Oprah washes her hands of Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz over their pro-Trump politics: Not one thing to do with me

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is washing her hands of Dr.Phil McGraw and Dr.

Mehmet Oz — two television stars whose careers she helped launch before they veered sharply to the political right and into President Trump’s orbit.“People criticize me for Dr.Phil and Dr.

Oz, because of their politics or their views,” the billionaire media mogul told Emmy magazine in an interview published last Tuesday.“Everybody has their own path in life, and it has not one thing to do with me, and I don’t have one thing to do with them.”The distancing is striking because Winfrey was instrumental in introducing both men to a mass audience on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” before her Harpo Productions helped turn them into stand-alone television brands.Winfrey acknowledged as much, saying the reason she gave both men their “breaks” was that she believed they had information worth sharing.“At the time, the reason and intention behind me giving them their breaks was I thought they had valuable information to share that had been meaningful to me,” Winfrey said.McGraw’s relationship with Winfrey dates to 1998, when he helped her during a six-week Texas trial stemming from a lawsuit filed by cattlemen who accused her of defaming the beef industry.“Dr.Phil, he was so practical, so down to earth, so real,” Winfrey told Emmy.“And he would ride in the car with me every morning on the way to trial, where I’m literally sitting on trial for six weeks.”Winfrey said McGraw’s advice made such an impression that she decided to put him before her viewers.“I felt that he was so instrumental in helping me,” she said.

“I thought, ‘Oh, you could help a lot of people.You should come on my show.’”McGraw became one of Oprah’s most familiar experts, ultimately logging 118 appearances, according to official statistics from the show.His first book, “Life Strategies,” became a bestseller in 1999, with Publishers Weekly crediting Oprah’s endorsement as one fac...