No, Angelina Jolie did not 'expose' Oprah school conspiracy during interview | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Angelina Jolie exposed Oprah Winfrey's girls' school for child sex trafficking

A July 10 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows actress Angelina Jolie sitting on a couch while responding to an interviewer's question.

“Angelina Jolie exposes Oprah’s CREEPY Girls School in Africa,” reads text on the screen.

The video begins with Jolie saying, “But to believe that you can take them as property and sexually assault them and sell them and – it’s something from the dark ages, it is just so horrific, but it’s not isolated to Nigeria."

A narrator then describes a supposed rift between Jolie and Winfrey, claiming their “feud was motivated” by Winfrey’s school and her “connection to Hollywood predators.” The video goes on to show a woman claiming the number of staff at Winfrey's school is 666.

The video was shared more than 3,000 times and got just as many reactions. It originates from a YouTube video

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Our rating: False

Jolie doesn't say anything about Winfrey’s school in the clip, which was taken from a 2014 BBC interview. Instead, it shows Jolie responding to a question about schoolgirls who were kidnapped that same year in Chibok, Nigeria.

Original footage shows Jolie interviewed about film, humanitarian work, preventative surgery

The Facebook clip comes from a video first posted on YouTube by a celebrity gossip channel called This Happened. But the clips in the video go back even further to a 2014 BBC interview, during which Jolie talked about working with her daughter in the film “Maleficent,” her preventative double mastectomy and her humanitarian work.

Despite the video’s claim, neither Winfrey nor her school were mentioned by Jolie during the interview. However, Jolie did share her thoughts on humanitarian crises, including kidnapped girls from Chibok, Nigeria.

Here's the full quote:

Interviewer: At the moment, it’s a very important subject, given what’s happened in Nigeria, this extraordinary story of these children missing. I know you’ve talked about it, but how does one prevent that happening, do you think?

Jolie: Well, I think part of the reason that this happens is these men believe that they can get away with it because in the past they have. And I think, you know, that they see women as disposable to them. That they can just – that they don’t believe they have a right to education, is a horror … but to believe that you can take them as property and sexually assault them and sell them and, it’s something from the dark ages, it is just so horrific but it’s not isolated to Nigeria.”

Winfrey was never mentioned in the interview.

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Winfrey’s school addressed 2007 incident

Several months after the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls opened in South Africa in 2007, a dormitory matron was charged with 13 counts of indecent assault and criminal injury against several students between the ages of 13 and 15, as well as a 23-year-old.

Winfrey flew to South Africa to address the issue in person. She fired the school's headmistress and all of the dorm matrons, according to news reports.

Winfrey held a press conference to address reporters’ questions on Nov. 2, 2007, saying she was "prepared to do whatever is necessary to make sure" the school is a safe environment.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post and This Happened for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim Angelina Jolie revealed Oprah conspiracy | Fact check