Gareth Cliff Takes Sharp Swipe at Oprah Winfrey Over Lindsay Clancy Podcast Clip: "Grand High Witch"
- Gareth Cliff fired a sharp jab at Oprah Winfrey after a clip from The Oprah Podcast circulated on X
- The clip features an emotional audience moment tied to the Lindsay Clancy triple-child murder trial in Massachusetts
- Cliff's reaction has divided South Africans online, with some backing his stance and others questioning the case itself
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Gareth Cliff is not holding back. The South African media personality took a subtle but pointed shot at Oprah Winfrey on Thursday, 10 September 2026, after a video clip from The Oprah Podcast went viral on X.
The clip, originally shared by @CollinRugg, shows an emotionally charged indoor panel discussion attended by a predominantly female audience. A woman speaks into a microphone before the visibly moved crowd, many of whom are shown with closed eyes and pained expressions as her words land. Cliff, who is known for his no-holds-barred commentary, reposted the clip and described the gathering as an
"Evil coven led by the Grand High Witch herself."
The Lindsay Clancy case explained
The podcast centres on one of the most contested criminal cases in recent American history. On 24 January 2023, Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children in the basement of her Massachusetts home and then jumped from a second-storey window in an apparent suicide attempt. The fall left her paralysed from the waist down.
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After 21 days of testimony from more than 80 witnesses, the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Her defence team argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors maintained she committed premeditated first-degree murder.
Oprah, who recently closed her school in South Africa, travelled to Massachusetts for a wide-ranging conversation on the case, including an exclusive interview with Meg Hamp, a nurse who worked alongside Clancy for seven years and testified at the trial. The audience also included medical experts, legal scholars and women who had personally experienced postpartum psychosis.
In the viral clip, the speaker implored the audience to extend the same compassion shown to Clancy to women of colour facing similar circumstances without the same visibility.
"There are women of colour sitting around this country in prisons for this same thing that we've never heard of," she said. "And I just want to remind us to have the pink shirts and the energy for them as well."
Watch the clip that sparked Cliff's reaction below:
Peeps react to Gareth Cliff's subtle Oprah jab
Cliff's post opened the floodgates for debate online. Here is how some users responded:
@saltychi suggested:
"We can support them all with a better judicial system that fast-tracks them to prison or the chair. As a tax-paying citizen, I don't want to have psychopaths or murderers anywhere near my family and community."
@Paul81584962421 argued:
"Now imagine a CEO with postpartum depression. On that argument, should women be in positions of power? Or a military person? With a firearm?"
@VeeJay17 remarked:
"After the debacles at Oprah's 'schools', she should definitely not be any kind of spokesperson on children."
Gareth Cliff backs Trump's claim
Previously, Briefly News reported that Gareth Cliff agreed with Donald Trump's controversial remarks about South Africa after a photo of the polluted Hennops River in Centurion circulated on X.
Cliff's post reignited a debate he sparked in July 2026 when he shared footage of Johannesburg from a train and called it a derogatory word.
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Source: Briefly News
