Oprah Gets an Earful From Robin Givens Over Tyson 'Sock' Interview

By PopEater Staff Posted Nov 14th 2009 10:20AM

Robin Givens took Oprah Winfrey to task on Friday for allowing her ex-husband Mike Tyson to joke about domestic abuse during a chat with him last month.

When discussing his and Robin's 1988 interview with Barbara Walters, where Tyson claimed she was telling lies, the boxer grew angry. "At that particular moment, I truly wanted to sock her, but I just didn't do it," he told Oprah to laughter in the audience. "I have socked her before, and she socked me before, as well. It was just that kind of relationship."

The laughter and Winfrey's failure to rebuke Tyson bothered Givens, who is now a spokesperson for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. She says she was "really, really hurt" by the way Winfrey handled the interview.

"It's tough for all women to experience this. It's tough to have a man say it and feel that it's no big thing."

Givens recounted some of the fights she and her then-husband had had and said it was important for Winfrey to take a stand for all women.

With tears welling in her eyes, the actress said, "I wouldn't be honest if there wasn't a part of me that wanted you to go, when he said, 'Oh, I've socked her before...' 'That's not right.' And it wasn't right, it was painful ... He can say whatever about me... but there are so many women like me, in my situation, that I just feel when there is this laughter, if you are in that situation out there, it kind of lightens it."

Winfrey believes her studio audience laughed because "they were uncomfortable" and because Tyson used the old-fashioned word "sock" instead of the word "hit."

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"I don't think that they were laughing at you, I think they were laughing at the term," she told Givens.

Nevertheless, Winfrey apologized profusely for not standing up for Givens and other abused women.

"In that moment, I will tell you, I felt that I should have said something. I felt that I should have said, 'Audience, that isn't funny' or, 'Audience, this is really serious,'" she says. "So I regretted even in that moment. ... I would say to you and to every woman who's ever been hit, I feel that I did not handle that as well as I should have. And I feel that I could have gone further and should have said more to clarify that what he was doing and what he was saying was wrong. So I apologize to you and to every woman who has ever been in that situation."

A relieved Givens said, "Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Tyson and Givens' marriage lasted only a year, ending in 1989.

Tags: mike tyson, MikeTyson, oprah winfrey, OprahWinfrey, robin givens, RobinGivens

Comments

(40)

Saturday 14 November

By Rock Dwyer

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Robin Givens...........
Wow, OK Mike was a bad boy and he may still be a bad boy Iam not sure? People like to sometimes test him and get him to fuse. I would agree it would be wise for HIM to NOT let that happen!

HOWEVER: Robin Givens has made a "Cottage Industry" of pursuing Mike Tyson. She never lets off and goes on and on. I am sure she feels that battered women do NOT deserve to be battered. I agree with that..... My suggestion to her is that she needs to move on and let Mike Tyson do the same..... Robin, it is getting old and you need to cut a new record.
Rock

By Makin'ithapp'n

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Oprah is a hypo-crite and Tyson allow people to do what they did to him. He should have taken the money he made and got some education, then gold-diggers(as u all say)like Givens wouldn't be able to take advantage of him. I believe he raped the young lady thinking nothing was going to happen to him and as for somebody needn' money, HOW ABOUT MIKE!!!!!!!!!

By jaddeyez

robin you gold digging hoe,you drove mike crazy and stole his money.

By Quin

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Robin kept backing down from what she was saying; more than once she stopped to qualify her statements as like the voice of the people not her feelings as the woman addressed by Tyson and a victim of abuse. It's like she wrote this angry letter to Oprah and then her PR people were like "WHAT DID YOU DO?" So Robin did an about face and use an appearance on Oprah to be relevant again. Which just goes to show that no matter what someone's been through, they can still be a filthy, fame whoring sellout.

By Don

Mike should know better than to marry a woman named Robbing. Now wonder he is broke. She and her mother got all his money

By sara2u2

Oprah control every aspect of her show, so how can she feel people were laughin a tyson choice of words he use to explain what he feels and by the way how can u sayn the audience was laughin at that,she truly is a HYPOCRITE b-cause this happen 13yrs. ago it still abuse,CeCe wINAN shoved his wife in front of the kids,yet she invited him onto her show,Chris Brown was not to be invited b-cause she does not aqpprove of violence in any form SHAME ON U OPRAH CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

By Laura

OK, this Witch is mad because Oprah did not handle the remark Tyson made about " I felt like socking her" well? Excuse me, Witch, you too socked him back many of times. Nothing ever constitutes hitting anyone, whether it be a spouse or anyone else. Therefore, Givens should just put a sock on it.

By nancybaby

Robin needs some publicity.

By J

Mike Tyson got punched for a living, and mentions Robin Givens struck him on several occasions--but when he mentions *wanting* to hit back on one occasion, Oprah is supposed to stop the interview and act like it's the Holocaust. I call BS.

By DEvans

Unless you have been "socked" beyond recognition, layed in the hospital 8 times,had your uterous ruptured from a kung fu kick you don't know what abuse from a man is...when you do then you can call people names

By Nette

This is what gets me its abuse when he hits her, what is it when she hit him? As a Woman, we need to realize because we are hurt & angry does not give us the right to hit or "sock" these men. Once you extend your hand to hit, expect to be hit back. Once he hits back, don't go on about being abused because you were not!

By yabbi

Oprah has made some clinker mistakes, including Tyson and Palin. She thinks she's omniscient and infallible. I think she's a big egotist. She's really lost my interest these days. That photo of her with Palin makes me ill.

By RADY

Robin Givens,golddigger,golddigger,golddigger and a big liar.I feel for Tyson,he's been rob,frame,rip off,threw under the bus,doublecross, you name it.This man been crucify. All for the love of his money!

Sunday 15 November

By max

Robin Givens can blow! And I bet she hit and provoked Mike ten times more than he did her. Oprah can blow too! Neither one of them said a damn thing about it not being right for Givens or any other woman to physically attack a man. As usual only the men are to be held accountable and the women should be able to do whatever the hell they want and get away with it. Well screw Robin and Oprah....and any woman or stupid man who believes that bull.

By sayer

Mike Tython ith an earbiting cheater who detherved everything he lotht. He'th a wifebeater who thtill thinkth it'th a big joke.
Oprah was confused by "a word"? Pleeease~the woman was afraid to say something cuz Mike would have "socked" her too. She makes way too many mistakes for someone who has been in this business for so long. She's a prejudiced hypocrite and I don't watch her show EVER.

By Xspess ur thoughts

Oprah is a hippo ass! As for Robin Givens she has every right to be pissed at Oprah. Oprah is supposed to be a advocate for womens rights and preaches against abuse. Guess she just is a phoney baloney!

By Johnjfoote

Sorry no victim there. He was wrong but she did her share and was a gold digger from the get go ,no angle in any shape or form and stop crying about it after all these tears.

Monday 16 November

By Katy Katwilder

I am no fan of Robin Givens, but I give her credit for continuing to ride the "victim" train. While I surely don't condone anyone hitting anyone, Robin and her mother deserve Golddigger of the Century awards. Mike wasn't and isn't a "savvy" kind of guy, so at that time, to have someone like Givens "attracted" to him probably did a lot for his ego. However, Robin and her mother are a couple of real operators and nothing will ever make me believe they didn't coldly calculate how to rip Mike off. Robin may have cultivated a following based on her "abuse," but I think she and her mother did far more damage than Mike did to her. We're talking about a man who has anger issues and great difficulty controlling them. I find it difficult to believe he was as abusive as Givens claims, but then, I would have difficulty believing anything she says. She lied and said she graduated from Sarah Lawrence, a very prestigious institution, and that was a blatant lie. She may have attended, but she never graduated. And, I don't believe for one second that Oprah was glorifying abuse on her show. I think, once again, Givens is using this as an avenue to garner some much-needed attention. When is the last time she appeared in anything noteworthy? She and her mother need to crawl back under that rock and be silent.

Wednesday 10 March

By marvin lowery

I think that Mike Tyson(because he married a gold digger like Robin givens) should be horse whipped!This man knew that she was draining his bank account and said nothing.I guess that the physical infatuation,out weighed the currency that he kept in his wallet.

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