Oprah Winfrey settles insult fit with headmistress

James Bone, New York & , : {}

Oprah Winfrey has settled a defamation suit from the former headmistress of her South African girls school after a woman to woman talk, lawyers said.

The confidential settlement will spare the billionaire TV talk-show queen from appearing in court. The case had been due to go to trial in Philadelphia on Monday.

Nomvuyo Mzamane claimed that Winfrey had defamed her by criticising her performance after a sex-abuse scandal at Winfreys $40 million (27 million) school for disadvantaged girls in 2007. A dormitory matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls was charged in South Africa with abusing six students. The matron, Tiny Virginia Makopo, pleaded not guilty to 14 charges.

Winfrey has called the allegations crushing because of her own declared history of childhood sexual abuse.

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Ms Mzamane, who earned $150,000 a year as Winfreys headmistress, insists that she was never told of the sexual abuse. She sued for defamation in a federal court in Philadelphia, complaining that she had trouble finding a job after Winfrey stated that she had lost confidence in her, and that Winfreys media profile would lead her fans to think that her remarks were based on the schools investigation. Simply put, the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the press conference was that Ms Mzamane was let go because, at best, she disregarded claims of sexual abuse, the suit said.

Ms Mzamane claimed more than $250,000 in damages from Winfrey, who is worth an estimated $2.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In court papers Winfrey said that she had planned to hire nurses to serve as dormitory matrons for the 150 poor girls chosen to attend her school outside Johannesburg. Ms Mzamane instead hired eight women from a company called Party Design, she said. These young women were later found to be totally unqualified to handle the position, something Ms Mzamane had been warned about, Winfreys lawyers wrote.

Winfreys legal team argued that Ms Mzamane had failed to discipline Ms Makopo despite her previous run-ins with students and staff. In court papers Winfreys lawyers said that Ms Makopo had attacked another matron, injured three people while driving a golf cart after a champagne party and retaliated against girls who complained of mistreatment.

As a named defendant Winfrey would have had to attend the trial each day. However, a joint statement released by both sides said that Winfrey and Ms Mzamane had settled their differences woman to woman without their lawyers.