Oprah Winfrey was all smiles as she walked on stage to accept her GLAAD Award but things quickly took a turn as a woman fell in front of her.
The 35th Annual GLAAD Media Award ceremony took place in Beverley Hills, California on Thursday night with Oprah set to receive the Vanguard Award.
LGBTQ+ activist Chilli Pepper went absolutely flying as she tripped over her own foot and slipped on stage after honouring the 70-year-old for her allyship and equality work.
Oprah desperately held her hands to try and stop her dramatic tumble but Chilli slammed to the floor as the crowd jumped out of their seats in alarm.
Chilli was helped to her feet and reassured those around her she was okay — the TV legend then walked back over to the microphone and made her speech.
In her moving speech, The Color Purple icon paid a tearful tribute to her brother, Jeffrey Lee, who died from AIDS in 1989 when he was just 29.
‘Growing up at the time we did, in the community that we did, we didn’t have the language to understand or to speak about sexuality and gender in the way that we do now,’ she told the crowd.
‘At the time, I really didn’t know how deeply my brother internalized the shame that he felt about being gay. I wish he could have lived to witness these liberated times and to be here with me tonight.’
Oprah, whose talk show ran from 1986 to 2011, was praised for using the platform to amplify voices from the community and help dispel myths about HIV and AIDS.
In 1987, she took her crew to Williamson, West Virginia in support of a man with AIDS whose community pool had been shuttered after he swam there.
Addressing this incident, the Bee Movie actress shared: ‘The town turned against him because he’d gone swimming with his sister, and it caused such an uproar that there was rampant misinformation and misguided fear.
‘We took our whole show there, and we brought a medical expert … we brought the facts and tried to erase some of the biases.’
She wasn’t the only one who used her time on stage to shed light on issues facing the world as Outstanding Music Artist winner Reneé Rapp called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
‘We’re in a room of very influential people, very privileged people, which is exciting and also is a huge privilege to be a part of that,’ the Mean Girls star said.
Reneé, 24, continued: ‘Having said that, I’d like to take the opportunity to show support and call for an immediate ceasefire and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.’
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