The shop assistant at luxury goods boutique Trois Pommes did not recognise Winfrey, 59, who was on a shopping trip in Zurich, visiting the country for her friend Tina Turner’s wedding.
“I go into a store and I say to the woman,’Excuse me, may I see the bag right above your head?’ and she says to me, ‘No. It’s too expensive.'” Winfrey told Entertainment Tonight.
The asssistant then allegedly replied: “‘No, no you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able to afford that’….she refused to get it.”
“There’s two different ways to handle it. I could’ve had the whole blow-up thing… but it still exists, of course it does.”
Oprah Winfrey and partner Stedman Graham at the recent New York premiere of ‘The Butler’
Commenting on her lack of fame in Zurich, Winfrey, who was last month voted #1 on Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful celebrities, joked: “…obviously The Oprah Winfrey Show is not shown in Zurich.”
The owner of the branch of Trois Pommes, Trudie Goetz, apologied for the “misunderstanding”, according to German language paper Blick.
Images via Getty
Video via Entertainment Tonight / YouTube
Oprah Winfrey "victim of racism" in Switzerland – listen as BBC reporter explains why http://t.co/PzdBQ2Fenv
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 9, 2013