HERE’S THE BOTTOM line; Oprah Winfrey is not, and never will be, here for your gum-chewing.
The ‘Queen of All Media’ will tolerate a lot, but if you’re thinking of busting out a fresh pack in her company, she’s going to have to ask you to leave.
Speaking to Stephen Colbert this week, the 64-year-old revealed that her distaste for it stemmed from her grandmother’s habit of sticking old gum to various pieces of furniture with the intention of re-using it.
To be fair, it’s all starting to make a lot more sense now.
“I intensely dislike it. It comes from childhood. I grew up poor in Mississippi and my grandmother – absolutely no hyperbole whatsoever – my grandmother used to try to save gum, so she would put it on the bedpost, she would put it on the cabinet.
And it didn’t stop there.
As a child, I used to bump into it and it would rub up against me and you know what it’s like when you’ve taken it out of your mouth and it’s been out a couple of weeks? It’s bad. I was afraid of it.
Oprah admits she barred gum-chewing in her offices, and hates the fact she can’t extend the restriction to the wider world.
When I go out to the world, I can’t bar it. I have no powers there. It’s a thing. I can’t stand it.
And while Oprah’s employees may be well versed in the star’s take on gum, her Wrinkle in Time co-star, Reese Witherspoon, was not.
But Reese wasn’t stopping for no one.
After telling her co-star that she has a real problem with gum-chewing, Oprah recalled that Reese couldn’t have cared less.
She said ‘oh, that’s too bad’ and then she just walks off. Ask her about it.
Skip ahead to 00.58 for a more comprehensive insight into Oprah’s issues.
