She had a close and frightening call with one of nature’s largest creatures. Billionaire Oprah Winfrey revealed to her former talk show rival David Letterman that she was nearly trampled by an unhappy elephant while on Safari in Africa.
The 59-year-old shared the hair-raising story on CBS’ Late Show on Thursday night with a home video shot on her iPhone. In the video, posted on the entrepreneur’s Facebook page on Saturday, an elephant can be seen approaching Winfrey’s safari truck. Clearly in an angry mood, the giant beast nearly tramples the Jeep as it belts out an elephant call – frightening everyone on the Serengeti tour. A guide can be heard advising the television star to ‘keep rolling’ as the massive creature runs up on them.
Oprah replies in a frightened tone: ‘I’m rolling.’ But the iconic business woman can then be heard exclaiming: ‘I’m gonna wet my pants. Oh my Jesus! Oh my Jesus. I think I just… my heart just dropped down to my knee caps.’ After watching the tense video Letterman was clearly impressed by the close encounter.
Winfrey explained the circumstances of her run-in: ‘We had just gotten into the truck… and we saw some elephants over by the… doing their whole elephant water hole thing…and one was a little irritated, so I tweeted that out.’ Letterman replied: ‘You’re lucky to be alive.’ The narrow escape may have been due to her guide clapping loudly to distract the creature, but nonetheless the TV icon was grateful to be left unharmed.