Oprah Winfrey has bought back the rights to a documentary about her life.
The television icon has reacquired the rights to her own life story from Apple TV+, three years after Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald was attached to helm the project alongside her longtime producer Lisa Espamer.
“As the Apple TV+ deal was coming to an end, Ms. Winfrey bought back the rights to her docu-series and has since decided to put the doc on hold,” Winfrey’s spokesperson said In a statement to Page Six.
“Ms. Winfrey believes Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald are incredibly talented filmmakers and is grateful for the time and energy they put into the project,” the statement continued.
Winfrey ended her content deal with Apple two years ago, and the documentary has been shelved.
Although a source told Page Six that creative differences are behind the project being halted, an insider close to the TV star insisted it simply “wasn’t the right time to do a documentary.”
And despite speculation it would cost her millions to reclaim the rights to the documentary, a source has denied it reaching seven figures.
The legendary talk show host celebrated her landmark 70th birthday in January this year. She said she has developed a new outlook on life.
“There is a sense of knowing that there isn’t as much time left and I am at peace with that knowing,” she said on “Today” last month. “There’s a sense of urgency for me about living well.”
Winfrey underwent knee surgery in 2021, and that proved to be a turning point in her life.
“I had been becoming more and more debilitated to the point where it was hard to walk down even two steps just to get into the car. You know that pain,” she recalled.
“When I finally went to the knee doctor and I said, ‘I don’t know, is it time?’ He goes, ‘It’s time if you want to continue walking. You like walking? It’s time,’ ” Winfrey said.
Winfrey now feels better than she has done in many years.
“I think I have just aged into a form of myself that is wiser, that is certainly stronger, that is more vibrant and aware and conscious than I’ve ever been. I don’t feel that my edges are softening,” the media mogul — who hosted “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for 25 years ” as well as headed O magazine — explained.
