Chicago, Ill. – Oprah Winfrey hit the headlines for the past few weeks thanks to the success of her co-produced award-winning drama “Precious,” the talks about moving her show in her own cable network, and more recently, for her show’s topics about domestic violence. And oh, she also said something which got former boxer Mike Tyson’s ex, Robin Givens, offended.

“I was really hurt, really, really, hurt,” says Givens to Winfrey after the host and the audience reacted to the actress’ file interview with Barbara Walters back in 1998. Tyson claimed that his ex apparently lied at the interview in which he said, “At that particular moment, I truly wanted to sock her, but I didn’t do it,” which made the rest of them laughed.

Givens, now a spokesperson for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, says that Oprah’s reaction was really difficult to take.

“I just wanted you… when he said ‘I’ve socked her before,’ to say, ‘That’s not right!’ And it wasn’t right and it was painful,” she said. “There are so many women like me out there… if you hear laughter about it, it lightens it.”

Winfrey, upon realizing the actress’ side, did apologize for her reaction.

“In that moment, I didn’t know-the audience laughed because they were uncomfortable, and the word ’sock,’ you think of a cartoon character, they weren’t laughing at you,” she explained. “I should have said something. ‘This isn’t funny.’ I regretted… that moment. To you and every woman who’s ever been hit, I feel that I did not handle that as well as I should have-I apologize to you, and to every woman in that situation, for not being sharp enough.”

“I hope you accept my apology,” Winfrey added. “I had a lot of empathy and compassion for Mike Tyson and still do, but that never makes hitting women OK. It’s never OK.”

Photos by Wenn.com