Rickey Smiley is still fired up after Oprah Winfrey’s appearance last week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Winfrey did the unthinkable when she aired out Whitney Houston’s most vulnerable moment in front of a room full of strangers.
The OWN founder casually revealed that the late fell backstage before a 2009 appearance on her show — while allegedly under the influence. Fans were horrified and erupted online, but Smiley let Winfrey have it with his words.
“MY GOD!! WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU,” Smiley wrote on X on June 28.
The radio personality is doubling down after going live on Instagram Live, going after Winfrey and her best friend, Gayle King.
In a video from last week, Smiley said the real issue wasn’t whether Winfrey’s account was accurate. He argued that some stories simply should never be told.
“I don’t care if she was high or not. Whitney Houston is dead and gone,” Smiley said. “Whitney Houston meant a lot to us. Whitney Houston was a big sister to a lot of us.”
For Smiley, Winfrey’s reveal served no purpose and reopened wounds that had barely healed.
“That was something that we didn’t need to know,” he said. “We didn’t ask for that information. We didn’t need to know that information.”
“Whitney Houston is someone you don’t talk about in the Black community if you’re in touch,” Smiley added.
I wish Oprah had learned from her audience and held that secret because now people are going to believe that Whitney had started abusing substances again, which ultimately led to her death.
— ☈O2☈EAL✨ 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 (@_romeko) June 24, 2026
Mind you, this is part of the same 2009 interview that was taped a day before the taping… pic.twitter.com/XBmJz6N0Bn
He said the Obamas, as well as the families of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Michael Jackson, who are all considered “Black royalty,” are also off limits.
Smiley also blasted her close friend, a “CBS Morning” host, for being disconnected from the Black community.
He recalled King had asked WNBA legend Lisa Leslie about the allegations against Kobe Bryant just days after his death.
During the 2020 interview, King asked whether it was fair to discuss the allegations after Bryant’s passing or whether they had become part of his legacy.
This same concern, Smiley believes, Oprah reignited with her comments about Whitney Houston.
Gayle King tried to manipulate Lisa Leslie into bashing Kobe Bryant after he perished in a helicopter crash with his daughter and friends.
— Josly Ngoma (@josly_ngoma) February 6, 2020
This trend of trying to make people believe Kobe Bryant was a monster, needs to end immediately. #RIPMambaAndGiannahttps://t.co/kVRU9oN7HJ
She questioned whether it was fair to talk about it after Bryant’s passing or whether it had become part of his legacy — much like how people view Houston.
“Why would you bring up stuff like that?” Smiley said to Winfrey and King, whom he called “Tone deaf.”
Smiley made it plain: Houston’s legacy was never her struggle. It was always her gift. He invoked her Super Bowl national anthem and her gospel recordings as the truest testimony of who she was.
“The fact that y’all are so out of touch with the black community for so long that y’all don’t know not to talk about certain things in a certain kind of way,” he stated.
The “Friday After Next” star said Black people support Oprah and Gayle, but they are constantly “missing the mark on some stuff.”
“What are people going to say about you when you die? What legacy are you leaving?” he wondered, later adding, “Don’t forget where y’all come from.”
Internet users connected the dots to some of Winfrey’s controversial interviews after The Jasmine Brand reposted Smiley’s video.
“Rickey summed it up perfectly!” Funky Dineva wrote. Another added, “I’m so glad someone said it!”
One commenter delivered the line many felt said it all: “Oprah ain’t been back to black since the original color of purple.”
A fourth person agreed with Smiley’s remarks that people consider how someone is remembered.
You’re right! We all have issues, and she struggled and tried very hard to overcome hers. What Oprah shared was uncalled for. We did not need to know. She’s dead and gone. Let her rest! Whatever you know or think you know, keep it!”
Another critic said, “I have never heard Oprah do this to a white celebrity.”
On X, Art of Dialogue shared his remarks and drew the same heat. “What did Gayle do!” one person asked about the unprovoked jab at her career.
One sentiment has followed Winfrey for decades: “Y’all shoulda wrote her off like I did when she try to play with Michael in the 90’s.” This remark refers to Winfrey’s controversial 1993 interview with Michael Jackson.
Many called Winfrey disrespectful for inquiring about his appearance and the scandalous rumors rather than about his career.
They weren’t interested, he once even tried to gently explain to Oprah how an artist should be interviewed, by asking about what inspires them, not by focusing on the ridiculous things the media was obsessed with.
— kousa (@raghadbir) June 28, 2026
Instead she asked him: How much plastic surgeries have you had?🤦🏻♀️ https://t.co/YsCdrG85Xy pic.twitter.com/kf9sKiJ5j7
Winfrey framed her Cannes remarks as a lesson in media responsibility.
She said Houston fell off the stage before performing for the studio audience and that she immediately moved to shield her.
“I knew that if that story got out that she’d fallen off that stage that she would be destroyed by that,” Winfrey said. “I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that.”
The Houston family was not moved. Pat Houston, who is married to Whitney’s brother, fired back with precision.
“What the studio audience witnessed on stage was the result of discipline, talent, and commitment — not the assumptions others project,” Pat said. “Whitney’s humanity included triumphs and struggles, but on that day, she showed up as the professional and gifted artist she always worked to be. We owe her the dignity of telling the truth — not repeating myths.”
Smiley’s message to the culture was simple: protect those who can no longer protect themselves. Some stories are not ours to tell.
