Oprah Winfrey has settled the defamation lawsuit filed against her by the former headmistress of her South African girls’ school. Nomvuyo Mzamane accused Winfrey of defaming her when the talk show host commented in 2007 about a sex-abuse scandal at the school. (A dorm matron was charged with sexual abuse of six students and later pleaded not guilty to 14 charges. In the wake of the allegations, Winfrey said she had “lost confidence” in Mzamane and was “cleaning house from top to bottom.”) Mzamane denied knowledge of the abuse and said she couldn’t find work as a result of Winfrey’s statement. Lawyers for both sides jointly released a statement saying the two had talked “woman to woman” and settled the dispute before the trial started in Philadelphia next week.
