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Updated: 11:30 a.m., Oct. 13, 2009: Mike Tyson's interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show proved to be more moving than we even expected. As previously reported, Tyson touched on the accidental death of his 4-year-old daughter Exodus in the interview, but seeing the footage during which "Iron Mike" tears up really brought home the father's anguish.
Exodus lost her life earlier this year when she became entangled in the cord of a treadmill. During the interview Oprah asked him what happened, while an image of the girl was shown on-screen in the studio. "Oh man, this is my angel right there," Tyson said, visibly choked up. "I don't know what happened. I don't want to know....because if I know, there might be a blame for it, and if somebody's to blame for it there will be a problem."
Check out the clips to see how the former champ is dealing with his loss, as well as his thoughts about Evander Holyfield ("I didn't feel guilty at all") and Robin Givens ("I truly wanted to sock her."). As previously reported:
During the media maven's no-holds-barred chat with "Iron Mike," no topic was off limits.
The Brooklyn-born pugilist talked candidly about it all, including his disastrous marriage and divorce from former TV star Robin Givens; his trial and three-year imprisonment for rape; his ear-biting bout with Evander Holyfield, the award-winning film 'Tyson,' which has generated Oscar buzz; and the tragic death of his daughter.
Excerpts are below:
Tyson speaks about the death of his daughter, Exodus
OPRAH: We heard it was a freak accident that she --
MIKE: Yeah. Yeah.
OPRAH: -- somehow had twisted the cord.
MIKE: That's what I heard, too. I don't know
OPRAH: You don't know. You still don't know.
MIKE: I don't want to know.
OPRAH: You don't want to know?
MIKE: Because if I know, then there might be a blame for it. And if there's somebody to blame for it, there will be a problem.
OPRAH: You don't want to carry that.
MIKE: Yeah.
Tyson on how his daughter's death affected him
OPRAH: How has her death affected or changed you? I heard you just say she's a little angel. I actually do believe that when you loved somebody and they've loved you that you end up with an angel whose name that you know.
MIKE: I don't know, Oprah, you know. I'd like to believe that, and that sounds great, you know.
OPRAH: Mm-hmm.
MIKE: But my first instinct was a lot of rage, you know, and I was so happy that I had the tools in life, you know, to not go in that direction because I've been that direction. I know where that's gonna lead me. I know I'm not gonna win. I'm tired of losing. I want to win now, you know. My family's -- that's my biggest asset.
Tyson on Evander Holyfield
OPRAH: You bit him twice. Once in each ear.
MIKE: Yeah, I didn't feel guilty at all.
OPRAH: You didn't feel guilty?
MIKE: No, I didn't feel guilty at the time.
OPRAH: Did you ever feel remorse for it?
MIKE: Well, you know, I apologized to him and --
OPRAH: When you apologized, did you feel the apology?
MIKE: No, I did not. No. It wasn't sincere. It wasn't sincere and stuff.
OPRAH: Thank you for saying that because when I heard it, I didn't think it was.
MIKE: It wasn't sincere.
Tyson on the Robin Givens/Barbara Walters interview
OPRAH: Why did you sit there that whole time?
MIKE: I don't know. I was just overwhelmed.
OPRAH: Did you believe she was saying what she was saying?
MIKE: No.
OPRAH: No (laughter). Were you surprised that she was saying those things?
MIKE: Yeah. I truly wanted to sock her. You know? At that particular moment, I truly wanted to sock her. But I just didn't do it. I was young at that time. I was just really --
OPRAH: Did you sock her afterwards?
MIKE: No, not afterwards. I didn't sock her. I wanted to sock her. I have socked her before. And she socked me before as well. But it was just that kind of relationship, you know?
OPRAH: Was it an abusive relationship?
MIKE: Oh, definitely. Definitely. Both ways. Definitely.
Comments: (117)
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By: SB on 10/18/2009 9:07PM
In some people's defense though, quite a few people use the "race card," as you put it, for a lot of stupid reasons that really don't make sense. Like the man whose family moved from Great Britain. He was black. He played the "your great great grandpa enslaved my people" scenario to try to get out of working while he was clocked in...(what made it a little more ridiculous is that one of the people he was talking to had a black niece whom he adored...)
I understand where you're coming from though, and it's true. I was just trying to point out that some people do use the "race card" and ruin race discussion in general.
I think that both sides just need to drop it and move on: We're all just people no better and no worse than anybody else!!!!!!
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By: Gee on 10/12/2009 5:57AM
Mike Tyson was a great fighter, not a great boxer, but a great fighter. He punched to hard to really become a great boxer. Sugar Ray Robinson, Chavez, Ali, Hagler, Duran, Tyrone Everett(who's life ended tragically), just to name a few, those guys were great boxers. Tyson was an all out great fighter. As for his personal life, well that was a tragedy. I've seen many fighters end up worse than him. His downfall came when he left Kevin Rooney. He had real family with Cus and Rooney. After he left his real family he was surrounded by parasites and he didn't really care because he was so young, arrogant, confident, and wasn't that bright. He has changed so much since his days of greatness and I really look forward to this interview.
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By: MCB on 10/12/2009 6:13AM
IT'S OBVIOUS THAT OPRAH LOST A GOOD PORTIONOF HER AUDIENCE FOR BACKING NOBAMA BECAUSE OF HER RACISM. SHE IS SUPOSED TO BE A JOURNALIST AND FAIR BUT SHE WASN'T FAIR ABOUT ANYTHING BY NOT EVEN ALLOWING MCCAIN OR PALIN ON HER SHOW AS SHE DID CLINTON/DOLE AND OTHERS. HER CREDIBILITY IS IN THE CRAPPER FOR GOOD AND I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE CAN FIND HER WAY OUT UNLESS SHE KEEPS THROWING MONEY AFTER MONEY AT A WEAK PEOPLE THAT CLAIM TO BE ABLE TO MAKE THEIR OWN CHOICES BUT DON'T. MAYBE IT'S OPRAHS STATUS WITH "THE BIDEBERG GROUP" THAT WAS THREATENED IF SHE DIDN'T BACK NOBAMA BUT IN ANY CASE NOBAMA WAS "PLACED"IN BY SOMEONE CONNECTED WITH A LOT OF MONEY TO BE ABLE TO BUY OFF THE MEDIA AND HOLLYWOOD LIKE THEY DID. CONSPIRACY IS WRITTEN ALL OVER THIS MESS AND PEOPLE STILL THINK THIS "MESSIAH" STILL WON THE ELECTION FAIRLY. PEOPLE ARE SEEING THE LIES AND OPRAH IS NOW BEING MUM ABOUT HER STUPID CHOICE AS PRESIDENT AND SHE IS NOW PAYING THE PRICE FOR HAVING SCRUBB GUESTS LIKE MIKE TYSON ON. HOW DOES IT FEEL OPRAH, YOU SOCIALIST/NEW AGE MEDIA WHORE. THE NEXT THING WE WILL HEAR FROM HER NEW SHOW IS SHE WILL INVITE THE NOBEL COMMITTE TO THE SHOW TO TRY TO EXPLAIN WHY THEY JUST CHANGED FOREVER THE MOST COVETED AWARD EVER FOR ACOMPLISHMENT INTO A TOTAL JOKE.MAN 2012 CAN'T GET HERE FAST ENOUGH TO VOTE THIS LYING BUM NOBAMA OUT OF OFFICE STARTING WITH THE SENATE IN 2010.
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By: sue on 10/13/2009 4:27PM
do you know that it is improper to put your message in all caps? Apparently not.
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By: Nadia on 10/12/2009 12:04PM
This is a shame. Why do we allow the trolls and racists take over BV? If people really wanted to have an intelligent debate about Obama or politics in general, they would start a topic on the message board. Hell, go to Oprah's site and voice your views to her if you feel strongly about your views. So many times different topics become race and Obama debates and we allow it to happen. Don't go there with these people!
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By: "DimePiece" on 10/13/2009 12:17AM
I watched the Oprah Winfrey Show today with Mike Tyson and I cried throughout the program. I know he had done some mean, disrespectful, hateful,violent things in his past but he stood there on her show with remorse and he was sincere. It was painful to watch when Oprah asked him about his 4 year-old daughter's death. He got all chocked up.
The Robin Given question Oprhah asked, he told how he felt. He blamed himself for being an abusive husband and was very sorry for what happened to Robin. Tyson has come a long way. The documentary and interview with Ophrah showed the audience that he is a changed, loving, forgiving, and respectful man. I pray for him and his family and for him to continue to stay on the right path!
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By: J on 10/13/2009 3:28PM
Mike Tyson's interview with Oprah was touching and real. He was very sincere and spoke from his heart and spoke his truth. What emerged was a (hu)man struggling with the pit bull, angry, fight your way through life IRON MIKE to Mike the father of 7 kids, fighting with his own demons to live a different life. This interview had nothing to do with Oprah's skill as a talk show host but more to having an authentic guest.
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By: Susan on 10/13/2009 3:42PM
I am really disappointed in Opra. She has the opportunity to talk about God, but she chooses to look for other ways to account for how things happen and how to feel good. She has a huge venue to speak out the truth, but she does not. What a disappointment!
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By: J on 10/13/2009 3:43PM
OPRAH WINFREY?
Do you really know Oprah Winfrey? Let's see if she deserves your hateful and disrespectful comments.
Oprah Winfrey has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and was once the world's only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.
Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood.
Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school in Tennessee and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.
Oprah Winfrey is generally admired for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others.
Despite her dysfunctional home life, Winfrey skipped two of her earliest grades, became the teacher's pet, and by the time she was 13 received a scholarship to attend Nicolet High School in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale, Wisconsin. After suffering years of abuse, at 14, her mother sent her to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father, Vernon Winfrey, was strict, but encouraging and made her education a priority. Oprah became an honors student, was voted Most Popular Girl, joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, and placed second in the nation in dramatic interpretation. She won an oratory contest, which secured her full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black institution, where she studied communication. At age 17, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant. She also attracted the attention of the local black radio station, WVOL, which hired her to do the news part-time. She worked there during her senior year of high school, and again while in her first two years of college.
Working in local media, she was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's WLAC-TV. She moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV in 1976 to co-anchor the six o'clock news. She was then recruited to join Richard Sher as co-host of WJZ's local talk show People Are Talking, which premiered on August 14, 1978. She also hosted the local version of Dialing for Dollars there as well.
Winfrey currently lives on “The Promised Land”, her 42-acre (170,000 m²) estate with ocean and mountain views in Montecito, California, outside Santa Barbara. Winfrey also owns a house in Lavallette, New Jersey, an apartment in Chicago, an estate on Fisher Island off the coast of Miami, a house in Douglasville, Georgia (which she bought in 2005), a ski house in Telluride, Colorado, and property on the island of Maui, Hawaii. She also owns a home on the island of Antigua. Winfrey's show is based in Chicago, so she spends time there, specifically in the neighborhood of Streeterville, but she otherwise resides in California. Her Hawaii property was featured on the cover of O at Home and on her TV show. Winfrey also owns a home in Avalon, New Jersey.
Winfrey states that the reason she never had children was because her students at South Africa’s Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls were meant to be her daughters:
“I never had children, never even thought I would have children. Now I have 152 daughters; expecting 75 more next year. That is some type of gestation period! ...I said to the mothers, the family members, the aunts, the grannies — because most of these girls have lost their families, their parents — I said to them, “Your daughters are now my daughters and I promise you I'm going to take care of your daughters. I promise you.”
Newsweek described a student named Thelasa Msumbi hugging Winfrey extra tight, and then whispering “We are your daughters now.” Winfrey, who is teaching a class at the school via satellite, plans to spend much of her retirement in a house she is building on the campus where she plans to use the same dishes, sheets, and curtains that the students do. “I want to be near my girls and be in a position to see how they're doing,” said Winfrey.
I hope you have been educated!
Now it's time for me to stand by and read your comments.
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By: Jo on 10/13/2009 4:05PM
Let the church say.... Preach on!
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