Oprah Winfrey on Monday shut down a report that Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign paid her $1 million to stump for the Democrat.
“I was paid nothing — ever,” Winfrey told a TMZ reporter who approached her as she walked to her car.
The reporter asked about the claims that the Harris team paid her the massive figure for the star-studded, virtual town hall called “Unite for America” that the talk show star hosted on behalf of the Democratic nominee in September.
“Not true,” Winfrey, who endorsed Harris, said.
The Washington Examiner reported last Friday that the Harris campaign paid $1 million to Winfrey’s production company on Oct. 15.
The company, Harpo Productions, denied that Winfrey was “paid a personal fee.”
“The campaign paid for the production costs of ‘Unite for America,’ a live-streaming event that took place Sept. 19 outside Detroit, Mich.,” a Harpo spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo.”
Harpo did not disclose the cost of its production work for the virtual town hall which featured a lineup of big-name celebrities.
Winfrey later joined Harris at her final rally in Philadelphia on the eve of Election Day.
“We’re voting for values and integrity,” Winfrey said at the rally. “We’re voting for healing over hate.”
The Harris campaign reportedly blew through $1 billion in its doomed election bid.
