00:08:10.520is that it's not just any school, right?
00:08:12.780Oprah launched this school almost 20 years ago with Nelson Mandela by her side, right? No greater
00:08:21.020moral beacon of South Africa. And she was using brand Mandela to elevate herself from a mere
00:08:27.260talk show host into a philanthropist nonpareil. She said the school would be her greatest legacy.
00:08:34.400These girls were the daughters she would never have. They were her greatest joy,
00:08:38.640greatest purpose. I mean, I'm not being hyperbolic. These are all things she said.
00:08:42.780And within nine months of that school opening or 10, nine girls came forward with claims of sexual assault or abuse against a dormitory matron.
00:08:52.760And from there, the school has suffered major, major scandal, including a 17-year-old student who gave birth on that campus.
00:09:02.260So she was walking around this boarding school for months, visibly pregnant, gave birth on that campus.
00:09:09.440the baby was discovered dead in one of her bags and you know it's barely a blip in the american
00:09:16.860media they went to oprah for comment oprah said or her people said she won't be commenting because
00:09:22.560a minor is involved yeah a minor is involved it's a boarding school for girls you know i think she's
00:09:28.260trying to get ahead of something this isn't just any school it's a school that was meant to be a
00:09:32.940refuge and a safe haven for these young girls who are at extremely high risk for sex trafficking
00:09:39.280On The Nerve, we aired a fairly recent news report from a South African-owned and operated
00:09:47.100news station reporting that sex trafficking rings have only gotten stronger and more well-organized.
00:09:54.300So girls are at higher risk than ever.
00:09:56.380So my question to Oprah is, what are you doing?
00:10:08.100She wanted to look like this big philanthropist, and now she's living her best life out in Montecito, and she's skinny now, so she's feeling good about herself.
00:10:18.800Like, David Letterman, he could be out there doing the, oh, it was 40 years ago we launched the show and be having a self-celebratory party that he's got to put all over the airwaves as, remember me during my heyday?
00:10:31.220It's like she can't stand being out of the spotlight for two minutes.
00:10:34.200We've got to go back to her glory days and try to celebrate her again.
00:10:38.100her magazine where she's on the cover every month celebrating herself. It's just like her whole life
00:10:44.900is so self-celebratory. It's kind of the opposite of how I think most people are raised, which is to
00:10:51.140say I less, me less, but it's her bread and butter. My favorite announcement about Oprah
00:10:59.540closing her school, which you can find online, is it's on Oprah daily, like an Oprah part of
00:11:06.860the Oprah magazine. And it's got the Oprah logo. And then the headline is Oprah on closing her
00:11:13.520school by Oprah Winfrey with a side photo of Oprah. So it's Oprah. We get it. We get it. Okay.
00:11:21.620But number two, to your point, let's say she lost interest, which has been posited to me as an
00:11:26.620active theory. That's fine. But I think when you take on a responsibility like that, and you use
00:11:34.380an icon such as Nelson Mandela, and you've had problematic, very close friends in your life,
00:11:42.620such as Harvey Weinstein and Sean Combs, I think what you maybe do is you assemble a highly trusted
00:11:49.780consortium of people. Much like, you know, Valerie Jarrett is really running probably the
00:11:54.660day-to-day at the Obama Library, right? Why can't she just install a trusted board to oversee it
00:12:01.860and make sure again, if this is her legacy play, if she wants what the Oprah Winfrey Leadership
00:12:07.500Academy for Girls has been doing to be the first line of her obituary, I would think she'd be way
00:12:14.900more invested in this. And again, she is a stated self-professed survivor of childhood sexual
00:12:24.000assault. I mean, I just would think that this would be so close to her that she would never
00:12:29.720consider abandoning it. And yet, I don't know. I think she's lost interest. She's got to move
00:12:37.340on to her new vanity projects, which will not include another sit down with Meghan Markle.
00:12:43.080I heard you and Rob Shooter discussing on The Nerve how Meghan and Harry would reportedly love
00:12:49.400to have another sit down with Oprah. She's not into it. She knows that she stepped in quicksand
00:12:55.340on that first ridiculous sit down with those two it really was the low point of oprah's0.92
00:13:02.720more recent career at least and she doesn't want another round of humiliation with these two0.98
00:13:08.900grifters no you know there's this um there's a new verb in the lexicon called markled like you0.65
00:13:16.680got markled and it it it means if you get if you get in any kind of business with megan markle
00:13:25.180if you have any proximity to her, her stink is going to be left all over you. And we can see
00:13:32.240all the Hollywood power players like have slowly, slowly backed away. And you know,
00:13:39.260Oprah's just as bad. Like, I really do think this like self, I agree with you, like,
00:13:44.540why is she celebrating the absence of her talk show, which when she was retiring that thing,
00:13:51.820do you remember this Megan it was a year of a goodbye yes it was never ending it was like just
00:13:59.940please go it went on and on it was like Stephen Colbert just did the same thing she yes they
00:14:06.460treat themselves like they're some sort of a queen or king stepping down from a rain it's like it's
00:14:12.240television okay I hate to break it to you it's tv you appeared in the little box and you had little
00:14:18.280conversations and they were entertaining while you did it. But none of us should take ourselves
00:14:21.940so seriously as to think like we can't be easily replaced or forgotten. Certainly Colbert. And yes,
00:14:29.060Oprah too. I mean, it's fine. People like you and I who were of the right age when she was at her
00:14:33.860pinnacle will remember Oprah. My daughter has no idea who Oprah Winfrey is. She doesn't care
00:14:37.960about Oprah Winfrey at all. She has no idea that she is. No, she's totally irrelevant to the next
00:14:43.920Jen, which I think is why she's so insistent on celebrating herself, like, and not anything she's
00:14:49.860done lately, but like, let's go back to my long since defunct talk show and celebrate when it
00:14:56.280launched 40 years ago, 40 years, Maureen. I mean, even I was what I think a freshman in high school,
00:15:03.820uh, maybe a sophomore, whatever. It's just, she, she is a narcissist. Oprah Winfrey is a raging0.82
00:15:11.080narcissist. We have proof of it every day. Okay. I want to get to Megan Markle because there was0.99
00:15:16.600an extraordinary thing that happened that relates. Hello to our parody of the absurd with love Megan
00:15:24.560Netflix show. You and I got together and we did it much better if I do say so myself than the
00:15:29.620original making fun of that absurd atrocity that Netflix foisted upon us. And what we discovered
00:15:36.200you and I, while we were making one pot chicken from Meghan Markle's stupid Netflix show is that0.99
00:15:42.700she stole it from Martha Stewart. The recipe was identical with like maybe one sprig of something0.99
00:15:49.540that was different, but it was all but identical to Martha Stewart's one pot pasta. We made it.
00:15:56.100Wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. And I think it wasn't bad because it came from Martha Stewart.
00:16:01.080Exactly. Somebody who actually knows what she's doing in the kitchen. So Meghan Markle
00:16:05.040And Martha Stewart met. They met recently. And in a people interview dated August 3rd, Martha Stewart said she overheard Meghan Markle at a dinner party recently talking about a private family reunion she had with King Charles with Harry when they went over there.
00:16:41.640And Martha doesn't she doesn't spew shit like she she gives it straight.0.99
00:16:44.960And so then the Duchess of Duplicity couldn't stand it.0.99
00:16:49.760She was so pissed that Martha had taken a shot at her and told everybody that Megan was mouthing off about her visit with the king.
00:16:56.940that she had her people, somebody contact, well, it was in the Daily Mail and yes, and report that
00:17:09.320Martha must have been confused because Megan was not seated anywhere near Martha. And then the
00:17:18.880Daily Beast reported on this saying, Megan did something incredibly stupid here. She seems to1.00
00:17:26.940have gotten the host of the party to call up People magazine and say that Martha's account
00:17:32.580was simply untrue and that Megan did not talk about her European vacation other than to say
00:17:37.760the family had a great time. Worse, they called Martha confused, implying that Martha 85 is a
00:17:45.360dotty old lady. And the position here is that this is incredibly stupid, writes Tom Sykes of1.00
00:17:52.400the Daily Beast, because Martha's not going to take well to that. And though she may be 85,0.99
00:17:57.560she's sharp as a tack. And this is not the way. But Megan can't have anything written about her
00:18:05.120without filing a lawsuit, threatening a lawsuit, having her people call, issuing some nasty bar
00:18:11.860back, even if it's an 85-year-old who said something very innocuous about her. She can't
00:18:16.680stand it. She is her own worst enemy. I completely believe Martha Stewart's version of events,
00:18:24.820because her version of events, Martha wasn't, she made pains to say, listen, I don't know Megan.
00:18:32.100I didn't even really speak to her. We weren't seated near each other, but this is what I heard.
00:18:37.680And this is in direct contravention of the King's edict about that meeting. And it also kind of is this nice distraction. This is a controversy I feel Meghan wants, because she wants us to forget things that are very recent and much more of an obscenity, such as taking a photo of Harry and the children on what looks like their
00:19:07.680way to visit diana's grave disgusting 100 disgusting it did that's what it was i know
00:19:14.440i know somebody who's got an inside connection there and that person confirmed for me that's
00:19:19.200exactly where they were if they were like this is them on their way to diana's grave the one thing
00:19:24.780that the owner of the estate diana's brother did not want them to do do not publicize anything0.58
00:19:30.320around the grave but she's a disaster tourist who couldn't help herself she's such a ghoul0.70
00:19:35.880Megan she's such a ghoul and she's a child it with Megan Markle don't say the thing you don't
00:19:43.740want her to do don't give her ideas because she will do it she will and by the way we've all0.89
00:19:50.080dropped what was a major talking point mere months ago hey go talk to your father okay who's lost
00:19:57.040half of his leg it was amputated and he was begging from his hospital bed I would just love
00:20:03.020my daughter to call me. She's got ice in her veins. She's a reptile. Yeah. She's not going
00:20:08.400to go see anybody's father unless he has a crown on his head. That's the father she's willing to
00:20:13.200spend time with. Not somebody with half a leg. Ew. Meghan Markle's not going to be seen with
00:20:17.920that. Gross. It doesn't elevate my status. Not like being with the king, which is something I
00:20:23.500can package and photograph for Netflix. Meghan, she won't even bother to open a store-bought bag
00:20:31.060of pretzels decant it into another plastic bag of pretzels and send it to her father as a get well
00:20:38.120gift she cannot be bothered no she's and and what i love too is this report now that um
00:20:43.620harry and megan are openly discussing issuing a formal apology to the king and um what they may
00:20:52.420take uh responsibility for and what they may not and you know again why the mainstream media won't
00:20:59.040just draw the direct correlation. Those two seem to be out of money. Harry's on the hook
00:21:06.940for a $63 million lawsuit. He launched and lost. He launched it against all best advice,
00:21:13.540and he lost. And I also think this is why we're seeing more sniping through the likes of People
00:21:19.700Magazine and the Daily Beast rather than the threats of lawsuits. They simply can't afford
00:21:24.060it anymore. So now they really want back in and they're willing to play nice just when they need
00:21:32.220millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars to survive.
00:21:37.620It's very sad to me, though, because I think the king is going to allow it.
00:21:41.200I think he's going to let him back in because he's a dad. You know, he's a dad before he's a king.
00:21:46.740and you know i've seen it time and time again where the parents are softer when it comes to
00:21:54.100their children it's it's a sweet thing really if you think about it you know the parents they love
00:21:59.120their kids they want to be connected to their kids they want to be connected to their grandkids
00:22:02.100the siblings less so they see the abuse that one sibling has foisted on the whole family
00:22:08.860And in particular, an aging, not well father, in this case, the king of England, and they're less forgiving. And I think that's why Prince William is a hard no on letting these two back in. But I think the king is going to allow it. And right now he's in charge. And it's just going to be incredible to see them try to go back over there and re-ingratiate themselves as royals in a country they called racist, right?
00:22:36.020How are they going to spin this magical turnaround where the family is racist, they said, the country is racist, and they were so nasty that they actually were telegraphing they might not love their children if they were too dark.
00:22:51.140And on top of that, when Meghan Markle was allegedly suicidal, they didn't want to get her any help.
00:22:56.240Like, how do you walk back in and be like, just kidding.
00:23:02.120It's really, it's like truly unbelievable.
00:23:05.000It's truly incredible. Charles is, I think, you know, I think Diana had it right all those years ago in that panorama interview with Martin Bashir, which was problematic for many reasons. I mean, we now know she was duped into it, but she's, I think she told the truth when she said Charles was not up to the top job.
00:23:25.860And at the time it was written off as a woman scorned trying to knife her ex-husband who left
00:23:35.480her for another woman. But I think she knew him and I think she knew exactly right. He did not1.00
00:23:41.140have the strength or the spine. Harry and Meghan have done nothing short of attempt to bring down
00:23:48.280the British monarchy. That's what they were trying to do. They were trying to destroy it.
00:23:52.940Those two stew and marinate in rage and resentment. And I completely think William is in the right here. I think William also knows the resentment and the jealousy that Meghan harbors towards Catherine, Princess of Wales. Every time Catherine does something, wears something, issues a photograph, Meghan single white females her. It's beyond creepy.
00:24:18.940Yes. So the latest incident with this pair is they went to this charity event. It was on August
00:24:28.5407th to support their longtime friend, David Foster, and celebrate his foundation's 40th
00:24:34.640anniversary. This is up in Canada. They help children who have life-saving, who need life-saving
00:24:40.020organ transplants. So they showed up at the gala and there is video. This guy, Foster, is married
00:24:47.660to Catherine McPhee, formerly of American Idol, right?
00:46:36.100I mean, we all know the difference between thin, even very thin and skeletal, like it's
00:46:43.440plain as the nose on your face and they can, they are the ones who don't see it.
00:46:47.760They are the ones who don't see it and think they look good in this very corrupt industry
00:46:52.720that will just continue exploiting them.
00:46:55.480So I really hope she does get the help she needs.
00:46:59.680Brad Pitt is also in the news and I, I'm worried about him too.
00:47:04.560So Brad Pitt is drinking again. There was an in-depth profile on Brad Pitt by, who did it?
00:47:14.420Who did the original? Esquire did the original. And the guy did a great job reporting on it,
00:47:19.500but he exposed, he broke the news that Brad Pitt is drinking again after having been on the wagon
00:47:27.700for many years, seven years. And now he offered this guy a glass of wine and the reporter was
00:47:34.540like, is it just, just for the guests? And Brad's like, no, I'm drinking again and admitted and,
00:47:40.720and is talking about how he, he can have the reporter said, Oh, just a glass. You can have
00:47:45.600just a glass. And he's like, no, I can have, you know, more than just a glass, like a few glasses,
00:47:48.720but I can't have too much. Like, okay. If you're an alcoholic, I'm pretty sure this is not how it
00:47:54.900works, Maureen. And I think once again, there's probably not a lot of people in Brad Pitt's life
00:48:01.240who can sit him down and say, Brad, no, for an alcoholic, what is it? One drink is too many
00:48:06.740and 1,000 won't be enough. So I think this story is fascinating on multiple levels.
00:48:13.160So Brad Pitt designed that tableau in order to get this story out, right? He was the one who
00:48:21.000brought out the wine and served it to the journalist and that was the prompt. Like,
00:48:26.340oh, is it okay for me to drink in front of you? Like, are you sure? Like you are on the record.
00:48:31.240as being an alcoholic in recovery. And Brad says, oh, well, I'm drinking again.
00:48:34.680It's a cover story in Esquire. He knows it's going to make headlines, right?
00:48:38.480So why? Why is he telling us this? My question is, are we trying to get ahead of something?
00:48:45.580Because back when Angie deplaned with those children, fled in a limousine,
00:48:52.8202016, and the next day filed for a divorce, which was shocking and made worldwide headlines.
00:48:59.920I'll never forget. I was working at the New York Post. I got an emergency call to come in early.
00:49:05.780And then I looked on the Daily Mail website, and I remember the font size about the Brad and Angie
00:49:10.940split. It was like the font size you would reserve for World War III breaking out. It was an enormous
00:49:17.460story, right? And then Brad, a couple of months later, does a cover story for GQ in which he says,
00:49:25.880hey, I'm an alcoholic and I'm an AA now. And I really had to get my stuff together. And I
00:49:31.060remember saying to this guy who was one of the top reporters on page six, what is the play here?
00:49:37.280Why is Brad Pitt doing this? He doesn't have to. There are plenty of people in recovery in
00:49:41.900Hollywood that we don't know about. So why is he being so public about this? Brad Pitt,
00:49:47.220Hollywood's wholesome golden boy. The way he spun that split from Jen Aniston, it was like,
00:49:53.240He just wants babies. What else can he do? He has no choice. He has no choice. You know, so why is he doing this? And Ian said to me, I think he's trying to get ahead of something. And lo and behold, we later learned what went down on that plane. He was on a drunken rampage.
00:50:10.600he poured beer over Angie and one of the kids hiding under a blanket by Angie's report to the
00:50:16.840FBI. He assaulted her in a, in a bathroom on that plane. It was a bad, bad scene. And so when Brad
00:50:24.360Pitt, who has been famous for like the bulk of his adult life, who knows how the machine works,
00:50:31.740does this, like I raise an eyebrow. I like it. I think you're probably right now that I think it
00:50:37.900through because it doesn't make sense. Everybody knows if you're an alcoholic and he's been in AA,
00:50:45.080you can't drink. You can't drink one. You can't have two. You can't have three. Those days have
00:50:50.380passed you because you have this thing that compels you to drink more than one, two, or three
00:50:55.680if you pick up the bottle. I mean, maybe there's the rare case. I'm sure there are who are able to
00:51:00.080do it, but it's the exception, not the rule. So why would he be publicizing it? That's a very good
00:51:04.680question. Well, we will see if there's another shoe to drop on that one. Put a pin in that.
00:51:10.580When we come back, an update. Maureen mentioned Michael Jackson. An update on a lawsuit against
00:51:16.740the Michael Jackson estate, a setback for the plaintiffs, and Chris Watts, a family annihilator,
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00:52:40.820Updates for you now on a few legal matters that we've been covering, including
00:52:44.860including the Nick Reiner case, the Chris Watts case, and a massive case brought by alleged
00:52:53.440child molestation victims against the Michael Jackson estate. Maureen Callahan is my guest
00:52:59.080today. She is host of The Nerve with Maureen Callahan, which you can find on all podcast
00:53:03.360platforms and YouTube. Go and subscribe now so you don't miss a moment of Maureen. You're a loss if
00:53:08.680you do. Trust me, if you haven't sampled The Nerve or The Nerve at night, you're missing out.
00:53:14.260Okay. Um, this Chris Watts case, like I'm, I've just been thinking weirdly about family
00:53:20.940annihilators because we've been doing this MK confidential series at night. And we have been
00:53:26.700this week, tonight's the fifth of the five episodes doing John list, who was a family
00:53:31.680annihilator who killed his whole family in 1971. If I do say so myself, it's a riveting series.
00:53:37.200Please go and check it out. It's on the Megan Kelly podcast feed. You don't have to look hard
00:53:41.120for it. But anyway, Chris Watts was kind of on my mind because he is one of the most notorious,
00:53:49.280infamous, awful family annihilators in American history. And he's still a relatively young man
00:53:55.060serving time for his crime. I'll get to the update in one second, but just to set the stage
00:54:00.980for people who don't remember this case, it happened in Denver, Colorado, and on August 13th
00:54:09.700of 2018, Watts would strangle his wife, Shanon, to death and kill their two daughters, Bella
00:54:16.920Four and Celeste Three, and then dispose of the children's bodies in the most detestable,0.54
01:20:08.320Aldo's courageous admission led to all his siblings
01:20:11.520finally sharing what they say Jackson had done to them.
01:20:15.240It was the hardest thing for me to do was to admit it
01:20:18.020oh yeah i can't describe the feeling the range of emotions that i was feeling at the time and coming
01:20:24.160out okay so they've tried now to crack open this settlement they entered into in 2019 with the
01:20:33.400jackson estate and they filed a lawsuit in california federal court trying to get their
01:20:39.780day in front of a jury and the california court just tossed the lawsuit wow saying you signed
01:20:45.760you signed a deal to arbitrate all claims. That's where you're going to have to resolve this. If at
01:20:51.860all, you're going in front of an arbitrator as you agreed to do by contract back in 2019,
01:20:57.000which is a very, very good ruling for the Michael Jackson estate. They'd much rather be in front of
01:21:02.820an arbitrator who will be a somber, serious, probably retired judge who will now find whether
01:21:10.960this settlement agreement they've reached can be voided. I guess that's what they're asking for
01:21:15.780because they want more money or what. But this, I tell you, Maureen, I don't know about the Casio
01:21:21.780family. I got real questions about them and this belated attempt to cash in on Michael Jackson's
01:21:29.480renewed fame and success. They had no money in the estate for a long, long time. Now they do,
01:21:35.160and they're back again this is this one is so interesting i i watched that 60 minutes piece
01:21:41.920when it aired uh i do i am of the belief that michael jackson was a pedophile i think that
01:21:50.280you know as you as you were like laying out in the in the very beginning of this
01:21:53.800the father comes home with like michael jackson and bubbles and it's like he's going to be living
01:21:59.760here indefinitely and like and it is weird but it's like it he's he's a lowly he's he may be the
01:22:07.220head of the bellhops but like he's a lowly guy compared to michael jackson and now michael jackson
01:22:14.280thinks i'm special me with my like two-car garage you know like okay um and you know and and that
01:22:23.580that that was sort of the the thing with michael right it was like he had to be around children
01:22:28.420But it was always said that it's just because he didn't have a childhood, you know, and I went back and watched that Oprah special with him as well, where he's like touring her around Neverland.
01:33:28.720And now the DA, Nathan Hockman, has said this, quote, this is a profound betrayal by someone who is loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing.
01:33:40.320I mean, if they are, there's, I just feel like there's only one reason why they would even introduce this, that he was lying in wait, this enhancement into the case.
01:33:48.660To me, it suggests they may indeed be considering going for the death penalty against this guy.