Oprah Winfrey stops red carpet interview to set record straight about Taraij P. Henson

Oprah Winfrey says there's no bad blood between her and Taraji P. Henson.

The media mogul addressed recent online rumors about a rift between her and Henson, one of the stars of “The Color Purple,” which Winfrey executive produced.

“I heard I was trending yesterday because people are saying that I was not supporting Taraji,” Winfrey told Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier on the red carpet at the Golden Globes on Jan. 7.

“Taraji will tell you herself that I have been the greatest champion of this film, championing not only the behind-the-scenes production but also everything that everybody needed.”

Winfrey noted she was not “in charge of the budget because that’s Warner Bros. … that’s the way the studio system works.”

However, she said that when she heard about any issues that needed fixing during production, she took action.

“Whenever I heard there was an issue or there was a problem, there was a problem with the cars or a problem with the food, I would step in and do whatever I could to make it right,” she said. “And I believe that she (Henson) would even vouch for that and say that it’s true.”

Rumors of a rift between Winfrey and Henson began making the rounds online in December, after Henson made comments about pay disparity between Black and white actors during the press tour for “The Color Purple.” Henson said in an interview with SAG-AFTRA that she nearly had to turn down "The Color Purple" because of the initial salary offer.

“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she told Gayle King for Sirius XM on Dec. 19.

“I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over,” Henson also said. “You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing. And when you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole entire team behind us. They have to get paid.”

While Henson did not mention Winfrey by name, some people took to social media to accuse Winfrey of underpaying Henson for her work on “The Color Purple.”

Henson denied this and came to Winfrey’s defense in an Instagram post on Dec. 21.

“Ms. OPRAH has been nothing less than a steady and solid beacon of light to ALL OF THE CAST of The Color Purple!!!” she wrote.

“She told me personally to reach out to her for ANYTHING I needed, and I did!” she added. “It took ONE CALL… ONE CONVERSATION… and ONE DECISION MAKING BLACK WOMAN to make me feel heard.”

During her recent Golden Globes interview, Winfrey also addressed speculation that she and Henson were giving each other the cold shoulder during a recent photo call on the top of the Empire State Building.

“There was something online about us being separated at the top of the Empire State Building,” Winfrey said. “On that particular day, we were so cold. So, I don’t know what kind of body language people were talking about. I was just trying to stay warm, and that was the fourth thing we had done.

“There’s no validity to there being a ‘thing’ between Taraji and I,” she added.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com