In the run-up to last month's royal wedding between Prince Harry and the now-Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, the news was awash with speculation and rumours about the upcoming nuptials. First, we were distracted by all the controversy surrounding the Markle family, then we were thrown a curveball when the couple decided to invite thousands of members of the public to their do, and now - even after the wedding has been and gone - we're still hearing new whispers about what went down pre-marriage.
And one of them concerns Oprah Winfrey.
The esteemed TV presenter and all-round philanthropist was spotted spending some quality time with Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, last month, and reports from their encounter seemed to suggest that Winfrey had given her a number of gifts.
Various publications stated that Winfrey and Ragland had a very close friendship, and that the TV host had presented her with a number of lavish presents in order to congratulate her on her daughter's marriage and win favour with her before the big day.
However, according to Winfrey, that simply isn't true.
"The story was that Meghan's mom had come to my house and she left laden with gifts," Winfrey said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "You know what the gifts were? First of all, she's great at yoga, so I said, 'Bring your yoga mat and your sneaks in case we just want to do yoga on the lawn.' So one of the bags was a yoga mat and the other was lunch."
What's more, many people thought that Winfrey had tried to bribe Meghan's mother for an interview by spending thousands of dollars on her, but she had something to say about that rumour, too.
"I wasn't there trying to get an interview," Winfrey said, "I was just there."
The pair had some lunch together, and for dessert enjoyed a kumquat pie that Winfrey had made fresh with some fruit she'd been growing in her garden. After Ragland said that she loved it, Winfrey offered her a basket of kumquats to take home with her.
"I said, 'I have a kumquat tree! You want some kumquats?' So it was a basket of kumquats, people," Winfrey explained. "For all of the people who said I am getting her gifts and I'm trying to bribe her for an interview - they were kumquats. If kumquats can get you an interview, I’m all for it!"
As for the wedding itself, Winfrey had a few other comments to make.
"It was transformative, it was more than a wedding, I thought," she said. "It was a cultural moment. And you could not be there or watching on television - cause then I came home and watched the whole thing all over again - but you could not be there and not feel that there was a shift that just happened in the middle of it... I think it's bigger than them and I think it bodes well for hope for all of us."
Whether or not Winfrey is still on track to get an interview with Ragland (or even the royal couple themselves) remains to be seen - but one thing's for sure: the host has no intention of bribing her way to one.
