Seal slams Oprah: ‘Part of the problem for decades’

SINGER Seal has sensationally slammed Oprah Winfrey in the wake of her celebrated Golden Globes speech, declaring the talk show queen an example of “sanctimonious Hollywood”.

Winfrey won widespread praise for her rousing speech at the Golden Globes earlier this week, speaking passionately about women’s rights and the #metoo movement as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

The oration led to much media speculation about a possible Presidential bid from Winfrey in the future — but it also turned focus on her former friendship with Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul whose comeuppance kickstarted the movement to expose sexual misconduct in Hollywood.

Pictures dating back to 2014 show Winfrey embracing and kissing Weinstein, and the pair were understood to be good friends with a professional relationship stretching back decades.

Seal, 54, shared a couple of these pictures with his 106,000 Instagram followers on his official account, accompanied by the text: “When you’ve been part of the problem for decades but suddenly they all think you are the solution.”

Seal appeared to address Winfrey directly in his accompanying caption.

“Oh I forgot, that’s right ... you’d heard the rumours but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young starry-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into. My bad. #SanctimoniousHollywood,” he wrote.

Seal’s social media followers flooded the post with comments — many of them negative.

“Your job is to sing Kiss From A Rose. Do that and be quiet,” wrote one.

“Pretty gauche to blame women for the crimes of men,” said another.

Others asked why Seal didn’t turn his attention to ex-wife Heidi Klum, who enjoyed a long professional relationship with Weinstein (The Weinstein Company was executive producer of her show Project Runway).

“Sooooo, are you going to post Heidi’s picture too being that she was friends with him as well ... Or is your outrage selective?” wrote one.

“So when are you going to post about Heidi Klum? She was super close with that man,” said another.

Seal has met Winfrey before — he and Klum appeared on a 2007 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, telling the talk show queen about their relationship during a joint interview.

The Voice Australia coach is no stranger to controversy — last year he angered viewers of the Channel 9 singing show by declaring Lorde’s critically acclaimed hit single Green Light was a “bad song”.