Not that I watch it now. My kids will not tolerate me watching Oprah when there are Princess movies to watch instead. But yesterday, I snuck in 10 minutes while Big Sister was playing and Little Sis was sleeping in.
And I felt nauseous.
The show was called: Ultimate Betrayal: when your husband cheats with your best friend. Yes – a little Jerry Springer, I know, but I was hooked instantly. This was a ‘Christian’ couple struggling with a husband’s affair with his wife’s best friend who was his best friend’s wife. Yuck-o. We will now refer to him as Slimeball. He was coming off like a real selfish jerk, while his poor wife sat there trying not to cry. I was completely disgusted. Oprah was looking at him like he was something that crawled out of her trash can. Nice. Then comes “Dr. Robin” the psychologist.
She told Slimeball that “All of us get wounded in childhood. You did not create this kind of self-destruction in your life, in your wife’s life, in the lives of your children without a wound starting in childhood. Who pulled the rug from underneath you? That’s what you’ve done to your family, and we learn that behavior somewhere. … Someone teaches us how to be mean.”
“I love my father, but my father…he doesn’t listen to my mom,” Slimeball says. “He doesn’t respect her. He doesn’t listen to anybody.”
Dr. Robin says Slimeball’s childhood pain is the real ‘cancer’ in his life. That’s what caused him to cheat on his wife. All that childhood pain drove him to have an affair.
Ummm…. WHAT?!?! His stinking ‘difficult’ childhood justifies his cheating on his wife with her best friend while they were all in the same house? He did all of this because of a rough childhood? (which was not that rough, frankly) I don’t think so, Slimeball. Let’s try: ”What you did was wrong. You need to take responsibility and get over yourself.” What Slimeball did was not okay. He admitted he was selfish and what he did was wrong and he hated himself for it. And here’s ’Dr. Robin’ letting him off the hook, telling him its not his fault, to blame someone else? Ridiculous. The culture of victimhood strikes again. My love for Oprah just went down several notches.
About Melissa
Yeah, anymore, I watch Oprah for comedic relief. Frankly, their talk of being “spiritual” and “loving yourself first” makes me ill. What about sacrificial giving, or *gasp* submission? What about we’re all sinners with an innate ability for, oh no, I don’t think I can say it, EVIL? Cue Oprah’s shudder. But EVERYONE is basically good right? Tell that to the scorned wife of slimeball, she might just laugh at you.