Oprah Winfrey said in a new interview that you can’t be her friend if you use the ‘n-word’ around her. The comments came after one of her former co-stars suggested that Winfrey would be a “field n***er.”

In the interview for Parade, which is meant to promote the new film Lee Daniels’ The Butler, the former talk show host is asked to comment on the ‘n-word.’

“You cannot be my friend and use that word around me. It shows my age, but I feel strongly about it,” Winfrey said. “I always think of the millions of people who heard that as their last word as they were hanging from a tree.”

Director Lee Daniels added, “It’s a word I used quite a bit, until Oprah sat me down and talked to me about its power.” Winfrey’s co-star, Forest Whitaker added that he’s never uses it and still never says it.

The comments from Winfrey follow her Color Purple co-star Rae Dawn Chong’s surprising radio interview earlier this month, in which she suggested that Winfrey would not be respected as she is today 60 years ago. “She would have not been a house n**ger she would have been a field n**ger,” Chong said.

According to The LA Times, Chong later said she regretted the comments and that they were taken out of context. “Out of context, it's a most unfortunate choice of words and I regret it,” Chong said. “Do I take back everything I said? No.”

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