Oprah Winfrey has been dragged into hip-hop icon Russell Simmons’ high-profile rape case.
The billionaire, 71, has been subpoenaed by Drew Dixon, one of Simmons’ alleged victims, in her ongoing defamation lawsuit against the rapper, according to Page Six.
Dixon is suing Simmons over remarks he made in a 2023 interview about her rape claims and about Winfrey dropping out of executive producing a 2020 documentary on the scandal.
Simmons claimed that Winfrey had backed away from the project after discovering ‘inconsistencies’ in Dixon and other alleged victims’ stories after reviewing recorded conversations.
Now, attorneys for Dixon have commanded that Winfrey handover documents and other evidence, giving the talk-show icon a March 18 deadline.
They also commanded Winfrey testify and give a deposition that ‘may be videotaped’
Oprah Winfrey has been dragged into hip-hop icon Russell Simmons’ high-profile rape case; Oprah seen in January
‘You are hereby commanded… to produce the books, records, papers, data, documents, evidences, writings, and all other tangible things as described more fully in the attached Schedule A at [law firm] Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, 55 Hudson Yards, New York, New York 10001, or electronically to undersigned counsel, on or before March 18, 2025,’ the subpoena begins.
‘You are further commanded to… to appear and attend before a notary public or other person authorized by law to administer oaths… and at any recessed or adjourned date, to testify and give evidence, as a witness on an examination before trial by deposition upon oral questions.’
The documented concluded with: ‘This deposition may be videotaped and will continue from day to day until complete.’
According to Page Six, it remains unclear if Winfrey complied with the demands laid out in subpoena by the March 18 deadline or if her lawyers worked to fight it.
It’s also unclear what assets were called for.
Dixon launched her defamation case in 2024 after Simmons spoke on her allegations during a sit-down interview with Graham Besinger in 2023.
He seemingly suggested that Dixon was ‘[thirsting] for fame’ and seeking ‘notoriety’ by accusing him of raping her at his apartment 30 years ago.
He also insisted that he’d only ever had ‘consensual’ relationships with women and that he’d ‘never been forceful in any of my relationships.’
In this same interview, he said Winfrey’s exit from On The Record, a documentary about Simmons’ alleged crimes and rape accusers, was the result of her finding ‘inconsistencies’ in Dixon and others women’s stories.
The billionaire, 71, has been subpoenaed by Drew Dixon, one of Simmons’ alleged rape victims, in her ongoing defamation lawsuit against the rapper, according to Page Six; Simmons seen in 2023
Simmons also claimed that Winfrey had recordings of the accusers that reveal the alleged inconsistencies.
‘I didn’t watch [the documentary] because it’s not true and I think that Oprah said the stories don’t add up,’ he said of On the Record during his sit-down with Besinger.
He said that Winfrey wanted more time to shift her focus on the project and ‘wanted to change the entire thing to a documentary about men in general [and] about the whole music industry.
‘I couldn’t be a subject anymore, because she had found too much contradictory evidence about the stories about me,’ Simmons alleged.
Winfrey withdrew herself as executive producer of On The Record in January 2020.
While appearing on CBS This Morning to address her departure, Winfrey said that her decision to leave the project was ‘not a victory’ for Simmons in any way.
‘I unequivocally say that I did not pull out because of Russell,’ she said at the time. ‘This is not a victory lap for him. I cannot be silenced by a Russell Simmons after all I’ve been through.’
She said that she believed and stood in support of the women in the documentary who made the accusations against Simmons, which he has repeatedly denied.
Oprah said that professional differences with collaborators on the documentary led her to make the ‘hard decision’ to disengage with the project.
‘I had said to them, “Houston, I think we have a problem here’ because new information had come forward” … I just care about getting it right, and I think there’s some inconsistencies in the stories that we need to look at,’ she said.
‘I wanted the context of the story to be broadened, I wanted more women brought into the story.’
She said the lesson she gleaned amid her work on the project was that you ‘don’t put your name on anything that you do not have creative control over.’
