Seal late Wednesday used his Instagram account to blast Oprah Winfrey over her ties to disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
The “Kiss From a Rose” singer seemed to be responding to the near-universal acclaim Oprah’s Golden Globes speech received on Sunday. One that sparked rumors of a 2020 presidential run, and rallied against racist and misogynist oppression. But to Seal, born Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel, the fact that she was an acquaintance of Weinstein apparently made Oprah complicit in Weinstein’s long and dark history of sexual assault.
“Oh I forgot, that’s right…..you’d heard the rumours but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young stary-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into. My bad. #SanctimoniousHollywood,” Seal wrote to his 100,000-plus Instagram followers. The caption accompanied a meme of Oprah being friendly with Weinstein:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdw9Onnn7og/?taken-by=seal
The Twitter backlash was mostly defensive of Oprah; it blasted Seal for invoking Weinstein and drawing a parallel between him and a sexual assault survivor.
So Seal has decided to lay the blame for Hollywood's sexual assault culture on Oprah, a survivor of sexual assault. Interesting… pic.twitter.com/WzrzCw6VV3
— Elsbeth Tashioni (@THISisLULE) January 10, 2018
Who the hell are YOU, Seal, to call out @Oprah about this KNOWING how she has been empowering women for YEARS and has, herself, been the subject of sexual assault years ago. Do YOU have firsthand knowledge that Oprah turned a blind eye to Weinstein's antics? If so, produce it!
— Linda Vastardis (@OriginalLinnie) January 10, 2018
It’s unclear what made the British singer so upset. His ex-wife Heidi Klum spoke out against Weinstein in October, but did not say that she was harassed by him. Maybe the thought of a presidential race featuring two television stars and no public servants was getting under the cryptocurrency enthusiast‘s skin. But as Seal infamously sang on his debut 1991 single: “We’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy.”
H/T Fox