In 1998, Anna Wintour, Editor of US Vogue, decided she wanted Oprah on her cover to tie in with the release of a movie Oprah was acting in and producing called Beloved. There was just one problem. Oprah was too fat. Too too fat. This is according to Anna Wintour who is the arbiter of such things when it comes to her covers. So Anna told Oprah to lose weight. And Oprah? Oprah who is infinitely more rich and powerful than Anna or Vogue could ever hope to be? Oprah, one of the most rich and powerful women IN THE WORLD? She said ‘OK’ and went on a crash diet. Oprah has spoken about this in the past, about how much she wanted to be…..

……on that cover and how insecure she felt about the shoot. And now Anna, in an interview with US 60 Minutes has confirmed that she made the request, laughing it off.

It was a very gentle suggestion,’ said Wintour, laughing. ‘I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight. I said simply that you might feel more comfortable. She was a trouper! She totally welcomed the idea, and she went on a very stringent diet. It was one of our most successful covers ever.’

And here it is again, small Oprah on Vogue:

Of course it was. Oprah is the most popular woman in America. It was successful because of who she IS not the fact she dropped a few pounds. Could Anna possibly be so deluded to believe otherwise?

I know that it’s a very rare woman who is immune from the pressure to be thinner (or fatter or curvier or less curvy….just basically DIFFERENT to the way she currently looks). I know Oprah is just a woman and human and not a robot. But still, still, it’s disappointing that she bowed to the pressure. Sad for her (because as everyone, most of all she knows – crash dieting is a hopeless waste of time at best, a recipe for long-term weight blowout at worst) and sad for the rest of us who imagine that wealth, fame, power, intelligence and all the other things at Oprah’s disposal might arm her against caving to that pressure.

Oprah in 2006 (L) and 2008 (R)