Oprah Winfrey is continuing to support HBO’s Leaving Neverland documentary despite recent reports that she has begun distancing herself from the film.
KYSDC reported Tuesday that Winfrey removed her After Neverland interview with Michael Jackson accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck from her YouTube channel. This was shortly after it was revealed that the timeline of alleged abuse Safechuck provided was inaccurate. The report also claimed HBO would quietly be removing the doc from the network and its streaming services.
According to Winfrey’s latest appearance on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, however, she still fully supports Jackson’s alleged victims.
“I have not wavered. You know why I have not wavered? Because I’ve had girls at my school who were sexually assaulted and abused. And I have never won a case. The reason I have never won a case is because when you put a girl on the witness stand, and she can’t remember was it Thursday or Wednesday, it’s automatically discredited. When you’re in the midst of trauma, and terrible things happening to you, you might not remember the time. If you can’t remember the day and the time, everybody’s like, ‘Well okay, I guess it never happened.'”
She also spoke of the “hateration” she received for providing the two men with another platform to share their stories.
“When I first saw that documentary, I realized that a lot of people would be triggered by watching it. And a lot of people will not understand what the pattern is. I had done 217 shows trying to get people to understand that it’s not about one person. It’s about the pattern, it’s about the seduction. People call it molestation, but there is a big seducing that goes on … and that was important enough for me to take the hateration.”
HBO also denies disassociating itself with the doc, saying in a statement to HipHopDX, “Leaving Neverland remains on the HBO linear channel through April 16th after which it will continue to be available on HBO NOW and HBO GO,” the network told DX. “The documentary is already the second most watched on HBO in the past ten years with 7.5 million viewers for Part 1.”
