EXCLUSIVE: 'She Considered Him Kind of a D**k' — Inside Oprah's Secret Feud with TV Rival Dr. Oz and How It Sent a Famous Democrat to Capitol Hill

Oprah Winfrey launched Dr. Mehmet Oz's TV career, but the media mogul soured on her former protégé, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal.

John Fetterman writes in his new memoir, Unfettered, that Winfrey, 71, gave him her unsolicited endorsement in his 2022 U.S. Senate race against Oz, 65, and candidly reveals why he believes she turned on the former heart surgeon.

Democrat Fetterman, 56, ran against Oz for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat in 2022. It was the first time the doctor tried his hand at politics, and Oz controversially ran for office in a state where he had never lived but owned undeveloped property.

Despite suffering a stroke during the campaign, Fetterman beat Oz in the November 2022 election and received a surprising boost from Winfrey, whom he had never met.

"Four days before the election, with no advance notice, Oprah Winfrey announced on social media that she was endorsing me. Endorsements really don’t mean anything, but this one did. This was Oprah, and she knew Oz well from when he regularly appeared on her show," he writes about the TV titan's political backing.

"She did not have to endorse anyone, and yet she endorsed me, so my gratitude for her is immense," Fetterman shares about Winfrey's backing.

"She never gave her reasoning, and I can only speculate, but I think she considered Oz kind of a d---," the controversial senator adds.

While Oz lost the race, he ended up in 's administration when, after winning his second term as president in November 2024, the tycoon nominated the former daytime talk show host to serve as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Senate confirmed Oz in April.

Winfrey helped make Oz a household name, as he appeared on her long-running daytime talk show 55 times as a guest between 2004 and 2009.

The popularity Oz gained from Winfrey's audience helped him launch his own syndicated talk show focused on health, wellness, and other medical topics. The Dr. Oz Show, produced by Winfrey's Harpo Productions, ran for a whopping 13 seasons, from September 2009 through January 2022.

While Winfrey was supportive of Oz earlier in his TV career, she rarely commented on him in recent years, except for her endorsement of Fetterman, which said so much without the billionaire needing to name the doctor directly.

Democrat Winfrey was initially hesitant to back Oz's campaign as a Republican after he announced his candidacy in December 2021.

"One of the great things about our democracy is that every citizen can decide to run for public office. Mehmet Oz has made that decision. And now it's up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them," she said at the time.

Oz's show ended the following month due to his Senate campaign.

Winfrey announced her gushing support for Fetterman at a get-out-the-vote rally shortly before election day in 2022.

"I said it was up to the citizens of Pennsylvania [to decide who to vote for]. But, I will tell you all this: If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would've already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons," she raved.