Oprah Once Told To Lose Weight By Anna Wintour

Oprah is not one to be told what to do – but back in 1998, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour had some advice for the talk show queen – lose some weight!

In an unaired segment from Anna's interview on Sunday's "60 Minutes,"Morley Safer asked the Vogue maven if she had indeed asked Oprah to lose 20 pounds before appearing on the mag's cover back when she was promoting the movie "Beloved."

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"It was a very gentle suggestion," Anna said. "I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight before she appeared in the magazine."

As for Oprah's reaction, Anna said, "She was a trooper. She totally welcomed the idea. She went on a very stringent diet. It was one of our most successful covers ever."

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Though Oprah has remained mum on the topic since Anna's Sunday interview, during September 24, 1998's "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which was devoted to Vogue makeovers, Oprah said her mag cover required, "giving myself over to the Vogue experience," and that Anna told her, "'You had to release all control to me,'" as reported by People.

Oprah went on to say that, "meant losing the 20 pounds I put on during my trial in Texas [with cattle breeders over remarks she made about beef]. Now I worked my behind off, literally. People say, 'Where's the beef?' It was on my behind. Over the summer I was working out, working out, to get in shape. And it paid off … I was transformed into Vogue's October cover girl."

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