The Jasmine Brand reports that while Oprah Winfrey’s best friend journalist Gayle King said Russell Simmons did not pressure her to step back from the documentary featuring women who accused him of sexual assault, the media mogul revealed that he did try.

It was reported earlier this month that Oprah Winfrey exited the documentary for creative differences. King said that despite Russell Simmons’s very public criticism of the project, he was not the reason Oprah Winfrey left:

“I know this was a very stressful and very difficult decision for her to take her name off because she knows that her taking her name off because, as you point out, Russell has done a very public and very private campaign to convince her, she knows that the message that sends is that maybe she was muzzled. Nothing can be further from the case.”

“She thought that the documentary needed to breathe a little more. She thought that it was important that it be put in context for the times because you know these allegations [are] from many years ago and now we’re here in 2020. Put it in context of the times of what was going on there at that time.”

Check out more of what was said at The Jasmine Brand!