*Oprah Winfrey admits that she did not leave her home for over a year amid the COVID pandemic.
Speaking to LA Times about her new documentary, “The Color of Care,” which debuted on Smithsonian Channel, the media mogul also noted that she still supports the mask mandate.
“I didn’t leave home for 322 days — literally did not leave the house,” Winfrey, 68, told the publication. Winfrey acknowledged that her privilege as a celebrity afforded her a staff who risked their own health amid the pandemic to cater to her every need while she isolated herself from the world.
Winfrey said she’s “been so careful with” herself while through the pandemic, saying she has been able to “adjust to the isolation and not being around other people.”
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“I remember one point [Gayle King] said, ‘Don’t you just miss being around other people?’ I go, ‘Eh, not really.’ And I think it’s because every day, I was in an audience of 350 people twice a day [on The Oprah Winfrey Show], so I’ve had shaking hands and autographs and selfies, and lots of attention, and exposure to being around a lot of people,” she continued, as reported by PEOPLE.
“I was able to be with myself in a way that I haven’t been able to for years, because usually, even if I take time off for myself, I’m thinking about what is the next thing to come,” she added.
“Overall, I was able to adjust because I have the ability [and] really strong sense of being in this present moment and living this moment without having to worry about the next.”
Winfrey said she was surprised by reports about people of color not being able to receive adequate healthcare during the pandemic.
Oprah admitted that she takes issue with society seemingly losing interest in all the COVID deaths, saying, “I don’t recognize a country where you’ve lost nearly a million people and there hasn’t been some form of remembering that is significant,” she said.
She added, “Not at the opening of a speech or mentioning in a State of the Union. I mean that there hasn’t been a communal gathering where there is acknowledgment that this has happened to us. Who are we that there is no acknowledgment, profoundly, in our society that we have lost our loved ones? And at times, we’re not even able to bury our dead. Who are we that we don’t recognize the significance of that acknowledgment?”
“I think my biggest misconception [before making the film] was that it was about health insurance, that it was about having access financially, and if you didn’t have the money, then you couldn’t get the care that you needed,” Winfrey told the LA Times. “What COVID laid bare is that inequities in so many other areas of your life also contribute to the major disparity when it comes to healthcare.”
“The Color of Care” will stream free on Smithsonian Channel’s Facebook and YouTube until May 31.
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