Iyanla Vanzant Returns to The Oprah Show
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There are two sides to every story, and Oprah shares how she remembers her last meeting with Iyanla, which occurred more than a decade ago.
Oprah: "[The executive producer] Dianne and I both left that meeting like, 'Whoa, what was that?' because we had never produced anybody in a show before but had plans, as you know, because we'd had the meeting with you. We'd also had a meeting with Dr. Phil. Both of you started the same time and were basically on the same track. Our intention was to develop that show in the time that we felt that we could develop that show for you, as well as for Dr. Phil.
So when you came to me and Dianne, and I remember this distinctly, you said that you'd been fasting for eight days."
Iyanla: "Yes. Seven days."
Oprah: "Seven. Okay. That you had fasted and prayed and that God had spoken to you and that God told you that this was..."
Iyanla: "The time is now."
Oprah: "No, not just the time—no. This is what I recall. You said, 'This is the anointed time. Not the appointed time.' The anointed time. That stuck in my mind—the anointed time. Not the appointed time. My feeling was, and Dianne was all, 'Well, we were planning...' and I said, 'I am not going to go against God.' If God has told Iyanla that this is the anointed time, then we need to back off and give her the freedom and the wherewithal to do that. I am not going to stand in her way. ... At the time, we didn't even know it was Barbara Walters.
Iyanla: "But I didn't have a deal at the time. That's what was so confusing."
Oprah: "No, but you left us with the impression, I'm telling you, because otherwise if I thought you could have been talked into it, because we had a big conversation about, 'Should we try to talk her into it?' ... I thought, 'You have this really big opportunity.' I wasn't even angry."
Oprah: "[The executive producer] Dianne and I both left that meeting like, 'Whoa, what was that?' because we had never produced anybody in a show before but had plans, as you know, because we'd had the meeting with you. We'd also had a meeting with Dr. Phil. Both of you started the same time and were basically on the same track. Our intention was to develop that show in the time that we felt that we could develop that show for you, as well as for Dr. Phil.
So when you came to me and Dianne, and I remember this distinctly, you said that you'd been fasting for eight days."
Iyanla: "Yes. Seven days."
Oprah: "Seven. Okay. That you had fasted and prayed and that God had spoken to you and that God told you that this was..."
Iyanla: "The time is now."
Oprah: "No, not just the time—no. This is what I recall. You said, 'This is the anointed time. Not the appointed time.' The anointed time. That stuck in my mind—the anointed time. Not the appointed time. My feeling was, and Dianne was all, 'Well, we were planning...' and I said, 'I am not going to go against God.' If God has told Iyanla that this is the anointed time, then we need to back off and give her the freedom and the wherewithal to do that. I am not going to stand in her way. ... At the time, we didn't even know it was Barbara Walters.
Iyanla: "But I didn't have a deal at the time. That's what was so confusing."
Oprah: "No, but you left us with the impression, I'm telling you, because otherwise if I thought you could have been talked into it, because we had a big conversation about, 'Should we try to talk her into it?' ... I thought, 'You have this really big opportunity.' I wasn't even angry."
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