14 DAY TRIAL // Following a bidding war between networks, Oksana Grigorieva will tell her story, including details on the much-mediated Mel Gibson scandal, on The Oprah Winfrey Show, it has emerged.
Yesterday, word got out in the media that the Russian singer had finally decided to go public with her side of the story, thus putting an end to many months of speculation.
At the time, it was not known whether Oksana had gone to the media with the offer, or if she’d been approached for it. What was certain, though, was that there was a lot of money at stake.
As it turns out, Oksana and her advisors opted to go on the record on Oprah, to the disadvantage of the other strong competitor, 60 Minutes, Us Magazine reports.
“Oprah has landed Oksana. A source tells Us Magazine that Mel Gibson’s ex, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, will sit down with the daytime diva to talk about her rocky relationship with the 54-year-old actor, with whom she has a baby daughter, Lucia,” the magazine writes.
“Winfrey, 56, whose 25th season ends this year, had been battling 60 Minutes for the sought-after sit-down,” Us further says.
“A rep for Harpo, Winfrey’s production company, told Us it was not ready to make any announcement at this time,” the same publication reports.
As we also noted the other day, the interview is bound to get a lot of attention in the media because it’s the first time that Oksana officially talks about her romance and nasty split from Mel Gibson.
Since the scandal and allegations of domestic violence began, the Russian singer only spoke to Radar once, when paps almost cornered her in the street and she issued an impromptu statement.
Aside from going on the record saying that Gibson was trivializing domestic violence with his refusal to admit that he’d roughed her up a few times, Oksana also claimed she was a victim of a smear campaign.
“I think Mel, basically, is trivializing domestic violence. It is unfair that by standing up to somebody – and speaking out – I am being victimized all over again. He has hurt so many people I feel like I am being victimized all over again,” she said at the time.
“No, I have never tried to extort anything from him. There is no proof of anything. It is all false information he is feeding the press. It is a smear campaign, clearly, to me. I am absolutely convinced of that... It is very unfair,” Grigorieva added.