Oprah Winfrey bought back rights to Apple documentary about her to stop its release: Sources

Oprah Winfrey paid a fortune to Apple TV + chiefs to buy back the rights to a documentary about her life, Page Six can reveal.

Apple announced with great fanfare Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald would be directing the documentary about the talk show host turned media mogul back in 2021.

However, sources tell Page Six that Macdonald, who teamed up with Winfrey’s longtime producer Lisa Erspamer on the project, had clashed with the 70-year-old billionaire after he finished the film, and it’s been on hold ever since.

Winfrey speaks at the launch of Apple TV + at Apple HQ in Cupertino, CA, in March 2019. AFP via Getty Images

“Kevin made the film, but Oprah didn’t like it and he refused to change it, and Oprah has paid back her fee to Apple,” a well-placed Hollywood source told us.

A spokesperson for Winfrey — who ended her content deal with Apple in September 2022 —confirmed to Page Six, “As the Apple TV+ deal was coming to an end, Ms. Winfrey bought back the rights to her docu-series and has since decided to put the doc on hold. 

“Ms. Winfrey believes Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald are incredibly talented filmmakers and is grateful for the time and energy they put into the project.”

A source in Winfrey’s camp insisted Macdonald did not refuse to make edits and Winfrey simply decided “it wasn’t the right time to do a documentary,” before making the unusual move of buying it back.

Reps for MacDonald didn’t respond to a request for comment.

While industry sources speculated Winfrey would have to pay millions to get the rights to the documentary back, a source in the know denied it was in the seven figures.

Winfrey – seen with Apple boss Tim Cook and Steven Spielberg – signed a multi-year deal with Apple TV + in 2018, but ended the deal in 2022. Bloomberg via Getty Images Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald – seen at Venice Film Festival last month – made a doc with Winfrey, but the pair clashed over the finished product. Getty Images

Macdonald had met Erspamer when they previously worked on Whitney Houston biographical doc “Whitney”.

Erspamer produced “The Oprah Winfrey Show” between 1999 and 2009 and is a longtime pal of the presenter.

An Apple TV + rep was unavailable for comment.

Broadcast icon Winfrey made “The Oprah Conversations” and teamed up with Prince Harry for mental health special “The Me You Can’t See” for Apple TV +, as well as “Oprah’s Book Club”, which was available via Apple Books.

But nothing was remotely on the scale of her bombshell CBS interview with Harry and his wife Meghan Markle in March 2020, the first time they spoke publicly, weeks after leaving the royal family.

Winfrey also made “Adele One Night Only” and interviewed the British pop star for CBS. Both projects were produced via her company, Harpo.

Deadline first revealed Winfrey herself was getting the biographical documentary treatment with a two-part series from Macdonald.

Winfrey teamed up with Prince Harry – seen with wife Meghan Markle – on Apple TV + show ‘The Me You Can’t See’. YouTube Harry underwent EMDr treatment on camera for the Apple TV + show. ZUMAPRESS.com

The Scotsman is famed for making ‘One Day in September’, which recounted the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games, which won an Academy Award.

He is also well known for his hit movies including “The Last King of Scotland” and “State of Play”.

However, a quick glance at his projects online shows no Winfrey film listed on his roster. Instead, he recently debuted his latest doc, “One to One: John & Yoko,” about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, at the Venice Film Festival.

Winfrey’s last project with Apple was “Sidney”, a collaboration between Winfrey and Apple TV+ focusing on the life of Sidney Poitier.

McDonald at Cannes Festival in May 2018 with his film ‘Whitney’. Getty Images

She also was supposed to collaborate with the streamer for “On the Record,” a documentary that centered on a former music executive who accused Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. Simmons has never been charged with any crime and has denied allegations of sex abuse made against him.

Just 15 days before the film was scheduled to be premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in Utah, Winfrey dropped the documentary with little explanation, blindsiding filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering. 

Winfrey’s documentary is not the first high-profile release to be put on ice. Netflix’s years-in-the-making Prince documentary is “being held hostage” due to objections from the seven-time Grammy winner’s estate.

“Made in America” director Ezra Edelman has worked for four years on the nine-hour long series. But Puck reported members of the Prince estate are unhappy with how the reclusive late musician is portrayed and the documentary remains in limbo.

Meanwhile, this week Winfrey announced she went to Graceland to record an interview with actress Riley Keough ahead of a CBS special, called “An Oprah Special: The Presleys — Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley”, to promote the release of Keough’s book about her late mom, who tragically died last year.