Wait…Did Oprah Really Slap Celebrity Cook Ina Garten?? Here’s the Tea

Oprah Winfrey and Ina Garten are setting the record straight. The two TV icons go way back, and on a recent podcast episode, they both took the time to clarify their friendship and stories about them, specifically whether or not Winfrey actually slapped the TV cook back in the day.

In Garten’s memoir released earlier this year, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” she recalls an exchange between her and Winfrey at New York Women In Communications’ Matrix Awards in 2010, a story that quickly got picked up on social media. While accepting her award, Garten says she told the audience that she’d, “been lucky” in her life, then proceeded to sit down. After sitting, Garten explains that Winfrey then “smacked” her on the arm, telling Garten, “You make your own luck.’”

Now, months after the release of the memoir and this story, the two TV legends sat down together for Winfrey’s “The Oprah Podcast” for the latest episode. Released on Christmas, the two discussed her memoir and yes...that shocking story.

Winfrey explained in the episode that she did recall an exchange between them, but not at that event. “I didn’t remember that it was the Matrix Awards, but I remember having a discussion… and I didn’t remember slapping you…I don’t remember slapping you,” she told Garten.

Garten then suggested that perhaps it was less a smack and more a “love tap.” Winfrey added, “In my mind, you were already an iconic figure and a powerful woman. In your acceptance speech, you mentioned luck and luck and luck. I come from the believe that luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity.”

Garten has been very open about how Winfrey has inspired her, specifically while promoting this book. Recalling the moment Winfrey assured her that she has made her own luck, she explained that she was who inspired the title of her book, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens.”

She said, “Many years later, when I was writing this memoir, I thought, ‘She was kind of right.’ I had done the work. I have to give her credit. She was right.”