[Video] Oprah Winfrey And Iyanla Vanzant Reunite

Ms. Vanzant was a dynamic regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show who started appearing every Tuesday about the same time as Dr. Phil McGraw. Her expertise, as she described it on Wednesday’s show, is as a “teacher of spiritual laws and principles.” Ms. Winfrey said she intended to develop Ms. Vanzant’s talent into a show of her own, just like she later did with Dr. Phil (psychology) and Dr. Mehmet Oz (health). She said that she liked Ms. Vanzant so well that she often left the stage and sat in the audience and allowed Ms. Vanzant to run The Oprah Winfrey Show on the days she appeared.

Ms. Vanzant, for her part, said she also enjoyed her association with Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios. She was contacted, however, by Barbara Walters and asked if she would be interested in doing her own show with her support. She had a meeting with Ms. Winfrey and her producer to let her know “someone big” in television wanted her to leave Harpo and start a show.

Ms. Winfrey told her they weren’t ready at Harpo to do anything more at that time, though they remained interested in helping her start a show in the future. Ms. Winfrey said she also didn’t believe Ms. Vanzant was ready herself yet to have her own program. Ms. Vanzant said in the meeting that she thought she had a message from God that now was the “anointed time” not the “appointed time” for her to start out on her own.

“I took four years with Phil and eight years with Oz because they weren’t ready,” Ms. Winfrey said about the other experts she developed for television.

“I did it out of respect and honor for you,” Ms. Winfrey said to Ms. Vanzant about the refusal.

Thinking she had been given an ultimatum (Harpo do a show now with Vanzant, or else), not long after the meeting, Ms. Winfrey sent her lawyer to terminate Harpo’s association with Ms. Vanzant. The talk show host claims she was not angry and did not admit to having what outsiders may think was a bruised ego; however, she did admit to not replying to letters Ms. Vanzant sent her later trying to explain her side of the story.

Now, Iyanla Vanzant has a book out which chronicles, in part, her side of the story. The book is called Peace From Broken Pieces. She claims that she was a woman from the projects who was suddenly thrust between the two most powerful women in television, and she wasn’t sure what to do. She said she wanted to stay with Harpo all along and was just meeting with Winfrey to let her know about the offer and to see if she thought it was time for her to move into her show.

Ms. Vanzant said the meeting was less about business, from her viewpoint, than it was that she was beginning to feel like she was coming into her own in terms of personally believing in her own abilities. On Wednesday’s show, she seemed to say that in that meeting she was seeking personal affirmation from Ms. Winfrey that she could do it more than anything else.

Ms. Vanzant did go on to eventually have her own $26 million television show with the support of Barbara Walters. The show ended after one season. She says now that she invited some of the problems on herself in many ways because of her own personal issues with self-esteem.

Oprah Winfrey ended Wednesday’s face-off by telling Iyanla Vanzant, “I heard you. All is forgiven.”

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