believes the Weinstein scandal has triggered the suffering women have endured
00:37and kept hidden for an extensive amount of time.
00:39What I do believe is actually happening is that, first of all, it's triggering a lot of unreleased pain,
00:44repressed anger, guilt and suffering that a lot of women have had, Winfrey explained.
00:49If we make this just about Harvey Weinstein, then we will have lost this moment, Winfrey said.
00:53She added,
01:00but who felt that in order to keep my job, to keep my position, in order to keep moving forward,
01:04I've got to smile, I've got to look the other way, I've got to pretend he didn't say that,
01:08he didn't touch me.
01:09I think those days are about to be over.
01:13Having publicly addressed her story of sexual abuse before, Winfrey believes the more women speak out,
01:18the less fear they'll have over breaking their silence.
01:20A lot of women have been silenced, and I know, being a victim of child sexual abuse,
01:25that when you feel like you cannot be heard and then other people start speaking out,
01:28it makes you feel like, oh, now I can speak out too.
01:32Winfrey originally addressed the Weinstein scandal in a statement posted on her Facebook page,
01:36which read,
01:36Filmmaker James Shamus captured so much of what I've been feeling when he said,
01:41This is the story of one predator and his many victims,
01:44but it is also a story about an overwhelming systemic enabling,
01:47and until that story is fully told, we will fall far short of stopping future depredations on a similar scale.
01:53Thanks to the brave voices we've heard this week, many more will now be emboldened to come forward
01:58every time this happens. I believe a shift is coming.
02:02To watch the full clip of Oprah Winfrey talking about Harvey Weinstein on CBS This Morning,
02:06head to THR.com.
02:08For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
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